Hello Everyone ... Followers .... does anyone FOLLOW this?
Anyway, today I've posted lots of comments that have arrived in my Inbox over the past year or so - apologies to everyone who's been waiting to see their words online. There've been several good ideas passed on - please feel free to have a trawl through.
For my part, I suppose I'm celebrating (ha!) having had my cough now for 20 years!!!!!
But it's not getting any better. I've tried various drug therapies (incl. antibiotics) in the last year or two, a no-wheat diet (again) but just nothing works. I did get some comfort from an article posted on an American medical website Cough article which basically says in the vast majority of cases the cough is actually nothing serious and not life-threatening. That is a very interesting article, but uses lots of big, technical words and terms that zoomed right over my head.
So, allegedly, it's not going to kill me, but as far as I'm concerned it's still BLOODY INCONVENIENT! And debilitating, and depressing, and embarrassing, etc etc etc. At the end of this month I've asked for a referral back to the Specialist Cough Clinic at Wythenshawe Hospital. Not been there for three years so let's see if those nice boffins there have come up with anything new.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Cut out wheat?
Just had a comment from Sheila who writes: I quit eating wheat products eight weeks ago and my chronic cough of 20 plus years disappeared!! I feel free!!!!
Sheila, I would love to hear more about you and your condition, so if you see this please post again ... did you have any other symptoms/problems as well as chronic cough e.g. bloating, weight problems? How do you KNOW it was wheat - what tests did you have? How quickly did the cough disappear - right away, or was it AFTER the eight weeks you mention? I, we, need more information...
I've been down this route, more than 10 years ago now: I had tests for food intolerance which were largely negative i.e. no obvious problems. But I still tried a non-wheat and dairy diet, only for about 3 weeks and it was hard so I gave it up - it didn't seem to make any difference. But maybe I wasn't persistent enough?
As I think I've posted elsewhere, I recently had another bronchoscopy, which didn't reveal anything. So I'm again in the position of being desperate to try anything... and I might give no wheat a try.
But Sheila, if you're there, please write again???
Sheila, I would love to hear more about you and your condition, so if you see this please post again ... did you have any other symptoms/problems as well as chronic cough e.g. bloating, weight problems? How do you KNOW it was wheat - what tests did you have? How quickly did the cough disappear - right away, or was it AFTER the eight weeks you mention? I, we, need more information...
I've been down this route, more than 10 years ago now: I had tests for food intolerance which were largely negative i.e. no obvious problems. But I still tried a non-wheat and dairy diet, only for about 3 weeks and it was hard so I gave it up - it didn't seem to make any difference. But maybe I wasn't persistent enough?
As I think I've posted elsewhere, I recently had another bronchoscopy, which didn't reveal anything. So I'm again in the position of being desperate to try anything... and I might give no wheat a try.
But Sheila, if you're there, please write again???
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
News update
Visiting my blog for the first time in a while I notice it's just over a year since I was last on the radio!!!
Anyway, quite a few interesting posts recently under that topic...
From my point of view, yesterday I had my first, long-awaited, appointment with a Speech & Language Therapist. The theory seems to be this... from all the various investigations I've had over the years, there isn't an identifiable cause/reason for the cough, but my "throat has developed an overall heightened sensitivity, so I cough more easily and intensely." What I need to do is break the habit and learn to control the cough: if I can reduce the number of times I cough it should reduce the overall sensitivity.
What the approach boils down to, apart from some odd face-pulling exercises which I think may be a bit token, is that I have to stop myself from coughing or clearing my throat by sipping water repeatedly until the urge goes, combining it with taking small sniffs and breathing out through the nose - so sips and sniffs!
I tried it when I woke at 4am this morning and it did seem to work, to an extent - I still coughed, but nowhere near as much as usual, and I wasn't racked with it and exhausted by the end of it ... I even went back to sleep.
Early days yet, I'll report back in a couple of weeks time.
Anyway, quite a few interesting posts recently under that topic...
From my point of view, yesterday I had my first, long-awaited, appointment with a Speech & Language Therapist. The theory seems to be this... from all the various investigations I've had over the years, there isn't an identifiable cause/reason for the cough, but my "throat has developed an overall heightened sensitivity, so I cough more easily and intensely." What I need to do is break the habit and learn to control the cough: if I can reduce the number of times I cough it should reduce the overall sensitivity.
What the approach boils down to, apart from some odd face-pulling exercises which I think may be a bit token, is that I have to stop myself from coughing or clearing my throat by sipping water repeatedly until the urge goes, combining it with taking small sniffs and breathing out through the nose - so sips and sniffs!
