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Constant coughing is killing me. Please help me if you can.

NagasakiNightmare

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Messages
470
I'm gonna try to keep this brief, but I've been coughing from hell and back (coughing right now, kinda dry, as I type this). I've coughed up mostly clear mucous, half the time its dry though, and the occasional greenish loogie. Last night I took some NyQuil and thank god it helped me sleep, although I woke a few hours early to one of the worst coughing fits i've ever had. I woke up my dad and from a whim (something I heard on BL) told him to get me some psuedoephedrine thinking it would open/keep open my bronchial tubes. I think it might actually be helping, I don't know, though, and I don't have any other drugs on hand that are bronchiodilators (i.e. amphetamine :P )

My albuterol inhaler, which worked before has run out leaving me stranded. With 4x the theraputic dose of DXM I was able to rest a bit today, letting who-knows-what in my body relax and hopefully heal but now it's back in full force. I would go to the clinic (I am in the US and have no health insurance) but it's probably closed tomorrow for Memorial Day. Also, I am a trooper, if I can get through this without a doctor and without spending hundreds of dollars, then god damnit I am determined to!

I had this problem before and the doctor did not help. He gave me the inhaler (the albuterol which helps for the short term) and some antibiotics, thinking it was bronchitis, which it wasn't. This was about 2.5 months ago. Since it mysteriously went away for some time, I then resumed smoking approx. 1-4 cigarettes a day and approx. 1-2 bowls of marijuana a day from until about 7 days ago, when I would wake up with these terrible coughs. I have smoked nothing since, honestly. Also, those estimates are very rough, sometimes I would roll a single spliff and call it a day, sometimes I'd smoke nothing, sometimes no tobacco, etc. I admit there are times where I had to puff on my inhaler in order to finish a smoke session.

However, I HAVE had one case of bronchitis in the past with symptoms like what I have now. This was about 3 years ago. I received antibiotics and Advair, a steroid inhaler which you use one a day. It cleared up. I had no breathing problems until the doctor visit 2.5 months ago (above paragraph).

I am struggling typing out this post just from my fucking coughing. I'm also stuck in a rut because I'm afraid that by taking more DXM I'll be preventing my body from "coughing up" whatever its trying to do. I want to take a natural approach to this. However, I have only had my worst coughing fits waking up in the morning, or in the evening, or while shifting positions, from lying down to standing. On days that I work, I wake up in a coughing fit, and usually "return to normal" in about an hour and a half, by the time I'm there. I have only had one bad coughing fit at work.

A few hours ago I considered an environmental trigger. There are minute black splotches of mold in our main bathroom (just adjacent to my bedroom) I sprayed some anti-mildew stuff and have opted to keep the door closed when no one's using it. Also, as of last week, my father has kept his daily cigarette smoking outdoors (I have lived with his smoking for the majority of my life, I'm 19 now). I've also done my fair share of smoking. But I feel that I'm too young to have caused any major damage to my body via smoking anything. I also have no other pre-existing health conditions and am otherwise healthy.

I know that I MUST see a doctor. But it might have to wait till Tuesday. And I'm biased against them...since he was wrong last time. I fear it may be something worse. While at times my lungs feel so tight that I am almost starving for breath, somehow I'm sure I'll live. Once again, as terrible as this is, I refuse emergency medical care...I'm in the US, uninsured and there's no way in hell I'm paying thousands of dollars for something that's probably a quick fix.

I've had a hell of a hard time writing this post and don't have the patience to correct any grammar errors.

Please feel free to criticize my judgment, offer me solutions and advise, and help me. I just dug my inhaler out of the garbage and it turns out that it's not quite empty afterall. It sounds like there's nothing coming out of it, but at this very moment...I'm clear. Of course, I expect tomorrow morning to be another Hell, hopefully not as much as this one, though :(

Thank you for reading...even if you only read a little bit. I'm begging for advice here.
 
Also, since this is Bluelight...I should mention that I have NOT been using/abusing any recreational drugs of any kind except the few beers this week to ease my mind and the minuscule doses of diazepam my dentist gave me. Having access to medical marijuana...and not being able to smoke it out of fear for my health..let me just tell you that it fucking sucks!

