To be worried about my health?

[BarbaraVineFan]

I'm 43 and I have had a persistent cough for nearly a month now. When it was at its worst I was literally coughing continuously, at least every couple of minutes for about 24 hours and I was unable to go to work for 3 days because my work requires a lot of talking and I was unable to speak without coughing. Since then it has got a lot better and I am probably only coughing once every 20 mins or so, but the bouts of coughing are really violent and make my head hurt. I'm also getting breathless very easily and today I had to carry a crate of shopping up the stairs in my flat and it left me wheezing and gasping for breath in a way that was quite scary. Admittedly I'm not very fit and am a bit overweight, but this was as though I was an 80 year old.

I have of course done multiple covid tests - all negative. I went to the doctor the other day and he listened to my chest, but was quite dismissive and said the cough would go away by itself.

AIBU to be worried, and AIBU to go back to the doctor and push for more to be done?

With the breathlessness, is there any chance you are anaemic ?
With the cough, have you tried something like a simple linctus ?

Cough medicine doesn't seem to help. And regarding being anaemic, I suppose it's possible, but don't I need a doctor to tell me that? 😂

What I meant is there any reason to suspect it, like heavy periods.

Oh sorry, I didn't mean to sound snippy! No, I'm on the hormonal coil so no periods at all to speak of

I know of quite a few people who have had persistent coughs. Non smokers too. All eventually cleared up. It sounds a bit like a chest infection with the breathlessness.

Yes, I'm a non smoker too. Just wondering if I should try and push for antibiotics really I suppose

Push for an x-ray. Antibiotics won’t help if it’s a bacterial infection, but you want to make sure it’s nothing more serious.

I was like this for months. I was eventually sent for pulmonary function tests and was diagnosed with adult onset asthma. I had never suffered with asthma previously and I am early 50s. Now on a daily Fostair inhaler and my symptoms are fine as long as I take it!