I tried it when I woke at 4am this morning and it did seem to work, to an extent - I still coughed, but nowhere near as much as usual, and I wasn't racked with it and exhausted by the end of it ... I even went back to sleep.
Early days yet, I'll report back in a couple of weeks time.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Another radio show ...
I took part in the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 today: a 10-minute discussion about persistent coughs with a medical expert in the studio and various contributors, including me, via phone and email.
Nothing of any great interest came out of it: the medic listed all the usual causes of chronic cough, and admitted that some people - such as me - leave them scratching their heads in bewilderment.
One woman rang to say that her cough disappeared when she stopped eating bananas - by contrast, I remember someone telling me ages ago that I should eat four bananas a day!
As is often the case with the JV show, it didn't shed any new light on the subject, and he was searching for easy laughs, like the remark about wiring coughers up for electric shock treatment to make them stop.
So, the search for a solution goes on ...
Nothing of any great interest came out of it: the medic listed all the usual causes of chronic cough, and admitted that some people - such as me - leave them scratching their heads in bewilderment.
One woman rang to say that her cough disappeared when she stopped eating bananas - by contrast, I remember someone telling me ages ago that I should eat four bananas a day!
As is often the case with the JV show, it didn't shed any new light on the subject, and he was searching for easy laughs, like the remark about wiring coughers up for electric shock treatment to make them stop.
So, the search for a solution goes on ...
Friday, December 16, 2011
Some responses to questions...
In answer to Caroline re Buteyko: it's a couple of years since I tried that method, so I can't remember what I got my pause up to - between 20-30 seconds I think. I persisted with it for several months, but wasn't convinced that I was getting anywhere with it and found it expensive.... though I've always said, I'd happily pay a thousand pounds for a cure I knew would work.
There was a question about where I feel the tickle?? In the morning it's often in my chest rather than my throat, but later on it can be just an irritation somewhere in my throat - all over really.
I've tried hypnotherapy recently but I didn't get on with that.
I've just been to see the Speech and Language Therapist who is going to start a course of therapy in the New Year aimed at tackling my cough "habit" and bringing it more under control. She claims success with 60% of cases, though no-one's said the cough has gone completely so far. Worth a try I think...
I've also come off the sleeping tablets I'd been taking - they gave me funny side effects.
Merry (cough-reduced) Christmas Everybody!
There was a question about where I feel the tickle?? In the morning it's often in my chest rather than my throat, but later on it can be just an irritation somewhere in my throat - all over really.
I've tried hypnotherapy recently but I didn't get on with that.
I've just been to see the Speech and Language Therapist who is going to start a course of therapy in the New Year aimed at tackling my cough "habit" and bringing it more under control. She claims success with 60% of cases, though no-one's said the cough has gone completely so far. Worth a try I think...
I've also come off the sleeping tablets I'd been taking - they gave me funny side effects.
Merry (cough-reduced) Christmas Everybody!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Latest from me:
It's nice that every now and then someone new finds my blog and leaves a comment - Lavinia is the latest to attach something to the entry that follows this (see Update: April 24). But still, no-one's coming up with a definitive cure that will put us coughers out of our collective misery...
I've recently been to my specialist cough clinic in Manchester and, though they're very welcoming, there was nothing much new to offer. I'm waiting for a referral to a speech therapist (interesting to see Lavinia's comments), and there's also talk of me trying a nebuliser - again - so my specialists are coming up with similar ideas to hers.
I had a call from the professor who leads my cough clinic the other day, asking me to take part in the trial of a new treatment that he thought was promising. But unfortunately because of my smoking history (in their jargon I totted up 20 pack years, though I stopped 20 years ago!) I'm not eligible to take part, so I have a long wait to see if this one is successful - then it might become available.
I had a call from the professor who leads my cough clinic the other day, asking me to take part in the trial of a new treatment that he thought was promising. But unfortunately because of my smoking history (in their jargon I totted up 20 pack years, though I stopped 20 years ago!) I'm not eligible to take part, so I have a long wait to see if this one is successful - then it might become available.
Meantime, and in desperation, I'm currently seeing an expert in hypnotherapy and EFT. I'm not optimistic but will try anything .... and will keep you informed.
Best wishes to everyone out there. And feel free to read through more of the genuine, promising, and crackpot ideas scattered through the rest of the blog.
Nick
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Update
It's some time now since I've written anything on this blog, because I've had some problems accessing it.
But I thought I'd bring "readers" up-to-date (though I don't know whether this sends out any kind of "alert" to people?)
