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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

about this persistent cough?

24 replies

VelvetSpoon · 14/04/2018 09:52

DS is 19, and has had a cough since before Xmas. Since then it has got a bit better for a while, then back to how it currently is, several times.

It is a loud chesty, rattly cough. It wakes him several times a night. He works in a customer facing role so it's not great that he is loudly coughing in front of people regularly.

Eventually about a month ago I persuaded him to go to our gp. She listened to his chest and said it sounded clear but she would send him for an xray.

Xray was also clear apparently. But he still has the cough. Went back yesterday and another doctor saw him and gave him a prescription for an antacid?! Apparently his chest is clear still. This dr said that if the antacid didn't help they would try an anti inflammatory and if that didn't work maybe it was asthma.

Does any of this sound right? Because it really doesn't to me! He sounds exactly like he has a chest infection. Is this because gps are not meant to prescribe antibiotics now?

OP posts:

eurochick · 14/04/2018 09:55

I've had a cough since Christmas. It lasted until the end of Feb. I thought I was better but a couple of weeks later I got a cold and it came back. I assume it is a nasty virus. It's very persistent.

LoniceraJaponica · 14/04/2018 09:58

Yes it could be right. Silent reflux can make you cough, so it is worth ruling it out.

I hope he feels better soon.

SluttyButty · 14/04/2018 10:02

Reflux makes me cough, the Gp thought it could be asthma but it's not, it's reflux. So it sounds a good idea to try the meds first. If I don't take my omeprazole daily I sound like I have a hacking cough.

Tigerpaws57 · 14/04/2018 10:02

I had a persistent cough and was prescribed omeprazole to reduce stomach acid. Cough cleared up within a week. Antacids are probably a sensible first treatment to try.

prettymess · 14/04/2018 10:03

Could be silent reflux hence the antacid.

MrsMonkeyBear · 14/04/2018 10:09

I've also had omeprazole for silent reflux due to the cough that came with it. I also get a nasty cough when it gets to hayfever season due to a post nasal drip, that's usually sorted with a high dose of antihistamine.

Theworldisfullofidiots · 14/04/2018 10:13

Reflux can cause a cough.

However there is a v nasty viral cough around. I have it and can't shake it. It gives asthma like symptoms particularly when moving into cold air. It's called cough-variant asthma.

Lilliput · 14/04/2018 10:14

Has he been tested for whooping cough?

Original poster

VelvetSpoon · 14/04/2018 10:29

No test for whooping cough. It just seems to be trial and error.

I appreciate that from what some of you say it could be reflux but wouldn't there be other symptoms? And surely his cough wouldn't periodically have improved and got worse again if it was that?

OP posts:

LoniceraJaponica · 14/04/2018 10:38

Silent reflux may not present any other symptoms.

DoJo · 14/04/2018 10:42

What do you think it is OP? You say he sounds like he has a chest infection, but he has been examined and no infection found. It sounds like the Dr is going through the process of ruling out the most common causes of a persistent cough - what else would you have them do?

SolemnlySwear2010 · 14/04/2018 10:47

My little girl has had a cough since September. Had her back and forward to the doctors, at first it was just a cough, then post nasal drip then cough varient asthma.

She has been on decongestants, inhlaers etc for months - went to see a different doctor on Tuesday and was told she has a chest infection. Day 4 of antibiotics and she is nearly completely cough free for the first time in months.

She had a really bad chesty cough which is why I kept taking her back - she is only 3 years old

BexConnor · 14/04/2018 10:47

Watching this thread with interest. My DF has had a persistent cough for over a year and nothing seems to shift it. He's had antibiotics, inhalers, antacids, omperazole, antihistamines. Two chest x-rays, both came back clear. We're stumped!

Fitzsimmons · 14/04/2018 10:50

I have acid reflux and my main symptom is a cough. Very few other symptoms until it got particularly bad very quickly and I was unable to eat much.

Original poster

VelvetSpoon · 14/04/2018 10:50

I was expecting a little more than trial and error. It seems like the GP is just going through all possible causes on the NHS website!

I don't think it is asthma. His chest isn't tight. But if it is surely anti inflammatory would make that worse?

It's not a tickly cough. It hurts his chest to cough. He sounds exactly how I sounded when I had bronchitis as a teenager.

Chest complaints make me anxious. My mother and grandfather died from lung cancer, my dad had double pneumonia in his youth and nearly died. Several other family have had TB. So perhaps I am over worrying. But as someone said to me, it isn't normal for a healthy teenage boy to have such a bad cough for nearly 6 months.

