Whooping cough

[TheletterZ]

I have suspected whooping cough, saw OOH dr who agreed it sounds like whooping cough and will treat it as such but no tests. It is really classic whooping noise when breathing in during a coughing fit.

I’ve been given antibiotics.

Anyone had this as an adult and how long will it last? I’ve heard it also referred to as 100 day cough, which I really hope isn’t true especially if I have antibiotics.

Poor kid. Is this for A Levels or Highers? If so I'd def get the GP to diagnose it as pertussis because that's what it sounds like and she may then get special consideration.

@NoisyDachshunddd I think that’s a good idea she should definitely consider getting it officially tested sI that she could have some consideration!

So baby has started eating again but the night time is awful she is also very tired and sleepy every morning so grumpy!

so sad for her she is such a happy baby any advice for babies with whooping cough please I would be so grateful!

one thing that seems to
help her is frequent sips of water!

Sorry spelling mistakes extremely exhausted

I would be at the GP with a baby as I think it is worst for tiny ones. Maybe take a recording of how she sounds at night or even a video, if that is when it is worst? Sounds grim when listening back but it is really helpful for them to hear.

i’m still awaiting official confirmation but have now had the blood test after a mix up with other tests, partly my fault for not checking when I was so tired.

6.5 weeks in, I am feeling hugely better than I did. Nights are still a bit hit and miss with waking up and I thought I was done with vomiting from coughing but apparently not after yesterday and the day before 🥴.

I am still hoping for a miracle that it doesn’t actually last 100 days!

How is everyone getting on? I've just been diagnosed with Whooping cough. My GP didn't seem reluctant to diagnose it atall. I walked in and started coughing and she said straight away 'I think you have whooping cough'. I had to have an ECG as my heart rate was high and the cough has made me faint. The conclusion was it is the illness making me tachycardic. I go dizzy every time I cough and feel like my head is going to explode and I can't breathe. As well as fainting, I've wet myself and vomited from the cough! It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. I've been given antibiotics but heard they don't tend to help with the coughing. I feel absolutely exhausted. Not looking forward to many more weeks of this!

It depends on when you get the antibiotics. I got them the first day of coughing (very clear whoop) and the cough cleared up quickly. Thought I still have occasional coughing fits. If you take the antibiotics later that a week (?I think) after the cough starts they just stop you being infectious but don’t help the cough.

If that is the case you just have to ride it out, and yes weeing yourself and coughing until you are sick are common symptoms. I’m sorry you have this as well.

I've had this bloody cough since November. Blood test X-rays and antibiotics x2. Now on inhalers which is helping a bit. Don't know if it's WC though.

Me! I had it in November and I’m still coughing (not as much, but have the odd fit). And, joy, my chest now makes a high pitched wheeze at night that wakes me up. I fear it’s left me with brochiastasis.

They didn't even diagnose her? Hard to believe when we are in the middle of a covid and whooping cough pandemic, both notifiable diseases: did they notify the public health? Hard to believe we just welcome another pandemic with zero information & zero prevention. Is it to keep everyone quiet so they don't ask for vaccines, because vaccines exist, but I doubt they bought more to cope with another pandemic. You would think vaccines would be promoted to prevent a cough lasting 100 days. Considering the covid pandemic which didn't finish and can also cause a cough lasting weeks. You would think prevention would be paramount

Thank you for the advice I took baby back to the hospital and they just told me I have to ride it out now!

she was monitored her oxygen levels are always great! My son now has the whoop sound when he coughs!

I am getting used to baby’s coughing fits when she struggles for air! One day she is having small coughs the next she has full blown coughing fits!

It’s so exhausting I have had no sleep since March! I just hope they both feel better soon and when we go on holiday they get some sun and it helps!

Also for some reason water and coconut water together seems to really help her! When she is hydrated the cough is manageable and also noticed when garlic is present in her food she has a good night sleep!