Once again, dear reader, thank you for your time. I will appreciate any answer right now, as desperate as I am.
 
We can agree that smoking anything is the last thing I should do in this scenario, right? I keep having the urge to smoke a rollie and seeing if it'll push me into a coughing fit or not. While I feel determined to remain smoke-free for a month to see if this gets better on its own (though, yes, I KNOW I need to see a doctor) maybe I just have sensitive lungs, combined with seasonal allergies, topped off with a mold problem in the room across the hall? I dunno. I just don't fucking know, and I'm only posting more hoping for some clarity. WebMD is useless. Wikipedia is useless. The doctor before was useless. All I have are my instincts...and of course if this doesn't get any better I'll print this up and reluctantly show it to someone who went to med school.
 
i have no idea what you typed as it was very long and i'm kind of tired but i advise you to stop smoking, and start taking N-acetyl-cysteine, it's kind of a bronchitis antidote I think, just be sure to really cease all smoking as from the thread title it sounds like you def. have some form of bronchitis, even if it's not bronchitis i would still take it for smoking related cough..
 
The following uses have not been well-established or investigated:

* NAC is undergoing clinical trials in the United States for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.[1] It is thought to counteract the glutamate hyperactivity in OCD.
* NAC has been shown to reduce cravings associated with chronic cocaine use in a study conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina (Mardikian et al, 2007; LaRowe et al, 2007)
* It may reduce the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations (Pela et al., 1999)

Interesting. I'll see if I can pick up some of that stuff somewhere tomorrow. Hope I can find it.
 
Woke up 4 hours too early in another fit. Made sure the bathroom door was closed before going to bed too, thinking that if there was any mold in there making me sick somehow it would be silenced, but nope. I just keep coughing up a shitload of clear mucous, its been about 15 tissues worth and there's no signs of it stopping yet.
I took a 12-hour psuedoephedrine tab, 15mg DXM (don't expect much) and sucked on my empty inhaler like a desperate crackhead (no offense to anyone here) and no effects yet. This sucks so much, it doesn't seem to be getting better with time, I guess I'm just gonna suck it up and find a doctor or try to buy that chemical uacvax mentioned. Wish me luck.
 
two teaspoons of lemon juice and one teaspoon of honey (clover is my fav)....stir....

clears the throat boogers and kills the sting....

my sister used to cough until she barfed....lol

....or a shot of any hard liquor will relax your throat enough to get some sleep.
 
Gonna try that, but if I have acute/chronic bronchitis or a viral infection or something, there's not much I can do otherwise, is there? I hope some places are open on fucking memorial day
 
I know that you said that you're biased against doctors, but if you're coughing that much, you need to see one. Now. You only get one pair of lungs, and if you're coughing that much you're doing a fair bit of damage to them on top of what is already wrong.

Your GP should be referring you to a pulmonologist pretty much straight away. If not, get a new GP and/or go to an ER (and be ready to wait for a LONG time).
 
I don't have a GP. Remember that I live in the US and I'm uninsured. The ER has a long wait time, I called them. I just hope the clinic is open on Memorial Day.
 
Well, I went to the clinic, got a sample of Singulair, a new albuterol inhaler, some antibiotics, and some shitty codeine/guaifenesin mixture. This doctor has a weird approach to medicine IMO, and he couldn't diagnose me with anything other than irritated lungs full of mucous. At least I know i'll be okay, even though I did manage to get some sleep today by resting in an upright position.
 
Sounds like adult onset asthma to me. Can definetly be triggered by home and outside allergens. This is definetly allergy season for many. The albuterol inhaler should help a ton. Did they do a chest xray by chance? And do you qualify for public aid?
 
No, luvaluva, I just went to a cheap family clinic, where care starts at $59 (USD) and goes up depending on other stuff, so it's for people who are uninsured basically for urgent yet non-emergency issues. My bill was $95 for all the drugs, the antibiotics were 25 bucks and I'm not planning on taking them (to see if the Singulair works).
I can get my father's benefits when I enroll full-time in college (hopefully this coming semester) so then I'll be able to see a pulmonary specialist hopefully so we can get a clear answer. The doctor had no way of knowing, these clinics are just for treating symptoms typically.
 
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