I started feeling a little bit of something in my chest on Friday the 5th. Coughed a little, felt a little wheezy over the weekend. Throat was kind of sore. By Monday I was sounding very croaky and coughing more. Went to a walk-in clinic on Tuesday, where I was diagnosed with viral bronchitis. She gave me two prescriptions to help suppress the cough.
By Thursday I sounded like Barry White and Selma from Night Court’s love child. I’ve coughed so hard I peed my pants many many times. I’ve coughed so much over the last ten days my abs hurt. And I’m still coughing. And my throat still hurts, and my chest burns. Now, I can barely speak above a whisper at all. Eating or drinking anything significantly hot or cold irritates my throat. Eating anything spicy or crunchy hurts going down.
The prescriptions seem to be helping somewhat, but since they make me drowsy I have to be careful. The dosage on the benzonatae says “1-3 pills”, but since I’m at home all day with our two boys, I can’t take that many. Just two makes me want to sleep all day.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be contagious. But I am so damned sick of being sick!!
There’s a whooping cough epidemic in some parts of the country right now. (Thanks anti-vaxers!) If you have a cough that persists long after you finish your antibiotics, you might have that.
Hey I have that too! Plus, the first week I also had a fever. Went to the doctor, got x-rays. He thought whooping cough or legionaire’s disease but it turned out to be pneumonia.
Finished my antibiotic treatment a few days ago but I still have a nagging (but much milder) cough. Good luck!
Since she suspected a viral bronchitis, I’m not on on antibiotics. Just a pill called “benzonate” for the daytime and cough syrup with codeine for night time.
I have had pertussis as a teen, so it would be weird for me to get it again (but not unheard of). This doesn’t really feel the same as I remember. One of the various courses of antibiotics I have had is Zithromax, which is the antibiotic of choice for pertussis anyway.
No, there’s no “whoop” to my cough. And my lungs were clear when she listened to them. I actually think I know what triggered this as well. The day before I started feeling sick, I went to a grocery store that was re-covering their asphalt parking lot. The fumes almost made me vomit.
Still here, still sick. I was getting better until early this week, then it got worse. I went to my regular doctor’s office yesterday, and now I’m on Augmentin. But I think I may have a cracked rib as well. At first I thought it was just a pleurisy (had that before), but the more I read up on symptoms, the more it sounds like a cracked rib. Yay for me, right?
Have your doc check your vitamin d levels. There is a good chance they are low and that is what is contributing to your slow recovery as well as probably being a factor in getting sick to begin with.
I had to ask my doc to do it. It is slowly becoming accepted practice but we’re not there yet.
I would also recommend doing some research on zinc. Zinc lozenges help me to get better faster when I’m sick. It is important for proper immune function and I would suggest taking at least a daily multivitamin with zinc.
I take a supplement with zinc and magnesium designed to boost testosterone levels (something else to have your doc check). It is for body building but I take it because magnesium is important for proper heart and vascular function. The vast majority of people do not get the recommended daily value of either zinc or magnesium.