I have made some boiled water with garlic it helps so much! She sleeps so well very strange. Cows milk makes her cough worse for some reason also and she is breastfed too!

so anyone dealing with this please drink plenty of fluids it really helps ease the cough.

Update from me...@NoisyDachshunddd luckily it is only mocks not actual A levels, that my daughter is doing, but I will ask the GP if he will give her a note as it has really affected her having so many disturbed nights.
Since spending every night with her I have inevitably become unwell. I was in total denial at first, assuming that the coldy symptoms were just being run down due to tiredness, I now have a sinking feeling that I have contracted this beastly thing. I've had more days in bed due to feeling crappy with this than practically any cold/flu/C19 bug I've ever had. Symptoms are like flu but with severe sore throat and spaced out headache, raised glands, low fever and general coldy shiveriness and sneezing. Lots of coughing but last night was the first time it really kicked in with a horrible phlegm at the back of the throat which I gather is the next and worst phase of this delightful illness. Haven't manage to get to the GP yet so I hope I haven't missed the boat with the antibiotics.
Interesting about the garlic, I will try it!

Hello - hope all the poorly people are on the mend.
think I may have this too. Although the course of my illness hasn’t been quite the same. Tickly cough for one week and then for the last 10 days absolutely drained, low grade temperature, a horrible cough at night that makes me draw a full breath in between each cough (with the whoop) and a more normal cough through the day.

I got antibiotics last Friday (they finish today) and while I think I feel slightly more clear headed but the cough isn’t going anywhere.

Does WC come with a chest infection as I don’t think I have that - but the gunk draining from my sinuses is vile - if it wasn’t for the weird night time cough I would have presumed sinus infection.

I've had this for the last 3 weeks. GP, NHS24, urgent care once admitted all dismissed WC out of hand as I was vaxxed during childhood. Several HCPs have insisted to me that the vaccine gives lifelong immunity, and an A&E consultant said that WC has been eradicated in the UK.

I've stopped vomiting blood now but still bringing up mucus/water - never food, although I am gaining weight from being housebound and sedentary. Blood tests, xray and CT scan have come back clear - like others I thought I potentially had WC that had become pneumonia.

I have a tenuous grip on my bladder at the best of times, and obviously not fit to be in work but as the NHS can't find anything wrong, my GP has said I can't get signed off. I had a swab taken yesterday because the practice nurse said it sounded like thrush, should have results by Friday. I was on AL for the Easter hols and approaching the end of my self cert period now, so it's stressful on top of trying to get better.

NHS advice is to sip water and ride it out, but I'm not sure how this will go down at work (social care, can't go in if I'm vomiting anyway). Not sure what I'm looking for from posting - just a moan really.

Sympathy to all struggling, especially the little ones.

Hi, I thought I'd share my experience of whooping cough as I'm now in my 11th week. Started off at the start of February with what I thought was a cold, lots of sneezing, mild headache and sore throat but that cleared up after a few days but I didn't feel 'right'. My eldest DS had the same symptoms but was diagnosed with tonsillitis but he had no sore throat but the horrendous cough. He wasn't given anything and told he was fine to go to school. His best friend had the same and was just given an inhaler despite not having asthma. Exactly a week later I started coughing like I've never done before, coughing to the point of gagging, choking, not being able to get air in and whooping plus wetting myself. It was terrifying for me and my poor family. Rang the Dr and a locum rang me back, diagnosed a chest infection and I was given amoxicillin anf steroids which didn't help. I couldn't sleep at all as I was constantly choking despite trying to sleep upright. It got worse at night. I went to see a Dr who thought it was whooping cough and put me on another antibiotic, erythromycin. which made me sick. I was just exhausted, working from home (my boss has been amazing) I've seen a Dr 5 times now and ridiculously only on my last visit did they make me wait in their quarantine room. The senior Dr said she wanted to give me a blood test and a second course of steroids which they rarely do for adult pertussis. It really seems like local gp's have no idea how to deal with it. Finally at this appointment my DH and younger DS were given preventative antibiotics as had mild symptoms but were better after a few weeks. My eldest DS got worse and was given antibiotics and public health and his school notified, his best friend went through the same process and both are a lot better but still occasionally coughing at night. No message was sent out from school despite lots of year 7s getting symptoms. Hopefully I'm getting my results back tomorrow after waiting 2 weeks. I've gone back to work in office on phased return this week. I'm OK in the morning but after talking I get to midday and my cough (albeit manageable now) starts and my voice is very croaky, I'm a radio presenter so not the best! I'm still getting acid in my throat from coughing and I get exhausted easily. I really wish GP's would take this condition seriously!!! 😕

