long term cough, doctors can't find anything wrong

[wheeliebin]

You've already had lots of tests, so hopefully the doctors would have spotted if it were the kind of nasty illness that @gbb had!

I certainly hope they would have spotted anything. A bit scary sitting in the doctors when you see the "coughing for more than a month...?" notices.

 

[vickster]

Have you had a CT scan of your chest/lungs? Might be worthwhile to rule out anything that might show up on such a scan

I think a lot of the so called sinus sprays etc can cause problems in themselves too with longer use

Are you being seen at a specialist hospital like the Royal Brompton, might be worth a referral to a tertiary centre

 

[wheeliebin]

Can you conduct an unscientific experiment on yourself and stay off all dairy for 1 week?
And I mean all dairy...

You may find symptoms clear up.

I suggest it because I'm allergic to dairy and one of the issues I had before the allergy became anaphylactic shock was the dripping mucus down the back of the throat. I appreciate it isn't an easy option but worth a shot in the dark despite the difficulties involved in excluding all dairy from your diet for 7 days.

Thanks, I will definitely give it a go. I guess not having problems with dairy in the past doesn't mean I couldn't develop an intolerance or allergy?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Thanks, I will definitely give it a go. I guess not having problems with dairy in the past doesn't mean I couldn't develop an intolerance or allergy?

You wouldn't necessarily know about issues with dairy because you will have had it on your diet from the word go so live with the symptoms often without knowing they were even there until they raise this ugly head.

For me I found out I was initially intolerant to cow's dairy just because it took me longer to recovery from coughs, cold and flu than others and it was always worse for me than others. My gp told me that staying off dairy whilst suffering these conditions with my asthma would make my asthma easier to control and then clear up more quickly. It worked. After a particularly bad chest infection lasting 6 weeks I finally got the all clear to go back onto dairy and did. I ended up in a&e! That rules cow's dairy out of my diet. I went to goat's milk, butter, cream & yogurt quite hesitantly but was fine with it for around 10 years and then started having problems with it as well... That's when the allergy developed. Full blown anaphylactic shock now. Not great.

Ruling dairy out of my husband's diet has almost cured his snoring problem though! And we both can tell well he had eaten any dairy!

 

[ColinJ]

I certainly hope they would have spotted anything. A bit scary sitting in the doctors when you see the "coughing for more than a month...?" notices.

The first obvious symptom of my DVT/PE was incessant coughing. I put up with for weeks before seeing a doctor and then he missed what it really was. A second doctor picked up on it a few weeks further on but that was only after I collapsed, near death!

Hopefully your problem is nothing serious but keep on pressing the doctors to find what it is - you don't want to risk ending up like me or @gbb!

 

[albion]

CT scan of head, sinuses in particular....

How did you manage to get that done?

The only reason I knew a specialist was talking utter rubbish was that I had a window 20 years ago when my sinuses cleared and I could actually breath through my nose, be it in a mechanical non automatic manner, maybe because I never learned during my more severe asthma early years.

I got idiots telling me a 100% nasal blockage was physically normal. Its strange how one gets used to suffering because that is how it always has been. I even got to a point where I wondered if I would survive a nights non sleep. (can you actually drown in your sleep during apnea ?)

 

[vickster]

My mum's had a CTI, MRI and ultrasound of her sinuses over the last year. They can't find anything. She has a history of cancer, hence getting the tests done in a timely way and that we are relieved that they can't find anything (although she has lots of pain)

 

[albion]

Getting strong headaches alongside severe nasal congestion might also point to damp related conditions.
They were particularly bad for and likely linked to the headaches I used to get when each Salbutamol quick fix off after about 2 hours.

Wheezing alongside a headache maybe means oxygen depletion?
It was for me when young with asthma and I assume was the same with my severe nasal problems.


(headaches from coughing itself of course is something different, and for me feels a bit like a bruising headache)

 

[gbb]

I certainly hope they would have spotted anything. A bit scary sitting in the doctors when you see the "coughing for more than a month...?" notices.

You're on their case so thats good, but don't do what i did, accept the docs diagnosis if nothing improves.
Excruciating pain out of the blue in my chest one night, so sever it put me on the floor literally in tears, so so painful every time i inhaled i hardly dared breathe. Ambulance called, a thorough examination followed (TBF the symptoms had gone by the time they arrived), heart, chest etc etc...nothing found. They did offer to take me to hospital for further investigations if i felt that was the right thing to do...but as it was a one off, i thought i'd pulled a muscle.
It turns out those symptoms are CLASSIC for pleurisy.

Went to the docs maybe 1 month later, tiredness, lethargy, persistant cough, night sweats...he gave me antibiotics for an infection.

Went to the drop in centre maybe another month later...she rollocked me rigid (in the nicest possible way) for not going back to the docs and suffering in silence and sent me to hospital for an immediate Xray.

Ambulance staff missed pleurisy, doctor missed pneumonia, a partially collapsed lung and TB.

 

[wheeliebin]

Have you had a CT scan of your chest/lungs? Might be worthwhile to rule out anything that might show up on such a scan

I think a lot of the so called sinus sprays etc can cause problems in themselves too with longer use

Are you being seen at a specialist hospital like the Royal Brompton, might be worth a referral to a tertiary centre

No, only an X-ray of my chest, I guess a CT scan is more detailed.

I was being seen by an ENT consultant at a local hospital, who basically signed me off after he couldn't find anything significant wrong. Another trip to the doctor's it is then!

You wouldn't necessarily know about issues with dairy because you will have had it on your diet from the word go so live with the symptoms often without knowing they were even there until they raise this ugly head.

