Cough Update! Sqad?

[Scarlett]

So, it's now day 8 and the cough is still bad. Impossible to sleep. Thank you for all your suggestions. My question is- even after all this time and 2 days of antibiotics (GP insisted), I still have that feeling that there is a troll living at the back of my throat. I will get a sudden ITCH, my eyes will water, and I will throw up. Not throw up from the force of coughing, but almost like my body is trying to get rid of whatever is in my throat. After being sick, I feel better for a while. How can I shift that troll, and what even is it?! It's sore, and phlegmmy! (Sorry!)

[davebro]

Sounds like a bad infection & will probably clear with the antibiotics. An expectorant might help clear the phlegm. I used to prefer Meltus but not seen it on the shelves recently. Maybe Covonia or similar.

[kawakiri]

It took me nearly 4 weeks to shake off my last bout of coughing. Two different antibiotics. I also had a couple of coughing syncopes. Hope you get it cleared up soon.

[davebro]

I had a bad chest infection in the summer - couldn't lie down with the coughing etc. After a week's worth of antibiotics had done their job it took a further 3 weeks of coughing/hawking/spitting to clear all the crud from my lungs. Very unpleasant.

[Sqad]

It certainly sounds like whooping cough which is a bacterial infection.
8 days of coughing and only two days of antibiotics is deemed, the early stages and you may well be suffering for another two weeks.

Your symptoms do not suggest any serious disease which would shorten your life.

I would take Ibuprofen at night, at least 400mgms and make sure that the bedroom is warm before you go to bed.

Don't expect a reversal of symptoms for at least 2 more weeks.

[Scarlett]

Thanks all. Sqad- I WISH it was a productive cough but it’s basically so dry I feel I’m coughing for no purpose other than to scratch an itch. There’s no green phlegm coming up for example. Is that correct for whooping cough? A week before the cough I had a swollen gland in my jaw that really hurt for a few days and then went.

[Sqad]

"A week before the cough I had a swollen gland in my jaw that really hurt for a few days and then went."

That is not an unusual scenario with whooping cough.

"There’s no green phlegm coming up for example. Is that correct for whooping cough?"

Yes it is quite a common state of affairs.

[Scarlett]

Sqad, I don’t have a coughing fit or choking. Maybe just two coughs at once. And the ‘itch’ that needs scratching varies in intensity. It’s the eye watering itch that makes me throw up to scratch it. Still whooping cough?

[Vagus]

I had whooping cough about five years ago. I had one course of antibiotics which did nothing. The only thing which soothed, mildly, the cough when it happened, was tiny, tiny sips of water which I allowed to trickle down my throat rather than swallow. It took ages for it to all die down, I’m talking months, and even now it’s left me with a very sensitive cough reflex.

[Scarlett]

Vagus, were your symptoms like mine? I don’t have that coughing fit that leads to breathlessness and that wheeze thing. Could it still be whooping cough without that?

[Vagus]

Yes, very like yours. I didn’t whoop or wheeze, just cough cough cough till I heaved although never was actually sick. And didn’t bring a whole lot of stuff up with the cough either. It was a cough like no other I’d ever had.
As I said previously, I was told in adults the symptoms are usually/often somewhat different to those in children. I was also surprised to learn it’s not uncommon in adults, it hadn’t crossed my mind that it could be whooping cough until it was mentioned.

[Sqad]

I agree totally with the post of vagus ^^^.

[Scarlett]

I still feel so ill- and now have a red blob (petechiae?) on the back of my throat/roof of mouth. Any idea what it is? Generally have headache and hurts to swallow. Cough a bit more productive now.

[Sqad]

Red blob.........submucosal haematoma......no big deal....caused by coughing.