The Cough Saga
So I went back
after two weeks and there was no change. He doubled up on my
Prevacid, that's the stuff I'm taking for reflux, gave me
another antibiotic, and I'm off for another two weeks. Only this
time stretched out a bit longer. The cough had let up some,
which was good because it was getting close to holiday time
and we had no money. I couldn't go to the doctor no matter
what, so it didn't matter whether I was still coughing or not.
The cough came back full force for Christmas and I was able to
get back to the doctor. He was pretty much at his wits end. He
still felt that it was sinus drainage, like Dr. Amar he
insists that my chest is clear. So he put on what he called
"the strongest antibiotic outside an IV" and said if that
didn't work he would have to send me to an Ear, Nose &
Throat specialist. So I had an appointment set up in early
January with the ENT, but also had one the same week with my
colo/rectal doc for my annual flex-sig because of a
pre-cancerous incident a couple of years ago. I have been
having a lot of pain in the gall bladder area that the
colo/rectal doc, Dr. Howton, and I both felt was probably from
coughing, but he ordered an abdominal sonogram anyways, just
to be safe. That came out fine. I was glad to have it done
though, because my friend Donna had developed a chronic cough
and it turned out to be her gall bladder. It had been slowly
poisoning her system.
In January I saw Dr. West, the ENT specialist.
He said it definately was NOT sinus drainage. He felt certain
that it was caused by reflux. But just to be safe he ordered a
complete thyroid work up and chest x-rays. Both came out fine.
He had also run a scope through my left nostril, the problem
side, down to the voicebox and all looked well. So he changed
my Prvacid to Nexium, gave me cough medicine with hydrocodone,
and said to call if it wasn't better in 2 weeks and he'd call
in antibiotics, otherwise come back in a month. There was a
dramatic difference in the first week and I really thought we
had it licked, then I ran out of cough medicine. After two
weeks, and the cough keeps getting increasingly worse, he put
me on antibiotics that did nothing. I went back in last
Thursday (2-27-02) so he could refer me to a lung specialist.
He did the scope one more time and spotted something when I
swollowed. He said it looked like either adenoid tissue, which
I have had them removed, or a tumor. He was afraid to do a
biopsy, so I had a CT scan done of my neck Friday. I finally
got the results today (3-6-02) and, you guessed it, nothing
there.
So this is where I stand right now. I can't
stand up. If I do, I go into a severe coughing fit. My throat
shuts down, I can't get air, my head feels like it's going to
explode. I get extremely dizzy, I feel like I'm going to pass
out. It feels like something at the top left hand side of my
stomach is going to rupture, and my gall bladder area hurts.
My shoulders are killing me, and the pain in my back and hips
when I cough is excruciating. There's no escaping it either,
I've tried every position I can think of. And 9 times out of
10 I lose control of my bladder. On the bright side, there's
not a damn thing wrong with me.
I'll post cough updates
here.
The appointment with the lung doc is on March
18th.
Back Next
| | |
