Help diagnosis me. Starting to get frazzled.

I don't know anything other than we stopped having live Christmas trees years and years ago and it was the best thing we ever did. We all felt ill, got stuffed up, sneezed etc. I hate the smell of pine trees (I live in a heavily wooded area and have the tallest Douglas fir tree in the area about 10 feet away from me right now). Could that be it? Maybe.

I developed asthma when I was about 32 or so. I spent New Year's in a very cold prairie environment and I couldn't breathe and that triggered it. I coughed so hard I broke a rib. (Yeah that was not fun). I would definitely go see your doctor right away. You may need a) different antibiotics, b) inhalers, c) to see a pulmonologist d) other. Just go get seen again and I hope you feel better soon!

Whooping cough?

Did your GP request a chest x-ray?

Oh, also it isn't just you this year, according to our pediatrician's office the bug that went around this year here had a nasty long deep cough. They saw it a lot this year, they were sure it was not whooping cough, though that is also making the rounds this year. DS had it for 5 weeks and 3 doctor visits, nothing in his lungs to even indicate bronchitis much less pneumonia. Finally they prescribed an antibiotic and he did get better with that.

Do you have post-nasal drip? I had a sinus infection a few years ago that took 3 months to clear up. Two rounds of anitbiotics and daily Neti pot rinses finally did the trick. I didn't have the typical sinus pressure & headaches with this one, just a cough that would not go away.

DD's lingering cough turned out to be walking pneumonia, so definitely go to the doctor again.

I definitely think you should see someone ASAP. I let a cold/cough go too long and was vomiting from the coughing fits. It turned out I had bronchitis which took an incredibly long time to heal. 

I think my MIL and dh caught the cold that you have last Christmas. My MIL has never been the same. She has COPD--her father died of Black Lung, and she spent the first 10 years of her life living right by the coal mine in a house heated by coal. She's had a lot of lung problems. 

Dh caught bronchitis and then walking pneumonia. It took 8 months to clear up. I didn't get the cough part bad, but that nasty bug affected my heart so badly that I couldn't walk 10 feet away to the bathroom without gasping for air and feeling like I ran a marathon. My blood oxygen was always normal, and I felt fine when I was sitting down. Dh would bring food and drinks upstairs for me during the day so I didn't have to walk up and down the stairs. 

I'd certainly think about finding a GP you like and seeing them. But I do just want to say that sometimes coughs just hang in there like little nasty bitches and don't let go, too.

Everyone in our family became sick at some point during December, and all of us experienced a cough.

DH & DS #1 got better & there coughs went away. My cough is still making itself heard, and to a certain degree, DS #2's is still hanging in there, too.

I did not go back tot he doctor, because for me, this is not something new. Lingering coughs have always been one of my winter quirks, made worse if I'm tired, and since a cough can keep you up at night, that can be quite the vicious circle. My mother also has always referred to her "tired coughs", because even with no other symptoms, if she gets overtired, a cough appears.

For DS #2, we did bring him back to a doctor, and they found nothing wrong, but just said it was a lingering cough. For him a humidifier is a huge help. As long as we keep running it at night the cough pretty much disappears for him. But if we try to go a few nights without it, the cough comes back. So the dry winter air obviously is an issue for him.

Good luck with your cough, and hopefully with finding a doctor that you like better than your current one.

Yep, this is like mine.  It's so annoying.  (Now, when I had the virus that everyone else had, my cough was productive, but once the virus let up, i moved into this annoying cough, instead.)

I've been using Fisherman's Friends lozenges, as they are the only thing that makes it stop.


I am asthmatic, so I am already taking asthma medication, including inhalers.   But for my cough, they don't help.

My doctor (And actually DS's too) both made a point of pushing liquids, and I know that is a problem area for me.  In the summer I can suck down water like a crazy woman, but in the winter, if I'm not focused on drinking, I can sit down to dinner and realize that I haven't had a thing to drink since breakfast.

So I'm trying to remind myself to drink, drink, drink.

In this case, I'd listen to your DH.

It's not like he's telling you to shake it off, he wants you to see a specialist.

And I agree with him. That's too long to be sick.

My husband had this for over a month last year. The dr. told him it was most likely a virus with a lingering cough, and to just wait it out, but he did give him prescription guaifenesin with codeine, and benzonatate, which ended up clearing him up.

A while later my boss got a cough similar, and she spent MONTHS going to drs, with tons of tests, xrays, mri, etc.. and they found nothing. I suggested maybe she ask her dr. to try the benzonatate as it helped my husband, and in a week or so her cough had also cleared up.

I agree you need to see your Dr. (or a different one) again. Your story sounds similiar to  my dh's experience starting this fall.

He got a cold and went to the Dr. 3 times and took a z pack and a medrol dose pack with no improvement. He finally got a diagnosis of COPD.

When we told our dd, our sil recommended this: N-Acetal Cysteine or NAC.

We immediately went to a health food store and got some. It helped him almost immediately. He is still taking it and his cough and many other symptoms are gone. 

Google it...I can't copy and paste on this device.

Our sil said he takes it when he gets a cold. He said if he gets a cold and doesn't have any, he will get up out of bed and go get some. I have not tried it...haven't had a cold since we found it.

(I am not saying I think you have COPD.)

Please just make the appointment, and we'll hope it's as simple as one of these.

Sounds like plenty of good suggestions. Just an off the wall thought...do you have a bag in your vacuum. If so hope you changed it after vacuuming up pine needles.

Even people without asthma can need an inhaler to clear up lingering coughs/symptoms. My dd had bronchitis one year and they prescribed one because she was so bad. Same with my mom.