Sorry. Long explanation. In many people with migraines, narcotics actually make them worse. Codeine happens to be an excellent cough suppressant, but it’s not a good idea for someone who gets migraines. Tessalon on the other hand, does not cause or worsen migraines. Insurance companies would much rather pay for very cheap codeine, than for Tessalon, which is new, and somewhat expensive. But since codeine give me headaches, my doctor called my insurance company and got them to pay for Tessalon.
So no, Tessalon does not actually help with headaches, but if narcotics worsen yours, or give you bounce-back headaches, try Tessalon.
I have something similar where whenever I get a cold, it turns into bronchitis that will last me another week or two.
However a few years ago I started taking cimetidine at the first symptoms of a cold. Cimetidine boosts the immune system, but it takes a few days to start working. If I do that, I still suffer from the head cold but I do not get bronchitis afterwards anymore.
However cimetidine, despite being Otc, interacts with a lot of drugs since it inhibits the p450 enzyme system. But I am not on anything that interacts with it.
I agree with the others. I have lost my voice a few times (as in almost completely). It will come back. The most important thing is to rest, stay hydrated and not to force it. Seeing a doctor is not a bad thing but there are no miracle cures. It just takes time but you will recover in time. Trying to stay mostly silent rather than trying to power through it always seemed to help me.
That’s a pretty vague statement. If it does have a “boosting” effect, will it work on an otherwise healthy person with a cold? I looked at the full text of the paper you linked to, and it “may” help those with serious medical issues, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to helping a cold or the flu to be fought off faster. I also saw nothing about it taking a few days to start working.
It seems the possibilities of cimetidine having an immune boosting effect were based on extrapolating from in vitro studies and “uncontrolled reports and clinician anecdotes.”
Since that paper a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial comparing cimetidine with placebo has been performed:
It doesn’t help me fight off a cold, but I do not think I’ve had an upper respiratory infection following a cold since I started using it during a cold.
I’ll second this. I had a similar loss of voice last winter. Hot tea is very soothing and I think I got my voice back faster because of it. Then again, it may have been a placebo effect, but I still enjoyed the tea.
Is Tessalon different from Tessalon Perles? Because the latter is literally older than I am. It’s also available as a generic, benzonatate*. It is essentially side effect free, with the small exception of paralyzing your throat and killing you if you accidentally chew it or can’t swallow well. But I love the stuff.
*It is not, as the name might suggest, “a benzo”. Just a really good antitussive.
I had the same thing a few weeks back. Bad cold, maybe flu. Didn’t bother going to the doctor until it seemed that it had developed into pneumonia.
Along with antibiotics, they gave me a scrip for prednisone, a steroid. A friend of mine who had the same thing on the same time table went to the doc, got antibiotics, but not pred. My voice went from completely gone to mostly normal in a couple of days, his took more than a week.
Looking online, I see that it is a common treatment for laryngitis. I think it helped me recover much faster.
There are down sides, though, if nothing else I was HUNGRY while on it. It didn’t help that I hadn’t been able to really eat and keep things down for a week prior to starting pred, but man, I don’t know that I have ever felt that famished, even after eating, before in my life.
I was excited about the Tessalon there for a minute. Oh well. I’ll stick to resting it as much as I can and hot liquids. I’m up to a quiet whisper today, so progress. I feel better if I don’t talk at all though. Throat starts hurting and I cough.
Some people don’t stay hydrated when they have a cold, especially one with a sore throat. If you tolerate tea well, then drink lots of it.
It’s still new compared to codeine, and it’s expensive. Even the generic, which IIRC, has not been available all that long, is way more expensive than codeine. We’re talking $40 vs. $1.50. So when you think about how many cough suppressant Rxs are written every year, insurance companies really want them to be for codeine. When codeine has OTC guaifenisen added, it actually costs more.
You may be significantly overpaying for it (or your insurance is.) Look at goodrx.com for prices of Tessalon at pharmacies near you. Here in OH, it’s $8.20 for 30 at Kroger with the goodrx.com coupon.
It’s covered completely on my drug plan, no copay. Walmart carries it for $10/30 count cash price without insurance. So…33 cents each? Y’all should buy that one from the US.
When my doctor calls it in, I pay about $5 for it, but when I first tried to pick it up, years ago, it was denied, and the bill for it was outlandish. Now, the insurance’s part is much lower. $40, or something in that are is what my pharmacy charges my particular insurer. The pharmacy (Walgreen’s) is the only one besides Walmart that I’m allowed to use. The $40 may be because some other drug is cheaper for my insurer, and it’s all part of a bargain, I don’t know.
While searching through old threads for something I found this.
I got my voice back after a round of prednisone. Everything was fine after that.
A coworker got sick at the same exact time. He lost his voice too. Guys at work made fun of us when we tried to talk to each other in squeaks. His voice didn’t come back. Steroids didn’t work. They looked deeper and found out he had throat cancer.
So far so good. His voice will never be the same but he seems to have beaten cancer. If he didn’t catch the same cold I did and lose his voice he probably wouldn’t have been symptomatic for a while. The cold saved his life. I look back at this thread shake my head at how I cared so much about a little laryngitis.
