Cough, cough, cough aah, will it ever stop?

[everythingisgoingup]

I had a cold that started on 18th with a sore throat, headache and then a cough which will not shift

Two days ago I felt great, like it has gone and now back with a vengeance

I haven't tested for coronavirus as we are at home anyway with no other guests so already 'self-isolating'

Anyone else had this, how long did it last?

Had my chest x-ray which came back totally normal. My nail lady was saying that she knows of SO many people who are being sent for them. I suspect no one really knows what is actually causing it - a combination of different viruses. I remembered that I was vaccinated against whooping cough when I was pregnant a couple of years ago so it can't be that. Cough has pretty much gone in the daytime now thankfully, still a bit first thing but as soon as that clears I'm ok. Still a sore throat at night but feel like that is lessening too. Hang in there everyone! this is day 61 for me.

@loulamay glad it was all clear and that symptoms are easing for you. Great to hear some positive news on here!

Sorry I didn’t reply to this, I couldn’t fine the journal article. I’ve found this today, if you read the results section it talks a bit about the mechanism by which they think whooping cough links with acid reflux:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9295390/#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20clear%20temporal,than%205%25%20complaining%20of%20heartburn.

Just to add, I stopped taking the omeprazole after a couple of days, which I regret. I re-started it on Monday and am also taking a steroid from my GP, and four days later Ivfeel that aim turning a corner, and I think it’s the combination of both medications. I’m also hearing strictly to the Acid Watcher Diet. I’m convinced that some or all of my present coughing is triggered by silent reflux. I’m continuing to have loud coughing fits with loud whooping sounds, but they are much less frequent.

Sorry to hear that everyone else is suffering with this virus too! I had it for about 5 weeks, and whilst it's pretty much gone I am still finding there's still "gunk" left which means I need to clear my throat/cough throughout the day. I hadn't gone to the doctor's but now wondering if I should because the symptoms seem so long lasting!

Thanks to everyone who keeps posting.

I am still coughing, less often and feeling much, much better than before Christmas.

Sorry to hear some people are still ill. When I started I thought it would never end, it is exhausting.

Sending you wishes for a speedy recovery 💐

It's interesting to hear how others are suffering too. I only started with cough 3 days ago but it's been productive from the beginning. We are hit with bug after bug due to Dd's nursery. I have never been so ill so much as I have in the 18 months since she started there, we've had throat infections, chest infections, sinusitis. Pre covid I would catch one or two minor colds a year!

HettyMeg

Hi Hetty, you have my sympathies, I remember when my DD started nursery she was always ill and so were we. It got better when she went to school but we used to watch her be ill and wait for our turn

Coughs, colds, slapped cheek, scarletina, vomiting and diarrhoea. Both mine are teens now but this cold and the blasted cough has gone on and on

I really, really think a lot of this might be whooping cough. Is there any proper random swabbing of people for this?

Pretty certain now this is what my daughter had for the last 7 or 8 weeks. her younger sibling would probably still just have had decent vaccine immunity given age at vaccination and age now.

Apparently vaccine protection is much lower at 10 years post vaccination/ infection and 15-year-olds or thereabouts are very prone. Which makes anyone who was vaccinated a long time ago and who consorts with teenagers, similarly prone.

my elderly mum seems to have also contracted same. Incubation period is bang on for whooping cough. Could be something else but really who knows in the absence of proper disease surveillance?

Exactly Noisy. I think there may be different things going around. We have had whooping cough since November. Not felt unwell but paroxysmal cough and my daughter has been vomiting with it. Started feeling better then bam! We have something else now on top of it. I can tell there are two things going on as we have runny noses and cold symptoms...and a different bloody cough. I have to e through about 1kg of sodium absorbate in the last 3 months!

My son has had it nearly 4 weeks. Was a controlled asthmatic for 4 years now doubled up on preventer, using lots of salbutamol, on steroid tablets for the fourth time and had 3 lots of antibiotics. It's relentless and has horrible coughing fits to the point of being sick. It's not whooping cough just a really horrible productive chest infection. Seems to be so many things around. We did Covid test a couple of times and all clear.

@shewolfmum you're totally right, could be lots of separate things all piling up.

Whooping cough is strange and has several different biological phases I gather. DD Had the classic cold for 7-10 days, then the paroxysmal choking vomiting cough started, then last week or so the convalescent bit. Horrible!
Hope you are all better soon. You’ll be as strong as an ox after this according to my uncle (total bollicks I suspect….)