For me I found out I was initially intolerant to cow's dairy just because it took me longer to recovery from coughs, cold and flu than others and it was always worse for me than others. My gp told me that staying off dairy whilst suffering these conditions with my asthma would make my asthma easier to control and then clear up more quickly. It worked. After a particularly bad chest infection lasting 6 weeks I finally got the all clear to go back onto dairy and did. I ended up in a&e! That rules cow's dairy out of my diet. I went to goat's milk, butter, cream & yogurt quite hesitantly but was fine with it for around 10 years and then started having problems with it as well... That's when the allergy developed. Full blown anaphylactic shock now. Not great.

Ruling dairy out of my husband's diet has almost cured his snoring problem though! And we both can tell well he had eaten any dairy!

It must be hard going to cutting out dairy altogether, but you have no choice. I started checking lists of ingredients yesterday while out shopping, and so much stuff has either milk/milk product as an ingredient, or if they don't it's on the "may contain..." list.

 

[wheeliebin]

The first obvious symptom of my DVT/PE was incessant coughing. I put up with for weeks before seeing a doctor and then he missed what it really was. A second doctor picked up on it a few weeks further on but that was only after I collapsed, near death!

Hopefully your problem is nothing serious but keep on pressing the doctors to find what it is - you don't want to risk ending up like me or @gbb!

Will do, another visit to the docs coming up.

 

[wheeliebin]

You're on their case so thats good, but don't do what i did, accept the docs diagnosis if nothing improves.
Excruciating pain out of the blue in my chest one night, so sever it put me on the floor literally in tears, so so painful every time i inhaled i hardly dared breathe. Ambulance called, a thorough examination followed (TBF the symptoms had gone by the time they arrived), heart, chest etc etc...nothing found. They did offer to take me to hospital for further investigations if i felt that was the right thing to do...but as it was a one off, i thought i'd pulled a muscle.
It turns out those symptoms are CLASSIC for pleurisy.

Went to the docs maybe 1 month later, tiredness, lethargy, persistant cough, night sweats...he gave me antibiotics for an infection.

Went to the drop in centre maybe another month later...she rollocked me rigid (in the nicest possible way) for not going back to the docs and suffering in silence and sent me to hospital for an immediate Xray.

Ambulance staff missed pleurisy, doctor missed pneumonia, a partially collapsed lung and TB.

That sounds horrendous gbb. Things are still bad with me but nothing on that scale, I will be going back to the doctor's ASAP though.

 

[Red17]

I've had a cough for getting on for 2 years, the medics have pretty much given up. Cycling doesn't particularly seem to make it worse, although commuting in cold weather is not great on the throat. I did try staying off the bike for a month or so but there was no real improvement.

I've been back and forth to the doctor, got referred to an ENT consultant, had many and various tests and treatments none of which have helped. I've had a chest X-ray, camera up my nose and down my throat, allergy test, all negative. CT scan showed a slight inflammation of some sinuses, but nothing that he would recommend surgery for.

I think the reason I cough is because there is a continual drip of mucus from the back of my nose or sinuses (post-nasal drip) which runs down into my throat and have to cough up. Some nights I'm awake with coughing fits and in the mornings I sound like a heavy smoker, without the enjoyment of having had the fags first.

Any suggestions welcomed, this is getting me down.

Had almost the identical issues for the last few years - I've also had the x-rays, camera, asthma tests etc and the conclusion was that I'm allergic to something in the atmosphere but they have no idea what. The hospital claimed that about 50% of all coughs referred to them cant be traced to anything specific.

The only time it went completely was when I spent 3 weeks in Cornwall in the fresh air, and when I spent 5 weeks in hospital with a broken back.

My cough seems to get a lot better in the winter and worse in the summer - I have a suspicion its all the pollution and dust in London, but as I need to work here there's nothing I can do about it.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It must be hard going to cutting out dairy altogether, but you have no choice. I started checking lists of ingredients yesterday while out shopping, and so much stuff has either milk/milk product as an ingredient, or if they don't it's on the "may contain..." list.

seriously hard because there are some components that at first glance you would not think are derived from dairy.
Not to mention the really obvious one that Lactose Monohydrate is one of the 2 main tablet fillers (and tends to be the main one) so I have had the bizarre situation (back about 6 months ago just before my back went) were an antihistamine tablet left me in anaphylactic shock because it wasn't my usual one but was one somewhat larger and I didn't think twice about taking it! But a lot of medication is not available in any form other than tablet and I'm left with the problem of is it going to cause a problem... if I stick to certain brands I'm OK but it is difficult. And then there was the case of one of my inhalers - that was well ridiculous put bluntly. for 2 years I had been suspected of having sleep apnoea and even had a trial for a CPAP device... I was convinced the problem lay with one of my inhalers and in the end had to take matters in to my own hands. cutting a long story short, 1 of my inhalers, a capsule you put into the inhaler, had 2 ingredients, the drug I needed and a tablet filler - lactose monohydrate which I had been spraying directly into my lungs despite being allergic to it! the issues I was having were not sleep apnoea but actually anaphylactic shock each and every night!

 

[albion]

I've never had any sign whatsoever of a food allergy but I suspect the principal of 1 allergy triggering sensitivity to other (food) stuff is exactly the same.
I still get hay fever type symptoms out and about, but that is also well damped down so as not to be the nightmare it once was.

Each to their own, so ignore us and make sure its not a symptom of something like pneumonia, a partially collapsed lung etc which from my experience too, goes alongside breathing trouble.
Reminds me, check your temperature. Increased temperature was the main thing that, years ago, told my doctor I'd had likely gone down with pneumonia and a collapsed lung.