To go back to the GP?

[Christmasapple]

This isn’t really an AIBU question but I need some answers.

I went to the OOH GP on Christmas night. I have an awful cough. She gave me antibiotics and some steroid tablets with the instruction to see my usual doctor when I’m better to ask for some asthma testing.

My cough is no better. It feels constant, every time I cough I do so until I’m red in the face, feel very light headed and frequently am urinating myself. My whole body hurts from coughing and I feel breathless. I’m exhausted.

Is there anything else the dr can do for me? It’s the dizziness every time I cough that is scaring me the most. Any effort to breathe deeply leads to another coughing fit.

Did you do a covid test? It’s been awful for us & very like you describe. We didn’t test positive for a couple of days either so assumed it was something else initially.

I’ve done a few and haven’t been positive yet.

I have had this cough and it's not fun, it's starting to let up now after about 4 weeks but yeah, weeing myself, sore muscles, not being able to take a full deep breath. It's been pretty horrible.

You need to make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids, it thins out the mucus and makes it easier to expel, cough medicines with guifensin help with that too and tena lady pads.

You can try with the doctor and they can check your oxygen levels but I've heard from lots of people with similar coughs and they really do seem to be sticking around this year and taking a while to shift.

Thank you, I think you’re probably right that I just had to deal with it. The thought of another several weeks is very depressing though!

The docs could maybe prescribe an inhaler? Have you got one? If you think you may have asthma then ventolin will probably help. The docs hand them out easily so maybe ask tomorrow it may help.

Sounds exactly like the cough I had in December 2019, couldn't speak without coughing, frequently wetting myself as I just couldn't stop coughing, very breathless and my lungs were on fire. In retrospect it was probably Covid.

I took the antibiotics and improved slightly but the cough lasted a few months. It was awful.

I found some relief in taking a pholcodeine medicine which helped me sleep and is a cough suppressant. You can't take it more than 3 days though due to potential addiction of the codeine.

There's a cough syrup with codeine in it which suppresses a constant cough, might be worth to see if they can give you it over the counter in the pharmacy?

I've not been able to buy pholcodeine(the only cough remedy worth taking) for years now, not in any chemist nor online pharmacy. I think it may have been moved to prescription only, as codeine has.

Best thing to do is ride it out. The incontinence probably points to a totally separate issue (pelvic floor) and I'd look at working on that too. If your chest starts rattling or producing crackly/high pitched noises, or you cough up more than just a few streaks of blood you should get checked out.

Pholcodine has been discontinued in the UK as at this year. Absolute PITA.

OP I'm on week 12 of a similar cough. Please contact your GP in the morning. I've had two sets of antibiotics, an inhaler, a negative sputum test, a month of omeprazole and a clear xray of my chest and no real improvement. I am seeing them again tomorrow (pre booked appointment) to discuss the next steps.

At the very least, the OOH GP suggested an asthma assessment and that should now be followed up.