persitant cough

[denzilpc]

hi hope someone out there can help I gave up smoking a year ago in a attempt to stop this bloody cough ,I have had the cough now for at least 24 months and nothing seems to have any affect on it been to the doctors who say it is asthma but I am not short of breath I have had chest xrays and they have all come back clear he has given me that many inhalers I lost count at present I take a steroid inhaler in the morning and before I go to bed I have an other which I take at midday and another which I take when ever I have a coughing fit none of which make the slightest bit of difference, when I do start coughing I produce loads of mucus which is clear in colour, I am at my wits end and so is my girlfriend I cant do any strenuous exercise as I just end up having a coughing fit ! sorry to go on but don't know where else to go CHEERS .

[otolith]

Hopefully your doctors can get to the bottom of it for you, but it does appear that some people never get a satisfactory diagnosis;

http://www.coughjournal.com/content/pdf/1745-9974-...

[dudleybloke]

If its a clear mucus it might be excess snot running down your throat causing the irritation.
Please note I'm not a doctor.

[C0ffin D0dger]

I got diagnosed with Sarcoidosis at the start of the year after a persistent cough. Unlikely you have that though as it would show up on the X-Ray. Was positively sh*tting myself that I had cancer though as an ex-smoker. I think so long as your not coughing up blood then it seems it's usually something benign. Was probably the worst 5 months of my life from it kicking off to finally getting diagnosed. The lack of sleep due to being up half the night coughing was the real killer. Ended up having 6 weeks off work along with a number of other odd days here and there.

Good luck and hope it sorts itself out for you.

[HughS47]

Couple of additional things to discuss with your GP:
1) Spirometry - to confirm any airway reversibility/COPD, considering your taking the inhalers.
2) Are you taking an ACE inhibitor - if so, discuss a trial of stopping it, as 25% of patients can get a dry cough
3) Consideration of an HRCT scan (high resolution CT) to rule out bronchiectasis.

Good work for stopping smoking. Unfortunately a cough after stopping is quite common, but does tend to settle with time.