@Frustration124 thst sounds like classic whooping cough. Has he been swabbed? If so and negative what the holy eff is it, it’s so weird, I know so many folks with it. Grim

hope he is better soon.

I hear it may be a parapetusis strain which won't always show up in a test and it looks for the pertussis toxins. Whoopingcough.net is full of good info even if your child isn't whooping and not everyone does. No wonder it is spreading as I called my surgery with suspected wc and they invited me in to sit in the waiting room! I did point out that it killed babies unlike COVID where we all had to hide away and couldn't enter the bloody doctors!

Oh that is really interesting @shewolfmum thank you. Parapertussis makes a lot of sense. DD has actually had that before when she was 3

I had a cough for about weeks 5 leading up to Christmas and negative for Covid,
Nothing seem to help just took time

Week 7 for me. Started with sore throat that turned into cough. Negative for Covid.

Seem to have good and bad days. Ironically day I managed to see GP was a better day followed by hideous week.

Finding it’s taking its toil on me, as absolutely exhausted by end of week and I get flu like symptoms - fever, headache, stuffy nose and fatigue for 2-3 days then back to just coughing.

Also has screwed up my pelvis floor further to extent that am having to wear TENA pads to cope with the leakage every time I cough. Dr referred me to gyno physio so now have support for that.

Sorry to hear so many of you are in same situation. Really hope it clears up for all of us asap.

Forgot to add the GP didn’t prescribe me anything and said it was likely to be a post viral cough. Also said it could go on for another 6 to 7 weeks. 😔

BionicEar you sound the same as me, I'm on week 8. Thankyou for mentioning your pelvic floor issues, I've been watching this thread but as yet this has not really been mentioned, and I'm in the same boat. In my late 40s but my pelvic floor now feels ruined thanks to the strain of relentless coughing. Also wearing Tena pads and have been referred to the incontinence clinic which sounds a joy. It's making me thoroughly miserable thinking I will have to wear pads for the foreseeable future in case I cough at any point during a day. I'm normally quite stoic about things but this is really getting me down.

No they didn't swab for wc he has had crackles on his chest apparently gone now and they think it's an exasperation of his asthma. I'm not convinced. He hasn't made a whoop cough sound though. Would the treatment be different? They just said if it continues about paediatrics looking at him again 🙈

Frustration there isn't any treatment even if it is wc after the first week or so (antibiotics given to stop spread during that time). Maybe look up the whooping cough vit c protocol as it is useful for all sorts? Yes....I decided I smell the other day..awful smell of wee!

He's taking vitamins etc already. He's already been sick from a coughing fit this morning and today is his last day of steroid tablets :( it's never ending. I don't think the doctors even know what to do with all these horrible coughs at the moment. They said "we have already thrown what we can think of at it so will need to refer to the paediatric team if this doesn't work"

@NoisyDachshunddd I expect so. I've had it and my DD 13 too. She still has a residual cough 7 weeks on. I've had the classic symptoms including the whoop noise, coughing until almost sick, urinary incontinence and coughing in violent bursts with gaps of sometimes hours in between. Also had no fever which is normal with WC. GP said it might be 100 day cough (another name for Whooping cough). I know several people who think they have had it but no one has been tested. A bit of a glimmer of hope, after 4 weeks of feeling awful I got back to work part-time this week and slept for a 3 hour stretch without waking to cough last night. Very slow progress but am getting better!

So glad to have found this thread. I am on my second bout of this illness, had a cough for about 2 months last summer and picked up this one just after Christmas. Still going strong 4 weeks later. I had to have a week off work feeling absolutely exhausted, now I don’t really feel ill just SO fed up of all the coughing. My cough is productive in the morning, then once I’ve cleared it I feel good until about 5 or 6 when the dry cough starts. This is the point I feel really miserable. I had a chest X-ray in the summer and CT scan around November time, all fine. Chest is apparently clear so no antibiotics prescribed. Would just love to feel normal again.

Another one to say yep still coughing. Started on the 8th Jan with usual cold symptoms, seemed to feel abit better and then took a nose dive with 3 days of shitting and coughing constantly with shortness of breath.
The shitting's eased off now 😂 and I'm still having coughing fits out of the blue. Particularly bad if stepping in or out of temperature differences which can't be helped at the moment.