Dr. Hanif warmly Welcomes you! Thanks for consulting at my virtual clinic. I have carefully worked through your case, and I can realize your health worries. Being your physician, I assure you not to worry as I will take care all of your medical concerns. I don t know what was the overal condition/ or contraindications for antibiotics. Otherwise if I was your treating physician with no contraindications or known drug allergies, I would have prescribed you Azithromycin 500mg by mouth once daily for 8days, along with prednisone and a cough syrup. As far as your doubts about prednisone are concerned, he is totally logical in prescribing you prednisone. Its so because, prednisone is one of the best anti-inflammatory agent to heal acute chest infections. It is a potent healer. Prednisone if used for long term treatments (e.g in Cystic Fibrosis prednisone is part of your medications for long-term use), it causes then, the side effects like dumping down your immune system, weight gain, facial puffiness etc etc just to list some adverse effects. So, keep going with this treatment. If still unsatisfied, I suggest you then to consult a Pulmonologist ( as a second opinion) to satisfy your doubts more efficiently. Hope it helps. If you need further, detailed and quick assistance related to any health issues in future, feel free to ask me a question directly from my profile. Have a wonderful time ahead.   Best Regards! DR. MUHAMMAD M. HANIF USA