OP posts:

SolemnlySwear2010 · 14/04/2018 10:51

DoJo - i have just been diagnosed with a severe chest infection. I've had a chesty cough for few days and could feel it getting worse so went to doctor as I'm severely asthmatic.

Doctor couldnt hear anything in chest so was trying to send me away without doing anything. Eventually he took a sample of phlegm that i had - came back as a chest infection and by the time he called me back a few days later it had finally spread to my chest and i was too ill to go to work.

Sometimes it isnt always heard in the chest, but it can still be there.

I will now push harder at the first symptom of a chest infection rather than leave it to spread

Playdow · 14/04/2018 10:52

I had the same thing, or very similar. A persistent cough that would simmer down into a wheeze then come back full force I was literally coughing my guts up and eyes watering! Sometimes a painful chest, sometimes really having to cough to get up stubborn phlegm. I had it since Christmas and was even googling asthma and all sorts! True about the change in temperature making it worse. The chronic wheezing did my head it when breathing. Then last week it FINALLY went away, I haven't felt normal in months. Didn't bother with the doctor as just felt I would be fobbed off with it's a viral thing. I am glad it has gone I was starting to worry it could be something more serious, as coughs don't usually last four months!

KirstenRaymonde · 14/04/2018 10:59

I had a persistent cough for 20 months (started 2 years ago in my late twenties). Started as a cold, then got so bad for about 5 months I was literally heaving with the cough all day, was horrible. I had antibiotics and a chest x-ray that showed nothing too. It calmed down to a drier throaty cough which just went on and on. I have a talking a lot job and it made it really. Every cold going round I got, kept feeling tired, but no other particular symptoms apart from the never ending cough. Three GPs and one finally suggested adult onset asthma. I never had any chest tightness, any wheezing, I did get lightheaded if I tried to breathe in a pattern though (like in yoga for example, I just couldn’t do it but after a month of inhalers it was almost completely cleared up. So - it may well be asthma.

Piffle11 · 14/04/2018 11:00

I had a cough that seemed to come and go (although never fully go) for about 6 months: also felt a little out of breath all the time. GP did tests in the surgery (breathing into machine and recording results, then having one of those asthma inhalers, waiting 15 mins or so then doing it all again and comparing results) and sent me for chest x ray: all fine. She asked me about home life and after a chat she concluded that it was because of the cat we had adopted a year before - he was a stray who preferred outdoors over the summer but had come inside over winter (when my symptoms started and persisted). She said she came across a lot of people who have chest or breathing problems which she believes are due to a pet. Could your DS be allergic to something? Has anything changed during the past few months - even random stuff like diet, cleaning products, washing powder, etc? I knew someone at uni who was allergic to Asda own brand washing powder and would sneeze and sniffle constantly until she twigged what it was.

KirstenRaymonde · 14/04/2018 11:00

I continue to have inhalers btw, a preventative one and one when my symptoms (the coughing) flare up.

Original poster

VelvetSpoon · 14/04/2018 11:04

GP hasn't done any breathing tests just listened to his chest.

We don't have any pets and I can't think of anything that I have changed in terms of washing powder or cleaning products in the last few months.

OP posts:

Ekphrasis · 14/04/2018 16:46

This is how my adult onset asthma started. I very rarely wheeze, just cough.

Oral Steroids really eased it but it came back as soon as they'd finished.

I was given a blue inhaler by the gp (on the advice of a nurse friend trained in asthma) and it eased it if I caught it quickly enough at night and in the day.

They took my peak flow before and after the blue and there was enough of a difference to be classed as asthma, so I started the brown (which is the way to treat it).

They said I might be ok and revert but I've remained at risk of mild asthma attacks (I cough, don't wheeze) due to viral, pollutants and a few other non allergic triggers, including cold air. It's never a blue light affair; my peak flow drops from 440/430 to around 390/380 at it's worse, but it's the constant coughing which can even be triggered by talking or laughing.

Infact the only time I really noticed my chest really tighten was not long after I was on the brown ones and I caught a cough but didn't double the brown inhaler quickly enough. A comedy show made me laugh and my whole chest squeezed tight and wheezed.

Diagnosis was tricky as mostly it's the asthma nurse who treats and deals with asthma patients now. My gp just said ah well just use the blue inhaler when you need it. Nurse friend got me to call the asthma nurse and ask to see her to clarify what was going on. Gp got a telling off from her.

Asthma uk were also very useful too.

Ekphrasis · 14/04/2018 16:48

To clarify; treatment is a brown steroid inhaler, blue just relieves.

I'm on them permanently now. Was 38 when diagnosed.

Ekphrasis · 14/04/2018 16:50

A bit of reading around it and I found there are two different inflammatory pathways for asthma hence different triggers and symptoms.

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