In not wanting to go to the doctors?

[oppsthereshegoes]

I've had a cough for over three weeks now.

It's kind of chesty with phlegm but scratchy and dry now too as I suspect my throat is really irritated.

Dh is insisting I go to the doctors today as 'it's gone on too long and they need to sort it.'

I'll go an hour or so without coughing but then have a five minute coughing fit which floors me.

Aibu in thinking coughs are pretty much always viral so nothing they can give for it anyway?

I've got a prolapsed bladder so it is a bit of a nightmare as I'm peeing myself a lot when I cough. I don't want to pay £50 (not in UK) and haul my ass all the way (30 minutes each way) if they're going to give me the 'ffs coughs are clearly not able to be treated by antibiotics' spiel.

NHS advice is to see a doctor if your cough has lasted longer than 3 weeks. Is not wanting to spends £50 more important than your longer health?

Is the phlegm colored or clear? Colored like yellow green? If yes it might be a sign of chest infection and i would check it out. Other option is to speak to a pharmacist if that is possible where you are, maybe they can suggest a cough medicine to help clear your lungs if you haven't already used a cough medicine. But safest option is to check with Dr. especially if it has been 3 weeks and if you have already tried cough medicine.

Not just the money but it's a fair journey when I feel shit and don't want them to think I'm time wasting.

It's yellow/green. Would they give antibiotics for that? They're massively conservative in giving them where I live. Dh had lymes and had to really pester them for antibiotics.

A productive cough that has gone on for so long definitely needs looking at.

When you are talking can you complete a sentence without having to take another breath?

Are you taking a full breath with every breath?

Does exertion make you cough more?

If you answer no yo the first and yes to the last 2 please do go and get checked over. It could well be walking pneumonia which is easily missed.

I've had mine since Christmas. Got better but didn't go completely and then got worse again and now getting better again. I rang my GP and they said "Everyone has it!" and just to use OOC stuff.

I had a similar cough a few years ago and when I finally went to the doctors it turned out that the initial cold had degenerated into a (probably bacterial) lung infection.

Anything green suggests a bacterial infection. (The colour actually comes from an enzyme in the white blood cells that accumulate at sites of bacterial infection.) Also, there are lots of possible non-infectious causes for a persistent cough, some of which are quite serious.

The great majority of acute bronchitis is viral, but the damage the virus (and your immune response to it) causes to the lining of the airways can make people susceptible to secondary bacterial infections. It would be unusual for a doctor to prescribe antibiotics in the first few days of a cough - unless there were clear signs of bacterial infection or an underlying health condition that made it important to reduce the risk of secondary infection - but the considerations will be different for a cough that's gone on for three weeks. The doctor might need to be convinced that it has gone on that long, though, as patients don't always give accurate histories.

I’d go. Dm recently had this and ignored it. Turned out to be bacterial pneumonia.

I had a long lasting cough like this, and it weakened my fascia so much that I just popped a hernia. Go the the gp. (Your prolapse might get worse as well.)

Ex nurse here, I say go to Drs. More than 3 weeks with it sounds like no significant improvement, productive, coloured sputum... Could well be a bedded in chest infection.

Also you say you're not in uk but where are you? I am in uk and stupidly ignored a cough for longer than I should have, turned out to be whooping cough!

I've been vaccinated BUT I'm an old git and apparently the bacteria has now mutated so much not everyone who was vaccinated 40+ years ago is covered by that vaccination.

Are you a smoker? If so that's even more reason to see a Dr about a cough as could well be a symptom of smoking related illness.

Hope you feel better soon

@frasier that's what I'm worried about.

I'm not short of breath but doing anything makes me go in to a coughing fit. Thinking about it if I try to take a full breath I can't.

I feel like a have hairs all in my throat now too. It's foul and makes me keep gagging.

Actually seeing it written down I think I will go lol. The peeing myself is AWFUL. I can wear adult pee pads but they stink pretty quickly so I've not gone anywhere far from the house in ages.

My in laws both had walking pneumonia last month so maybe it was a bacterial kind? Is there such a thing?

I know all of my doctors personally so they'll believe me hopefully!

Thank you.

Not a smoker no.

I'm in the States. From the UK but pretty sure I've not been vaccinated by whooping cough. Dh was saying just last night it sounds like whooping cough (as he stomped off to the spare room ) but I've not heard of any cases of it around here recently.

Pneumonia is usually bacterial in cause (had that too) usually strep.

How old are you? Did you have the usual baby/pre-school vaccinations in uk?

Graphista

I've been vaccinated BUT I'm an old git and apparently the bacteria has now mutated so much not everyone who was vaccinated 40+ years ago is covered by that vaccination.

It's not necessarily the bacteria mutating. The effects of the vaccine just wear off over time. There've been a few changes to the vaccine that's given for pertussis over the past few decades. The ones that are used now seem to wear off more quickly.

It's largely down to whether the vaccine contains whole, killed bacteria (whole-cell or wP vaccine) or just components extracted from the bacteria (acellular or aP vaccine). Both induce effective immunity in the short term but the acellular vaccine, which produces a primarily antibody-mediated immunity, wears off more quickly than the whole-cell vaccine, which provokes a T-lymphocyte-mediated immune response.

Acellular vaccines have become more common because they produce fewer side-effects, but the downside is that many adults are not effectively immunized. Even the whole-cell vaccines produce immunity of limited duration, which will be why your vaccination 40 years ago isn't providing any protection.

I'm 40. My Mum was weird about jabs and can't remember which ones I did have ffs.

Although it was 40 years ago.

Not saying it is whooping cough, but this is from the NHS web site (www.nhs.uk/conditions/whooping-cough/):

Who's at risk of whooping cough?

Whooping cough can affect people of any age, including:

• babies and young children – young babies under six months of age are at a particularly increased risk of complications of whooping cough
• older children and adults – it tends to be less serious in these cases, but can still be unpleasant and frustrating
• people who've had whooping cough before – you're not immune to whooping cough if you've had it before, although it tends to be less severe the second time around

- people vaccinated against whooping cough as a child – protection from the whooping cough vaccine tends to wear off after a few years

Thanks for the info skiil

I'm not an immunology expert far from. I was shocked considering I thought I was immunised and that's just what dr told me. I was annoyed the bloody cough was going nowhere! And worried as although not a smoker myself I grew up in a smoke filled home and I already have asthma and it was setting that off quite regularly too.

Aware GP's not immunology experts either - as you seem to be. Always interesting to learn what mners know.

I'm 45 (nearly 46) and would have been vaccinated approx 44-45 years ago.

It was pretty rotten!

Surely your medical records will be accurate re vaccination history? I've had to check when I've had certain vaccinations at certain points (most memorably at start of nurse training when I already felt like a flipping pin cushion with all the extra vacs and blood tests they did 🙄)

I had a cough that lasted about 6 weeks - it was only at night and in the morning, really, so I just soldiered on. It was very bad at night, I felt like someone was sitting on my chest at times. I wasn't really producing much phlegm though. But then I got an ear infection for which I was given antibiotics and the cough cleared up within 3 days of starting them - the doctor had listened to my chest too when I went about my ear and said it was clear so he didn't think I had an infection, but that if I did, the amoxicillin would clear it up.

So I'd go, if I were you, is what I meant to add. It was like magic how quickly it cleared up and it's such a relief not be coughing all evening and night, and wake up coughing. My chest still isn't quite back to normal but I'm not coughing all the time now.

If you have a prolapse you need to go to the GP because the coughing is putting strain on your muscles and, if it doesn't clear soon, will just make things worse.