Chesty cough after cold
Chesty cough after cold
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Derek Smith

Original Poster:

49,745 posts

277 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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I have had a cold or flu over the holiday Christmas period for the last six or seven years. This one lasted 10 days and is now on the wane. However . . .

I've got a chesty cough. Any small amount of activity and I start to cough. I can 'feel' the phlegm coming up my trachea and throat. The spasm can last a while.

My question is: is there a residue of the phlegm in my lungs that's got to come out before or, as some of it is coughed up, is more 'made'? Is there a finite amount of the stuff that I have to eliminate or is it time?

Anything sets it off: sudden temperature drop; walking upstairs; lying down; standing up quickly.

I was coughing 'from the stomach' and it was hurting. Now it seems to have gone up to my chest and my ribs ache.


dirky dirk

3,432 posts

199 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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id lay you money youve got bronichitis
same thing happened to me,

i went to the doctors first time in twenty years


Cupramax

11,002 posts

281 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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I’ve had the same thing since Boxing Day but mines just about gone now, still a little chesty but getting better day by day. If yours isn’t clearing I’d get a docs appointment as it could be Brochitis as mentioned above, or worse Pneumonia which you really dont want to mess about with, if your doc suspects this you’ll be sent straight to a&e.

jesusbuiltmycar

5,127 posts

283 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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Happens to me every time I get a cold. Sometimes the cold itself only lasts 3 days, but I often get a couple of days of felling better before the cough starts which oftern lasts for 4 weeks+.

My doctor told me that following a cold the nasal passage is easily irritated causing "nasal drip" even though the virus is more or less gone. This is the cause of the coughing and to me feels very similar to brochitus/asthma.

CAPP0

20,858 posts

232 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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I got a stinker of a cold in mid Nov and I've only just about stopped coughing now. I did mention it to the GP after I'd had it a few weeks, only because I was seeing him for something else, and he said the current colds are taking a minimum of 4 weeks to clear up.

Riley Blue

23,205 posts

255 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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My current experience mirrors those above i.e. a cold following by a period of coughing that gradually improves as the weeks pass. That's the nature of this winter's cold virus apparently; several of my friends and family up and down the country tell me they've had the same.

Bill

58,637 posts

284 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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If you do have some phlegm coming up then it's worth doing some deep breaths regularly to get some air behind it, then two or three "huffs" - deep breaths followed but hard blows with your mouth open. It'll make you cough, but that's the phlegm being cleared.

kurt535

3,560 posts

146 months

Monday 6th January 2020
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
I have had a cold or flu over the holiday Christmas period for the last six or seven years. This one lasted 10 days and is now on the wane. However . . .

I've got a chesty cough. Any small amount of activity and I start to cough. I can 'feel' the phlegm coming up my trachea and throat. The spasm can last a while.

My question is: is there a residue of the phlegm in my lungs that's got to come out before or, as some of it is coughed up, is more 'made'? Is there a finite amount of the stuff that I have to eliminate or is it time?

Anything sets it off: sudden temperature drop; walking upstairs; lying down; standing up quickly.

I was coughing 'from the stomach' and it was hurting. Now it seems to have gone up to my chest and my ribs ache.
ribs hurt due to intercostal muscles contracting hard, diaphragm breathing not good and is a sign of respiratory distress.

measure your resp rate. over 20? thats outside normal range. that would imply lung tidal capacity isn't delivering the 02 your body needs.

what to do: yup doctors. they need to auscultate and identify if your have crackles (fluid/gunk) or wheeze - needing salbutamol - plus other possible meds to calm things down. if you cant get your doctor, see practice nurse, she can prescribe meds.

mean time, id alternate an NSAID and paracetamol every 4 hours if things are bearable.

be curious to know your temp though - tympanic only, other ways of measuring are hit and miss.

nb: resp rate really high, over 25, into your car and go to A&E .

mikey P 500

1,243 posts

216 months

Monday 6th January 2020
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Be careful I had what sounds very similar after a bad cold in October. I went to doctors, was refused any antibiotics as don't like giving them out, I struggled going to work for rest of week. Went to walk in centre for another try for antibiotics Friday eve as was getting worse not better. After a blood test I got put on a ward and kept in with bad bronchitis and early Pneumonia, I had to have antibiotics on drip and took a few weeks to get better. So make sure you explain the condition very clearly to doctor.

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

49,745 posts

277 months

Monday 6th January 2020
quotequote all
Cheers, guys.

I feel as if I'm over the cold.

Resp normal, pulse a little high, blood pressure a bit up, temp variable by a few degrees.

