Whooping cough

[Pinkyandthebrain96]

Like the title has anyone been struck down by whooping cough, can't believe I am in my 50's and got whooping cough .Driving me stir crazy , signed off work ,cannot cough without being sick and am now coming into week six .I am also asthmatic which does not help and my peak flow is in the yellow zone .Just wondering if anyone has found anything that relieves the cough and the feeling that you literally cannot get air , literally air starvation .

I've only just seen doctor (after many attempts) but had it for 6 weeks now, been prescribed clarithromycin but presumably too late to be effective.

Hi all my 12 year old daughter had whooping cough in March/April. She recovered but since then she’s had an on off cough that’s never quite gone entirely. Sometimes it sounds mucousy and she says this is in her throat. She’s otherwise well, the GP is not very interested and says her chest sounds clear. Does anyone have any experience of anything like this after whooping cough?

April the 2nd was my first hint of a symptom of 100 day cough. I didn’t know what it was and by the time it was obvious, it was too late for antibiotics.

The whoops - more like judders and some noise - were ok. I was better by early July but still responded badly to the change to sea air on holiday with a brief resurgence of the cough.

It is horrid and I felt quite rough for the first month but after that it’s just annoying and slowly gets less and less until one suddenly realises ones stopped coughing

Yes, I’m much older but what you describe is what it’s like.

My daughter 1 year had it back in March and she whoops sometimes when the temperature drops it’s so sad and I am worried about the winter time!

Bless her! That’s tough for such a little one, - and her Mum

Hi there I know this is an old thread now. Do those who have had whooping cough feel that they are now more susceptible to coughs/ they last longer now?

@Tholeonagain I had it over 20 years ago and am certain coughs I get since have been worse and last longer. I was prone to chest infections etc as a child, even had pneumonia, but I grew out of those and none seemed to have a long-lasting impact. WC in my 30s - definitely.

After I had whooping cough earlier this year I saw a respiratory consultant privately and he ordered a CT scan that showed I had a condition called bronchiectasis. One of the possible causes of this condition is whooping cough. Bronchiectasis means your bronchioles are widened in parts and that makes it hard for your lungs to clear themselves of mucous so it builds up, and this build up of mucous increases the likelihood of getting chest infections. I’m now under the NHS for this condition and have been taught by a physio how to do daily exercises to clear my lungs. I’d recommend asking your GP for a CT scan to see if you have it. I think that whooping cough is an under researched illness as it has been relatively rare, and that our government has no idea the extent of the cases in the country as most aren’t diagnosed or reported. However it does a lot of damage to lungs. Maybe if it was reported and the doctors realised how much damage it’s doing they would do two things. Firstly vaccinate every 10 years like some other countries. Secondly give better treatment when a patient presents with severe coughing. I was eventually given steroids, but I wonder whether I would have developed bronchiectasis if I’d been given the steroids earlier. I think that my whooping cough also triggered terrible acid reflux, and the acid reflux played a part in me developing bronchiectasis. I think that with hindsight, treating the acid reflux would also have helped. I eventually took omeprazole, but I should have taken full dose right at the start.

Thanks both. @Mustardfan can I ask what symptoms made the doctor recommend the CT scan? Have others had issues with minor symptoms such as hard to shift but mild ongoing coughs following whooping cough? My daughters has had several colds since having had it back in March/April and each has led to an ongoing cough, so she’s really only had one short period of a few weeks in between when she hasn’t been coughing. She’s otherwise well though and the cough is not bad enough to bother her much.

When I saw the respiratory consultant I was still in the recovery phase of whooping cough. The doctors were in doubt about whether it was whooping cough (he ordered an antibody test that showed it was whooping cough). So my symptoms were a persistent and troublesome cough that had improved on taking steroids. I recommend the book, the Chronic Cough Enigma.