Chronic Cough - Very worried please help with some advise
Posted , 12 users are following.
Hello all, this is my first post here and I am very worried. If you can give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it. My wife, aged 32 active female nonsmoker had a cold with a very slight fever about 7 weeks ago. She got better in a few days but lost her voice for a day or two from which she recovered well. However, after that, she began coughing and has been for 6 weeks now. At the beginning, I got her an OTC anti-inflammatory spray and some lozenges. The spray didn't help and mad her gag a few times. We went to the first GP and he said her lungs were fine and gave her an expectorant. She was coughing all throughout the day, sometimes in fits. The expectorant didn't work and we went to the ER. They gave us a cough syrup, some ibuprofen, and an antihistamine. We barely saw any improvement and the cough came back when we stopped the syrup. We went again to the ER to follow up and they gave us Codeine syrup, again an antihistamine and some antacids. We didn't see any improvement and were frustrated so we ordered a chest x-ray which was clear. We went to a lung specialist and he said it could be asthma (even though she has never had any breathing problems and is very energetic). He gave her an inhaler with steroids which she has been using for 24 hours and we haven't seen any improvement. She has not been sleeping at all for 3 days and took some codeine phosphate syrup last night just so she can sleep for a few hours. This morning, the cough is back.
She has no symptoms associated with what I've read online. No fever, weight loss, night sweats, weakness, fatigue, chest pain, shoulder pain, difficulty breathing, clubbing, coughing up blood. Nothing.
She also says she feels two kinds of coughs. One that comes from her lungs which she feels better when she coughs something out (even though there is nothing that comes out), and another one that comes from a very itchy throat. She says she feels her throat is scratched. Sometimes, steam showers help her, other times not so much. I have been reading so much online and I am very worried, distressed and unable to cope/function. We both haven't slept much are unable to work. I have taken a leave from my job. A part of me feels that it is a cough and it will pass and the other part wants to make sure I do everything in my power and whatever it takes to see my wife not suffering this much. Last night she coughed till the point of gagging and almost vomiting. I read about tumors, and pulmonary fibrosis and got so worried - but after 6 stethoscopes and an x-ray, wouldn't one of those doctors notice something abnormal in her lungs? She has no genetic history of any of these diseases.
It is worth mentioning that her aunt (not blood-related) developed a respiratory disease after starting a new job as a municipality Gardner. They initially thought it was asthma. And within 2 months she had lost around 15kg - ending up with 2 lung biopsies and eventually dying (all within 3 months). Nobody ever told me what she had, the family was too distressed to know. She was basically a healthy 55-year-old casual smoker who was fit and active. She weighed around 50KG.
So we are very paranoid about why my wife is coughing that much and I would appreciate any help/advice/insight because I feel miserable.
Thank you.
1 like, 37 replies
bunchmunky Guest
Posted
I have the exact same thing you describe. Even the whole two types of cough.
Mine came on in July and been on antibiotics a few times but always comes back within a week or so.
Xray clear. Inhalers do nothing. Waiting to see a specialist in February. But it's been months and it's really getting me down. Almost convinced I've got cancer tho I've never smoked I'm 38.. healthy up until I got this.
Has anyone got any answers?
Guest bunchmunky
Posted
Better not to imagine the worst case scenario. From my over-reading these past weeks I have learnt that lung cancer has hardly ever presented itself as just a cough. This is true for most cases and especially in young nonesmokers. Don't stay worried, it'll just ruin your life, trust me. This is what'a happening to me. If you can, go find a specialist for a private consult and ease your mind.
martin0 Guest
Posted
Guest martin0
Posted
Thank you Martin, sometimes when I read it makes me feel like I'm actively doing something to improve the situation, the opposite could be true..
ihavenonickname Guest
Posted
I was just coughing...because I forgot to turn the humidifier on...
martin0 Guest
Posted
Thats understanable we just want it cured and gone. I'm finding the less i think and worry about it along with exercise its easing. I believe its going to take a little while but in my case im happy with the results and less sugar to helps. all the best again i hope I'm helping
Guest
Posted
Hi guys - sorry been away a while. I have some updates. So we took my wife to do the spirometry which was a little low - she responded well to bronchodilators so the technician said it is suggestive of mild obstruction. Afterward, we took those results to one of the best pulmonologists in the city where he sat with her for about 45 minutes and took a detailed history. He said that all the other doctors were wrong and he believes she has silent reflux and started her on Ranitidine 150 4 times a day.
