What Are The Signs of Pheumonia?

Hospice ordered atropine sulf 1%oph soln 15 ml for major conjestion.Ihave never heard of eye drops for this?

atropine is sometimes given intravenously, not as an eye drop, in a hospital setting, to help with secretions and bronchoconstriction (narrowing of the breathing tubes in the lungs causing wheezing and making it hard to bring up the secretions). if the patient is having a problem with wheezing or with a lot of chest congestion, that may be the reason the doctor wanted atropine. I'm not familiar with giving atropine as an eye drop for the above reasons. Atropine eye drops are what eye doctors used to use to dilate the pupil (that drop that makes everything blurry and makes your eyes sensitive to light and makes your eyes hurt for a while). Maybe the doctor hopes that some of the atropine given in the eyes will make its way to the lungs. Sounds crazy to me. there is a nice write up of atropine at wikipedia. the best thing to do would be to call the doctor that ordered the atropine eye drops and talk to him about it. don't be afraid of calling the doctor. Oh - the signs and symptoms of pneumonia you asked about would usually be a cough productive of yellow or green sputum, a fever, and if you listen to the lungs with a stethoscope you will hear abnormal breath sounds such as rhonchi and/or rales. the WBC would be elevated on a blood test called a CBC. If they are thinking about pneumonia they should collect some sputum and send it to the lab and perhaps think about some antibiotics. ideally a doctor, a PA, or a nurse practitioner, or maybe a very experienced nurse, should examine her and make decisions in consultation with the doctor. writing orders for people by phone without examining them is a very dangerous and stupid way to practice medicine.

Hi, I am a hospice nurse and my best friend has stage IV GB. Yes, it is a typical treatment to use Atropine eye drops to dry up sectrtions. It is in, fact very affective. The Signs and Symptoms for Pneumonia are as discribed by the last message but I must add that if your immune system is compromised by chemo you may have pneumonia without the fever and if severe enough lung sounds may sound clear as you are not moving enough air to cause Wheezes or congested sounds. If you are Short of breath please call your Physician. My friends lungs sounded clear and her cough had decreased. She had pneumonia in all four lobes and was not moving enough air to have her lungs sound bad. I took one look at her ,checked her oxygen Sats and took her to the ER. She was put in ICU.