Went for a walk this afternoon. Only a mile in total. Coughed a lot when getting out of the car but little coughing when actually walking.

I broke some ribs years ago and they often 'pop' with coughing. So far so good.

PositronicRay

28,974 posts

212 months

Tuesday 7th January 2020
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I've had something pretty nasty too. Must be 8-9 yrs since anything has knocked me about so much.

I had to peel my eyelids open this morning, gunk had knitted the lashes together.

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 7th January 2020
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Had mine since before Xmas, just rang and spoke to senior nurse in the GP surgery who told me off for not ringing earlier. Have appointment to see her tomorrow morning and maybe need chest Xray.

dirky dirk

3,432 posts

199 months

Tuesday 7th January 2020
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ive had my last prednosilone this morning,

still not right breathing is very laboured and anything is making me feel bloated

i honestly cant decide if im subconsciously miking it abit after being called a puff for being ill in work
or im genuinely not well.

i was aching so much over xmas i got an emergency chiroporactor appointment,

probably shouldn't have drove i felt so ill

PositronicRay

28,974 posts

212 months

Tuesday 7th January 2020
quotequote all
I'm in the middle of a garden landscaping project. A few days ago I was shifting and barrowing aggregate around.

Just tried to lift a 50kg load and it just didn't move, weak as a kitten.

Bigbox

658 posts

240 months

Wednesday 8th January 2020
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dirky dirk said:
ive had my last prednosilone this morning,

still not right breathing is very laboured and anything is making me feel bloated

i honestly cant decide if im subconsciously miking it abit after being called a puff for being ill in work
or im genuinely not well.

i was aching so much over xmas i got an emergency chiroporactor appointment,

probably shouldn't have drove i felt so ill
Same here - started xmas eve and still feel a bit achey even after the steroids and antibiotics which i finished a few days ago.

Have now downgraded the meds to just paracetamol which seems to be helping a bit. Also on the metatone to help with motivation!!

dirky dirk

3,432 posts

199 months

Wednesday 8th January 2020
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Well i managed to go to the doctors again earlier today


my chest was clear and my tubes,
but at night its sounds like someones rustling a paper bag in my head,
its keeping me and the wife awake, which is the reaason why i went.
anyway, called in and explained that it has also given me a rash on my elbows and forearms

feels abit like ive been scratched with a needle and then it gos to a red patch about a cm wide, then briuses, then fades slowly

The doctor sent me to hospital for an xray on my chest which appears to be clear,
and im back at the doctors to get my bloods done etc etc


no complaints, she was helpful, not had a blood test for 12 years.
that should be fun as a tubby bloke

.

wiliferus

4,214 posts

227 months

Wednesday 8th January 2020
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Derek, get yourself to the doctors.

So far so good this year *touch wood*, but like you I can pretty much book in my annual chest infection. Normally around February time, have had it for the last four years.

Last year was the usual routine, heavy cold, cold cleared, left with a chesty cough. This went on for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. I eventually got myself to the doctor who said it was the remnants of the cold, and prescribed some oral codeine to calm the cough and help me sleep. To be fair this worked a treat, but the cough didn’t actually get any better over time.
Being a bloke I put off a further trip to the doctor on the basis it would clear in time.
I slowly developed a sharp stabbing pain in my ribs when I coughed - as someone above has said, I thought it was my intercostal muscles playing up under the strain of constant coughing.
Only when the pain became unbearable (and I mean, dropping me to my knees, holding onto furniture unbearable) did I get carted off to the out of hours GP at the local hospital.
Because I’d been a tt and left it so long I’d developed pleurisy. I can honestly say it was the most painful, horrific, debilitating few weeks of my life shaking that off.
And it could have all been avoided if I’d gone to the doctors a bit quicker....

dirky dirk

3,432 posts

199 months

Thursday 9th January 2020
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Back with vengeance
Shaking aching cold
Tingling fingers and thighs

Im a terrible nurse and a good patient,
But ive got nothing but admiration for people wno are seriously ill,
Must be awful with something longterm,
Ive had this two weeks and im driving everyone mental,

dirky dirk

3,432 posts

199 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Today is the first day in three weeks i dont feel rough


ive got a very wheezy cough but feel fine apart from that

No_Idea

1,487 posts

136 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Have also come down with this st. Slightly sore throat on Friday, followed by runny nose and a tickly phlegmy throat and muscles are all achy. Trying desperately not to pass it to my misses and my 7 month old daughter. Constant coughing and phlegm that just won't budge. Think I managed an hours sleep last night and just feel like utter crap. Please go away ffs.