Violent and uncontrollable cough, what to do?

[Roserunner]

My DH has had a cough for around 10 days now, it started after a mild cold. He's done COVID tests and not that. This cough is really violent and uncontrollable and goes on all day and night. It's really bad at night, last night he vomited as he couldn't stop coughing or catch his breath. We're both absolutely exhausted from no sleep.

We did an online 111 thing yesterday that came back saying get help so a nurse called him back who then got a GP to call but they just said seek help if he still has it in 3 weeks or me.

He has tried lozenges, numbing spray, lemsip, paracetamol, etc nothing seems to help. Every few mins he's coughing so hard he's almost sick. We took the dog for a short walk round the block and he's even worse. We just don't know what else to do, the neighbours must be sick of it as well, it's so loud I'm sure they can hear him. We just don't know what else to do??

It sounds like whooping cough to me. I’m recovering from it at the moment.

Whooping cough. Phone surgery tomorrow

I did wonder about that but thought it had a distinct sound to the cough. Can I ask how long you had it before getting diagnosed?

I hope you're on the mend and starting to feel better.

Could be a vicious cheat infection (definitely going around and took me two rounds of antibiotics to shake) or even pneumonia.

Not sure why he hasn't seen a GP to listen to his chest yet? Also needs to sleep sitting up, propped up by as many cushions and pillows as you can find. Sipping warm water helps a little.

DH isn't very good at seeking medical help, it was hard enough convincing him to do the NHS online. When he talked to the GP he suppressed a cough, then had a 5 min fit after he hung up. I did say he should of just coughed so they could hear how bad it is.

He is sitting propped up, drinking warm water etc. I will try and get him to contact our GP tomorrow if I can. He has private medical through work, I don't know if we could go through them.

Steam helped dh when he had similar.

Hot shower/standing in the steamy bathroom after showering or boiling water in a bowl with head over it and towel over the top.

He also had a wide neck flask which he used at night so he could sit on the edge of the bed and breathe in that for a bit before sealing it up again.

Well in answer to your very first question "We just don't know what else to do??" The only real answer is get actual medical treatment and advice. If he won't do that then he won't get better any time soon, if at all.

I used to use codeine linctus for this type of cough, till they took it off the market.
I find that co codamol does the same job but obviously you should only take it for a few days.

We did get advice from NHS 111 who had a GP call back and they just weren't interested at all unless he'd had it at least 3 weeks preferably more than 6. I will get him to try our GP this week but worried they'll be the same.

Does he have a temperature/feels unwell? Is the cough productive?

But at least in person they'll listen to his chest, so will get a better sense of what's going on - and hopefully hear him cough!

No he doesn't have a temperature or feel unwell, apart from exhaustion due to lack of sleep and pain from coughing! He's also not coughing anything up, it's a dry cough.

Hopefully we can get the GP to see him this week and listen to his chest. I just worry they'll be just as dismissive which will put him off seeking any more help.

Whopping cough, on the increase at moment & cough causing vomiting is one of signs.

Whooping cough actually rarely has the whoop noise in anyone other than infants. It is a distinct cough though, it is episodes of coughing called a paroxymal cough, where the patient coughs uncontrollably until all air is expelled from lungs and often causes them to vomit at the end. There are high number of cases at the moment. The episodes start off frequent, and reduce very gradually, getting further apart. Also known as the 100 day cough.

Myself and DH have had this now since Christmas. Having read about it, I’m sure it’s whooping cough. Mine is probably just starting to get slightly better now.

I have thus too, 7 weeks now.
Please see a Dr today.
I'm in steroids and amoxcillin and inhaler .
Just drive him there... I couldn't live with the regret if it turns out to be serious...

My husband has this at the moment and has just turned the corner with it so is slowly getting better.

GPs won't do anything for the first few weeks of a cough because nearly all clear up by themselves and there is no medication that can speed up the process unless there is an underlying chest infection, which can be treated with antibiotics. I had a bad cough last year that lasted 10 weeks. At 8 weeks the sent me for a chest xray to check there was nothing serious but then I just had to ride it out.

I used to be a nurse and to be honest if you reported a cough in a normally healthy adult during a telephone triage I wouldn't have brought your husband in to be seen either unless it had been 4 weeks+

It’s whooping cough. Pretty rife at the moment and deeply unpleasant. I’m nearly a month in and now in the convalescent phase but still off work and still feeling awful and having a few scary coughing fits per day.