@CamillaX2 and @Dolls1973 what a nightmare - hope you’re both feeling much better soon. It just isn’t taken very seriously is it?

I explained to the dr about the ‘whoop’ I was making when coughing at night but they said it’s just a viral cough as my chest is completely clear - so clearly I just have an unusually horrible cough but not WC

It's very well known that vaccine immunity from pertussis is short-lived, probably going out to 10-15 years post-vax, and also that vaccination rates are lower than they should be, both among infants and pregnant mothers. Natural infection confers longer immunity but even then, it's not permanent. My mum has probably had it in childhood and then lucky her, caught it age 82 from her teen grandchild.

To say it's been eradicated in the UK is complete nonsense. Even with a lack of routine testing, cases notified to the health authorities in England are at their highest rate in 5 years, or something. What you've been told is just plain wrong.

Thanks @NoisyDachshunddd I was starting to think I was going mad. I used to work in research and get a bit personally affronted when genuine medical evidence is ignored in clinical decision-making.

No, the chest is usually clear. Does sound like WC.

I can't believe the nonsense you've been told about WC. Childhood vaccines do not give lifelong immunity. And not sure how they can say WC is eradicated when there is a big breakout of it right now!

I finished my 7 days of antibiotics a week ago now and I have to say I'm feeling much better. My voice has come back normally and I feel much more clear headed. I'm not coughing that much but still sometimes it seems to come out of no where!

I too have had similar symptoms this year, and I’m still suffering with acid. I posted a link to a research paper that linked whooping cough to acid reflux. (I’m not sure if I posted that on this thread or another). I’m now taking omeprazele for that (reluctantly). Perhaps we should start a campaign for the NHS to be more responsive to whooping cough and perhaps vaccinate every 10 years, as some other countries do? I’ve got Bupa, and have seen a respiratory consultant and had a CT scan and I now have a lung condition called Bronchiectasis ( which can be caused by whooping cough). I’ve never been officially diagnosed with whooping cough. I had many weeks off work (I was too ill to work).

Interesting about the clear chest - it certainly feels like WC, and judging by the 3 coughing episodes I’ve had overnight it’s definitely no better. Unless I can record myself coughing I really don’t think I’ll be able to persuade the GP that this is what it is. I WFH 3-4 days a week which is making it easier to handle but I’m predominantly self employed so while I’d love to be doing nothing, it’s not really possible. Guess I just have to ride this out!

Seems I've found my tribe. I'm into week 6 of it here, was doing better, then coughing a lot again the last few days. My son had it before me but of course was wrongly diagnosed. I was told it was viral too and I was the one who pursued the test after it never cleared up. And daughter is showing signs too so is on the antibiotics. So I'm into about 9 weeks of someone waking me up at night - if it's not me coughing, it's one of the kids. Luckily I can work from home but I'm so fed up of this. I can't understand why there isn't a push for people to top up their vaccines. I'll be getting them every 10 years now after this. Anyway, I hope people are doing a bit better. I have interviews at the end of this week so hoping I get a couple of good days.

https://whoopingcough.net/ show them the info here...the docs need educating it's crazy ..

Here's a good overview here by a British doctor: