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Cough that won’t go away

7 replies

flowerlover1990 · 17/12/2025 21:35

Does anyone else have a persistent cough at
the moment? I’m struggling to speak at times without having silly coughing fits. Not sure if it’s a post nasal drip that’s irritating my throat or something else. It’s a dry cough and a ridiculously tickly throat, but when I cough hard, it rattles by bones and sounds awful! I was blowing out yellow mucus a few weeks back but that’s better now. Anyone else? Miserable with it.

OP posts:
Starlight7080 · 17/12/2025 21:39

Mine lasted about 4 weeks. It was miserable. I think the no sleep made it so much worse.
Hot honey and lemon was the only thing that seemed to help me.
I did get to the point of thinking it would never go.

ArtichokesBloom · 17/12/2025 21:58

Night nurse to help me sleep. I've been poorly since middle of October. Brief respite in November before rolling into another effing virus

ArtichokesBloom · 17/12/2025 22:00

DH and I have spent so many nights apart due to the fits of coughing. I going to the spare room so he can at least sleep. I'm fairly miserable now

GentleSheep · 17/12/2025 22:01

Could it be the 100-day cough, otherwise known as whooping cough/pertussis?

CurlyhairedAssassin · 17/12/2025 22:11

flowerlover1990 · 17/12/2025 21:35

Does anyone else have a persistent cough at
the moment? I’m struggling to speak at times without having silly coughing fits. Not sure if it’s a post nasal drip that’s irritating my throat or something else. It’s a dry cough and a ridiculously tickly throat, but when I cough hard, it rattles by bones and sounds awful! I was blowing out yellow mucus a few weeks back but that’s better now. Anyone else? Miserable with it.

I started with a virus beginning of Octobr, probably COVID but I didn't test. I've just had it about 6 times before so know how I feel with it. Sore throat, temp, tired, reduced appetite, post nasal drip which turned into cough. I was able to power through at work with paracetamol etc and after a week started to feel a bit improved. Then I had a surprise bout of diarrhoea (fits with newer covid strains) and then I finally thought I was done with it all. But then the cough just got worse, and my sinuses seemed to just never clear, my throat was still mucousy with post nasal drip, and inflamed with a couple of red lumps, lymph nodes up. Still no real hunger but was managing to eat.

After 6 weeks or so of really awful coughing (colleagues kept commenting on how bad it was, it was embarrassing the extent of the coughing really) I went to the GP who gave me nasal steroid spray and a prescription for penicillin. The nasal spray did nothing and the penicillin just gave me awful indigestion and stomach ache. I was still coughing, still got sinus issues.

I've just been back again yesterday, basically to see if it's normal to still feel like that. Different GP. Sod's law the cough has suddenly more or less stopped but I still dont' feel like everything has properly cleared up. Still not feeling right. Still got the lumps in the same place on my throat, which she denied even being able to see (she must be blind because it's very obvious, and theyre not on my tonsils, so I really need someone to tell me what they are instead so I can not be worried about oral cancer). She also recorded my temperature as 26.9 🤔. And wanted to give me a prescription for Gaviscon. I refused that as I know any irritation is coming from my sinuses and not my stomach, as I can feel them drain when I shift and move in the morning and at night. She then sent me to get a chest X-ray which was pointless as my chest sounds clear but I think she felt she needed to do something. I was expecting a blood test but she didn't want to do that.

All in all I think I am verrrryyy slowwwwwly getting better in tiny increments over time, so that it's barely noticeable. But it's only when I realise that I feel hungry for the first time in nearly 10 weeks, or that I've only coughed a handful of times today, or only blown my nose 10 times that I realise the mucous is maybe starting to lessen. I've honesstly felt at times that I was never going to start improving and I feel like I've basically lost the autumn feeling rubbish through all of it.

I guess it's just been a post-viral cough/sinus issue that's lasted a long time. I'm going to make an appointment with the dentist if the lumps in my mouth don't alter though, I think they're sometimes better at identifying things like that.

I hope it starts to go soon, OP, but be prepared for a long wait. It's miserable while youre waiting for a sign of improvement, I know. And with me, I felt through all of it that there was some improvement, then any time I was doing too much activity i seemed to get worse again so I learned to really rest of an evening after work. I think good rest has been the best thing. and lots of fluids to keep the mucous thin. Sudafed with guafanesin helped me sleep better at night too.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 17/12/2025 22:22

In all these viruses which last ages with lots of coughing your airways are inflamed probably and coughing will keep it a vicious circle. For me, during the early stages I found steam helped bring up any mucous that settled on my chest, and to release a bit of pressure in my sinuses. But as the weeks went on and the mucous lessened on my chest I found it helpful to try to suppress the coughing a bit to try to let my airways recover. So sucking throat pastilles or smints or something to try to take away the feeling of tickle and irritation in my thoat.

Ifonlyiweretaller · 17/12/2025 22:53

I had it for 6weeks….ended up on antibiotics for chest infection & sinusitis after week 4 and it still took a while to settle. To be fair I wasn’t ‘ill’ as such, just very tired due to lack of sleep because of the constant coughing, and apparently very annoying to be around due to the constant coughing. In fact I think I’m only just ( now on week 8 ) realising I’m getting better!

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