comment: >
  
  I had coccy pneumonia when I lived in Phoenix, had been working in a community garden in Mesa and that's all you really need to know.  : /
  Anyway, both my ear drums burst with blood and pus, the whole works.  It's a crazy high fever as well.  I couldn't hear for quite a few months afterwards and I did recover.  When I was first sick reading google (I didn't have a local doctor, and didn't feel up to wandering the city looking for help) it said, you either recover or you die.  Fortunately, I did recover but it was crazy man - I do not recommend it.
context: I had it in 2004. Lost part of my right lung and spent 28 days in a coma.
  Would not recommend. >
  
  Damn!! Sorry to hear, glad you pulled through!! >
  
  Partially anyway >
  
  my dad had a bad fungal lung infection a few years ago. my mom virtually became an expert on it. it’s becoming increasingly more common it’s very scary. i almost watched my dad die for 2 weeks straight at the age of 17 and id never wish it on anyone. >
  
  How did he get it >
  
  we don’t actually know. many ways have been theorized but our best guess is that he just inhaled it while doing yard work. the fungus he got is commonly found in the dirt and soil, he isn’t imuunocomprized either. in all odds he should have never gotten it, but he did >
  
  Great. Linked to wildfires, too. I got "Valley Fever" in Oceanside about 20 years ago, just hanging out on the beach with an offshore wind. Construction and soil disturbance and spread the spores. >
  
  Wow. That seriously sucks, I’m sorry that happened to you! >
  
  Steroids worked; not sure how that functions, but that knocked it right out.  Wish the doctor had tried that sooner. >
  
  Steroids should do the opposite in a fungal infection. They should (do) suppress the immune system. >
  
  Ya makes sense. With all the resistance the world is seeing to antifungal drugs like the -azole’s it’s truly a scary thing to catch a systemic fungal infection. >
  
  Also we're just not developing new ones, antivirals, antibiotics, and antifungals are all running out. >
  
  A lot folks are making jokes but Valley Fever is a miserable disease.  Many people who catch it never fully get over it.  If this keeps spreading we are going to need better anti fungal drugs. >
  
  For real. I lived in an area with Valley Fever for a long time and it could infect people AND pets. It's really miserable and can be very dangerous, especially for people with compromised immune systems. >
  
  When we lived in Tucson Arizona our neighbors’ dog contracted Valley Fever, and she suffered terribly with it. It was very debilitating, because she had it in her joints and couldn’t walk well. The sole veterinarian medication they had for it for a long time was only available in Mexico, so people would make trips down there (60 miles from Tucson) and pick up supplies of it. >
  
  My dog had Valley Fever for most of his life. First in his lungs, and eventually got to his spinal cord and started paralyzing him :( My best friend's dog had seizures because of it. Very scary. >
  
  Oh, I am so sorry.  :-(  Where were you living...? >
  
  This was in Phoenix. >
  
  Phoenix has the most construction going on in the state, stirring up the spores out of the soil and putting them up in to the air where they can be breathed. >
  
  My dad had one that lingered. After getting treated for it the final time, they took a chest X-ray and found his lung cancer by good fortune, which was very small and thankfully treatable and he was cancer free for a few years. 
  Before that I had no idea it was even a thing and it’s given me something new to be afraid of. >
  
  Wow, that is lucky! >
  
  Scientists have been predicting this for a while.
  We know that climate change will cause harmful/deadly fungi to flourish.