Yeah, what everyone else said about the "blood pressure cuff" - it is technically a sphygmomanometer, but heck if I ever call it that!
As for the pneumonia, it'll depend on what kind of pneumonia it is - they'd need to get a chest X-ray to see if it's a lobar pneumonia (normal pneumonia) or an atypical pneumonia ("walking pneumonia"). They look different on X-rays and they take different antibiotics to treat them. Once on antibiotics, you should expect to see a drop in temperature and/or the patient starting to feel a little bit better, plus better breath sounds in the affected areas of the lungs - within 24 - 48 hours. If not within 48 hours, then we'd probably consider switching antibiotics or adding another antibiotic.
Most commonly now with a lobar pneumonia we do a shot of Rocephin, then oral antibiotics. If it's bad enough we'll just jump straight to hospitalization and treat with IV antibiotics.
Hope some of that's helpful,
Jill
