Would you go to the doctor for this?

[LaDamaDeElche]

Just wondering if it's worth going to the doctors or if it's a waste of time for a cough I have.

Basically, I caught a virus while I was away over Easter weekend and started with a cough and sore throat the following week. The cough hasn't got any better at all and is like a constant tickle in my throat which is making me cough nearly all the time. Last night it was so bad I actually vomited. I haven't slept much at all for about five days now and have hurt my upper back with the constant coughing. My throat is very swollen too and my chest is sore from the constancy of the coughing. I don't have a fever or anything like that. I'm drinking honey and lemon, having herbal teas with ginger in, keeping well hydrated etc, but it just won't stop. I'm a teacher so a lot of talking at work is giving me terrible coughing fits and it's all a bit of a nightmare. I'm exhausted.

Everything online seems to say that doctors aren't really interested unless you've had it for weeks. Would you go, if you were me?
Or does anyone have any other remedies that worked for them in my situation? I can't remember having a cough like this before, not that kept me awake most of the night anyway. It's more tickly than productive, but there is a bit of phlegm.

I caught the same thing over half term and I'm also a teacher. I am never, ever ill. I couldn't talk for coughing and I ended up having to call in sick for 2 days, which I do not do. I had no voice left and was sick from coughing if I tried.

It took 5 weeks to stop coughing. DS had the same thing and coughed for 3 weeks. DH ended up in hospital for 8 days. I don't know WTF it is but for us, it was viral (not flu or COVID, the hospital checked). We've had hundreds of students and a lot of staff come down with exactly the same thing.

Oh my god @ShowOfHands. Did anything ease it a bit or help? I can't take another few weeks of this!! I look like someone dug me up this morning. I'm so exhausted it's untrue!!

Try some soluble codeine which you can buy over the counter. It helps to calm everything down and I use it whenever I have an annoying lingering bug like this.

You used to be able to buy codeine cough medicine but because of misuse, that's prescription only now. But soluble tablets do work too!

I live in Spain so might be able to buy that here. I'll go to the pharmacy and ask. You can get more drugs here without prescription than you can in the U.K. Thanks.

Codeine depresses breathing and is not for everyone.

A normal dose will not depress breathing.

You can take 60mg four times a day.

Op my sympathies my dd is unwell with this as well, coughing to the point of pucking.

Yeah, go to the doctor. They might offer you steroids which should help.

I wish I could tell you something helped, but nothing did. I cried overnight a couple of times because I just couldn't stop coughing. I couldn't even describe the sort of cough it was. Small amount of phlegm at times, not completely dry and sort of tickly but just persistent. I needed to cough All. The. Time. Everything hurt. I sounded and looked bloody awful.

The really horrible cough was only a week or so. It just lingered for weeks, but did progressively improve.

And it probably only went on so long because I ploughed through to support my GCSE students. I should have rested.

l used to use those sore throat numbing sprays or numbing lozenges to stop the tickle.

Have a drink of water every time you want to cough. Suck boiled sweets.

There's quite a lot of whooping cough in England at the moment. Looks like it's on the rise in the rest of Europe too including Spain
https://www.euronews.com/health/2024/04/11/what-are-the-symptoms-of-whooping-cough-and-why-are-cases-rising-across-europe

You need to get a specific whooping cough test to look for it then generally they'd give you antibiotics such reduce the spread of it, though don't really reduce your own symptoms. It can go on for ages, it's known as the 100 day cough!

Of course it could just be a normal virus too.

Same. And I'm a Dr. Nightmare cough. Not much you can do for the upper symptoms but if you get I'll with fevers or coughing up a lot of sputum go snd they can have a listen re abx

I e had a cough for years
Pholcoedine cough medicine was amazing. Annoying you can't buy it here now but try if you can there.
I went to Drs. Had chest xray. Asthma tests blood tests. Couldn't find a reason.
I just cough all the time
It's buggered up my pelvic floor and bowel control.

I'm a different person because of it

You could go to the doctor although I can't imagine they will be able to give you much. As an ex-teacher that feels your pain and has had many a sore throat, cough, etc. I would recommend Night Nurse to settle down for the night and aid a decent night sleep.

Chronic cough is a speech therapy thing. It can be cured. But you need speech therapy.

Absolutely not.

I did go to the docs in the end. Was actually a lot easier than going during the week as there was no one there and I was seen immediately. They prescribed some soluble codeine to take every 8 hours and an antihistamine for the night. I don't normally like to take drugs for these type of things, but I'm willing to try anything at the moment as I'm so exhausted and in a lot of pain from pulling my back in two places coughing. I also can't do my job like this. I've been trying honey and lemon, herbal teas, ginger, vics, herbal cough medicine etc for two weeks now to no avail, so fingers crossed this will work. After just the first dose of codeine I managed a little rest proped up with pillows this afternoon without too much coughing and feel a lot better for that.

If the cough lasts longer than 3 weeks then you might visit Dr, but otherwise consider aspirin gargle, pholcodine cough linctus, sucky cough sweets
And lots of pelvic floor exercises. I really struggle holding it in when I have a bad cough!

@LaDamaDeElche Hi OP, when I had an awful cough while on holiday in Portugal I got some cough medicine from the chemist called Pirifedrina. This was 25+ years ago now, so I don't know if it is still available, but it worked wonders.

@LaDamaDeElche let us know if codeine helps. Good luck

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow
Really. Can you tell me anymore please?

I’ll find it tomorrow. Bit tired tonight!
l think every time you want to cough you’re meant to breathe out.

Here it is.

https://www.northumbria.nhs.uk/our-services/respiratory-services/respiratory-speech-and-language-therapy/chronic-cough

Thank you so much. That's really interesting. I'd given up hope as my Dr didn't follow up after at the tests came back clear. I've been living with it for years now.