What can we do? Uncontrollable coughing!
 

My wife has tried almost everything her doc percribed Tussinex, but wires her so there no way she can sleep! She can't take NyQuill it raises BP way to high. She tries sleeping on the couch, sitting uprght which is the answer. It's like getting - free pie & chips and who dosesn't like free pie & chips?
She's is running out of options and sanity! Any suggestion?

I had uncontrollable coughing at one time. So much coughing that I often felt like I was going to vomit. My doctor diagnosed me with acid reflux. After about a week on the prescription equivalent of Prilosec, my coughing was gone.

Edit: Of course, I'm not an MD. So, take my comments with a grain of salt.

Musinex with tons of water always works for me when I have a cough, even if it's from sinus related drainage.

If you're coughing then your body thinks something needs to come out. Musinex seems to lubricate the mucus membranes.

Edit: I'm no Dr., either.

Any idea what causes the cough? is she sick is it allegys? does she smoke? is it a dry cough is she coughing stuff up? Did the doc do a chest exray to see if there was fluid in her lungs from nemonia or anything? every now and then i start coughing and cant stop for a month or so thanks to wonderful allergys. Best ways to stop allergy coughs other then just making sure everything around where your at is clean at least for me is one of those crazy expensive ionic air cleaners. Had the normal hepa air filters and they never seemed to do any good at all. Cleriton works well to take for allegys if thats it. but if her blood pressure is something you need to watch make sure you dont get the cleriton D that has the decongestant in it. thats what raises blood pressure.

If its not a allergy thing and she dosnt smoke then she must be sick respitory infection maybe. Have had plenty of those and they can lead to nemonia and thats even more annoying. Now im not real familar with Tussinex but i think its just a cough suppresant. kinda the same thing as a cough drop. Did the doctor prescribe anything else with it? antibiotic or something? Give her a shot while she was there or anything?

If he didnt do a chest xray and didnt prescribe anything other then tussinex i would suggest finding a diffrent doctor and getting a second opinion. Of corse im not a doctor but... i am a insominac that has a joke for a immune system so i get sick alot. just speaking from personal experiance.

Every once in awhile I get bronchitis after a cold and I cough like crazy, and I've been to the doctor for it...all he said was to rest, because there wasn't anything he could do for me. Does the doctor know what is causing it?

Three common causes of such a malady:

Undiagnosed asthma
Post-nasal drip
Acid reflux, as noted above.

Talk to your Doc about these possibilities.

hmmm --didn't realize i was married to you :)

All the over the counter stuff is crap... it's got more placebo effect, or knock 'em out so they can't cough effect, but does nothing to cure the cough. I've gotten prescriptions for high powered cough medicines with codeine (gives me hallucinations) as well as antibiotics (which are useless in curing a cold)

I'm currently keeping myself awake nights (like i need another reason for insomnia) with a cough... Doctors in the past have told me it's post nasal drip, bronchitis, a cough, asthma related, allergies, stress...

What seems to help a little bit, and this was given to me by this interesting woman who runs the health food store where i used to live... Eucalpytus oil on a cloth and breathe in in... or use it ina vaporizer... When I get coughs where it feels like someone is sitting on my chest... then vicks vapor rub helps - that's always in my medicine cabinet-- sometimes just breathing that in helps..

I am also a mouth breather... I cough a lot more when ido that.. If I breathe thru my nose... and really pay attention to my breathing... then I cough less as well...

I also had acid reflex cause a cough, the acid was bubbling up from my stomach and into my lungs. I had terrible coughs from age 9 to age 18, they lasted for months at a time, I could not sleep or function either. I was finally diagnosed with acid reflux when I was 18 and after 2 weeks on medication I was all cleared up.

As for a relief, I used to take Sucrets Sore Throat Lozenges, Maximum Strength, the Wintergreen flavor was the best working, they tasted awful but they slowed the coughing down so I could function. The active ingredient Dyclonine Hydrochloride really helps, it numbs everything from your mouth down. I was enough for me to get to sleep, lie down at an incline, pop one of these in, and let it melt. Breath slowly, and don’t get excited, keep your breathing regular. As it melts, the Dyclonine Hydrochloride will numb your throat and that should let you stop coughing long enough to get to sleep. If this does not work, stay up later, until you are really tired and give it a try again. I got to the point where I was in a permanent sleepy daze, I did not get any real sleep, and I would sleep for maybe a half hour before I would wake up coughing. The biggest thing is to not get discourages, if you get discouraged, your heart rate will rise and so will your breathing. And that makes it worse.


http://www.medshopexpress.com/044640.html
Here is a link to it, this was the first link I found off of Google so you know what it looks like, and most drug stores carry them. I feel your pain, not being able to control your own breathing is terrible, I had coughing fits that would last so long and be so violent that I could no longer stand and would just crumple up on the ground. I did find that distracting my self from coughing did help, watching TV, or a movie, something not to funny and not to exciting, as to not start laughing or get the breathing up.

Definitely investigate the acid reflux avenue. Coughing was the first symptom of my chronic reflux.

If it's cold-related, start with Mucinex and lots of liquids. Mucinex does little to suppress the cough, but it will make the cough more productive. Honey-lemon cough drops will soothe the throat, as will popsicles. Numbing cough drops, such as the ones suggested above, or Halls Max, or whatever, also work. I also keep Chloraseptic spray on hand.

If she really needs sleep--take 2 Benadryl before attempting sleep. Knocks me right out, even when I have a cold, and the decongesting effects of the Benadryl don't hurt either.

But if the cough won't go away, even with Tussinex, there's bound to be another cause.

If sitting up makes the coughing stop AND if it is a wet cough, especially with her apparent BP problems you mentioned in the first post she'd best be having a chest xray and some more cardiac testing done. Those can be signs of a heart problem (i.e. heart not pumping well enough and fluid is backing up into the lungs). That's not something to be messing around with. If this Doc knows all that and hasn't/isn't doing anything to check her heart especially after conventional cough stuff isn't working, I seriously recommend you find another Dr ASAP.

I'll second VitaminH's suggestion. See the doc. Persistent coughs can be triggered indirectly, without any obvious respiratory issues. Is she taking BP meds?