The most promising "treatment" has been the one suggested by Jeanette H., which should be the next one down on the blog. At her suggestion, I used the flixotide inhaler on and off for about a year. I found it definitely reduced the frequency of coughing, and though I still coughed for a period every morning, I was able to sleep longer and better - through to about 7a.m. most mornings. That's a blessing in itself.
The downside of it was that it affected my voice - it softened it and made it more throaty somehow, a bit more difficult to speak. It also affected my singing voice, and made me a little bit short of breath. So I'm off it again at the moment, but as a consequence I'm back to waking up anytime between 4-6 a.m. and coughing for an hour, so it's very disruptive to my sleep.
Once again, I'm not sure what to do next...
Added to the other message about Jeanette H there are various comments which are always useful to receive. My comments on them? The big dietary changes suggested by "Love and hopes" - I'm just not sure I can go through with all that on the off chance that it might work? The one from "Lucilu" advising taking Gabapentin ... I think I might have taken that in the past without success but I will check - though how far will my medical records go back with my GP? I'll be in touch with Danni about her researches....
But I thought I'd bring "readers" up-to-date (though I don't know whether this sends out any kind of "alert" to people?)
The most promising "treatment" has been the one suggested by Jeanette H., which should be the next one down on the blog. At her suggestion, I used the flixotide inhaler on and off for about a year. I found it definitely reduced the frequency of coughing, and though I still coughed for a period every morning, I was able to sleep longer and better - through to about 7a.m. most mornings. That's a blessing in itself.
The downside of it was that it affected my voice - it softened it and made it more throaty somehow, a bit more difficult to speak. It also affected my singing voice, and made me a little bit short of breath. So I'm off it again at the moment, but as a consequence I'm back to waking up anytime between 4-6 a.m. and coughing for an hour, so it's very disruptive to my sleep.
Once again, I'm not sure what to do next...
Added to the other message about Jeanette H there are various comments which are always useful to receive. My comments on them? The big dietary changes suggested by "Love and hopes" - I'm just not sure I can go through with all that on the off chance that it might work? The one from "Lucilu" advising taking Gabapentin ... I think I might have taken that in the past without success but I will check - though how far will my medical records go back with my GP? I'll be in touch with Danni about her researches....
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Jeanette H writes....
Hi Nick,
I wanted to share my story with you since I have been free for a month now from my chronic and constant cough after more than 20 years. Free from cough meaning exactly that - no coughing other than what other people experience. No headache, no sore ribs or stomach muscles, no sore or raw throat, sleeping at night. My family and colleagues are stunned, and it's so quiet!
My diagnosis after all these years was Hyper Sensitive Mucous Membranes, and the cure was to double the dose of stomach acid medicine and add on Seretide, a combination inhaler containing Flixotide and Serevent. The first two weeks I inhaled a double dosis, and now, after two months, I canät believe this is true.
Not sure if you have already tried this, but maybe worth a try?
I wanted to share my story with you since I have been free for a month now from my chronic and constant cough after more than 20 years. Free from cough meaning exactly that - no coughing other than what other people experience. No headache, no sore ribs or stomach muscles, no sore or raw throat, sleeping at night. My family and colleagues are stunned, and it's so quiet!
My diagnosis after all these years was Hyper Sensitive Mucous Membranes, and the cure was to double the dose of stomach acid medicine and add on Seretide, a combination inhaler containing Flixotide and Serevent. The first two weeks I inhaled a double dosis, and now, after two months, I canät believe this is true.
Not sure if you have already tried this, but maybe worth a try?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Morphine - off it, then on it again!
I'd been taking the morphine sulphate (20mg. a day) for around 18 months and wanted to come off it - on the basis that it's not good to take a drug like that for too long, and to see what the effect might be.
I cut down to one tablet in the evening, for two weeks, then stopped altogether. Well I'm afraid the effect was not good: within a day my cough had gone noticeably worse. But I also very quickly got back into the pattern of waking up at 1, 2, 3, 4,or 5 o'clock in the morning and starting to cough soon after. So after two weeks of that disruption to my life and damage to my energy levels, I went back on the drug - and immediately felt better. My sleep improved the very same night, and my cough reduced - only a little, but significant enough to make it worth it. Two weeks on and I'm sleeping normally.
So I'm back on the morphine and I'll review that again in a year or so.
Incidentally, I'm about to retire from my job (as a university lecturer) and my wife thinks that the consequent reduction in stress could have a positive effect upon my cough, so we'll see.
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