Last year I had a cough which lasted for 6 months, from April to around September. It was pretty bad. It was a night cough with a lot of phlegm too. During the day it would disappear but come evening, it would reappear like magic making me cough non-stop. It was difficult to sleep, for the others around me too.
I tried everything, everything! Of course, I went to the doctor first who prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine. When that ran out, I took over the counter cough mixtures. When those didn’t work, I tried home remedies. From roasted or steamed oranges with salt to drinking onions steeped in honey. Yuck! I drank honey with lemon, took manuka honey, gargled with salt water several times a day, irrigated my nose with a Netti pot, took lozenges before sleeping and even during sleep but nothing worked.
Finally, I went for a chest X-Ray and was told that I had active TB and may have to take around 9 months of medication and my whole family would have to be screened. I was told to go to the National Respiratory Centre to get confirmation and medication. The place was packed. I saw people coughing out blood, they took a sputum test but I couldn’t cough out any sputum and they told me to come back. I was so terrified I never went back. I went to a private practitioner instead, a chest specialist who took more chest X-Rays and who gave me more antibiotics and cough mixtures.
The cough did not go away. I even had fever to go with it which scared me even more. However, no appetite or weight loss that a TB sufferer would get. A second visit to the specialist with some allergy pills prescribed. By this time the cough was getting better. It was a lingering cough but I went to see the specialist just for some peace of mind.
Eventually the cough did go away on its own. I don’t think it was any of the medication that did it. It just ran out its course eventually. The washing with the Netti pot helped I supposed. So much phlegm came out. Yuck!
Whatever it was, I am glad that I am rid of the cough now. It is no fun coughing everyday and waking up with a sore throat every single day. I hope that this year I will have better health and improved immunity.
Can anyone recommend a good multivitamin?
You can try to double boil orange juice with rock sugar. I heard from my aunt, it helps.
No, I tried it too but at the time nothing helped at all.
gosh coughing for 6 months? poor you MG. i heard that allergy may cause a person to cough too. glad you are better now. multi-vits from amway is good. take care.
The doc said it probably started as a cough which turned into a chronic allergic cough.
How about taking Echinacea supplements. It is suppose to help boost the immune system to fight coughs & flu.