So I am worried. 1 because we now have a different diagnosis and he asked her to stop the inhaled steroids which could have been helping her.
We started the medicine 72 hours ago (the antacid) and she is coughing slightly less. However, we had to take the tube 2 days ago and now her cough sounds a bit different. She says she caught a cold and feels like she has mucus. Her cough sounds grainy as if there is mucus but still she is not getting much out. I am really not sure what to do - last night she took a cough suppressant pill so that she can sleep. The lung specialist wants to see us again in 3 weeks but I am very worried this might get worse. She feels fine otherwise, eating well, no fever, good skin complexion and all that. I am really confused at this point, pretty depressed because I'm feeling helpless. I can't just keep on taking her from doctor to doctor day in and day out.
natallia04776 Guest
Posted
Hi, is your wife better now?
My mother-in-low has got acid reflex and cough with it. Have to say that if you don't know it sounds dreadful she can be sick with it as well tablets don't work because most of of them have side effects and it's difficult to find right.
If she coughs really badly she puts her hanose up when she is sitting
natallia04776
Posted
Grrrr😈 phone! She puts her hands up it opens earways.
Also she has done all injectionsfrom pneumonia and flew. She recons that if she catches any bugs they don't effect her badly.
I didn't write it from the beginning ?didn't want to scare you two.
Good luck and hope your wife will be better soon.
ihavenonickname Guest
Posted
Choose one physician and maje a four month commitment to treatment. Bouncing around is not giving a physician nor medication a true opportunity to cause change.
Perhaps you are serking an instantaneous cure...the body does not work that way. Medications and disease are classified...that means that if a medication is an immunosuppressive, it can be used to treat all autoimmune disease, hundreds of disease. Medicine is not bkack abd white, not on and off. The body comes in shades of colors, the knee is dependent upon the heart is dependent upon the liver is dependent upon the toe...the body is compleyely connected.
I hear your love for your wife, I hear your frustrstion, I hear your stress.
May you find the answer
hugs
judith
natallia04776 Guest
Posted
Hi there! How is your wife now?
I've done something and now don't get info from the forum.
Hope you have sorted.
Guest natallia04776
Posted
Hi Natalia, thanks a lot for checking up. Well honestly she is better thank God and all the doctors and everyone. The thing is that the coughs have decreased, she coughs about two dozen times a day now. We bounced back and forth between asthma and acid reflux though she doesn't have obvious symptoms of both. She is on medication for both. Sometimes strong smells trigger her coughs and sometimes certain foods so I'm really confused. I read that acid reflux can lead to pulmonary fibrosis and that got me super worried. So we are just doing everything we can to resolve this. She has been clearing her throaty a lot recently, lost her voice a bit and now it's back, but she seems to clear her throaty a lot when speaking. I think when she feels a bit better we should go to an ENT. We have been to the lung specialist several times and he is not sure whether it is asthma or GERD. Let's see, I'm hoping for the best but at least thankfully the severity and frequency of her coughs has decreased.
Zuri22513 Guest
Posted
Hi,
I'm only 18 and no doc has been able to get rid of a barking cough I have had for over a year. I've had to push back a jaw surgery and my love for competitive tennis. I am beyond devastated. I'm lucky I don't cough in my sleep nor do I have any interruptions when I sleep from my cough. I have some options that I've gone through just in case you haven't explored them yet? Do you have any pets ? Specifically a bird? Birds fancier lung disease is hardly heard of by anyone. It could cause the cough. Yes even if you've had the bird many years, it can affect you from all that exposure. Another option I've gone through is the possibility of vocal cord dysfunction. VCD can cause a chronic cough so it's probably be worth it to have a doc scope your wife to look at her vocal cords. If the inhalers aren't helping, she doesn't have asthma . Trust me I've been on nebulizers and inhalers and all they needed up doing was make me shake. You can double check with an asthma test to be sure. Let me think what else I've done.... I feel like allergies are pretty unlikely. I had that test too. Nothing that would be significant. You could also look into speech therapy.. your wife might benefit from it though I didn't much coughing wise ( I had shortness of breath in the beginning so that helped that department). If I can remember what else I did I will let you know. If docs try to tell your wife she is crazy, she's not. Docs just don't know how to be wrong so we're the crazy ones. Best of luck. I'm going to a doc in Tampa soon who is supposedly a cough specialist and hoping for the best because I don't know how else to try to help myself I've had basically every test there is.
Zuri
hayley84251 Zuri22513
Posted
hayley84251 Guest
Posted