viral chest infection - advice desperately needed

I have had it too, it lasted for months and I became very ill, I am only just getting over it now - as in, I only cough for maybe ten minutes each morning and perhaps the same mid-evening. I really wasn't resting enough. It was only when DBH went away for three weeks that I started to recover properly. I had been coughing for so long that I did need antibiotics - because I had made my throat bleed and something the name of which I have forgotten, deeper down, and a chest infection. I ended up on them for a month in the end until they found one that worked, and I survived and only got enough rest by taking sleeping tablets and lots of day nursed, which by stopping the symptoms allowed things to heal up. The Drs said I had a vicious circle going on.

I do feel for you, it felt as if I was going to be coughing for ever, I felt like a smoker - except I have never smoked. It used to take over an hour before I dared to get up in the morning, because movement set it off.

If I hear anyone cough between now and Christmas, I shall just run. It was a party this time last year that set it all off - a friend with the 100 day cough that didn't want to miss out on the fun. She passed it on to pretty much everyone there, having dosed herself up first although feeling really rough. The same party is on tomorrow night and the hostess has sent out the invitations with 'No kissing allowed at this party, face masks acceptable attire' at the bottom!

Coughs that go on a long time and make you feel like retching and gasping for breath can be whooping cough. Antibiotics don't help, only time and steam etc. Vaccinations are not as effective as, say, the one for measles. The immunity gradually weakens. That's why pregnant mums are advised to have a booster.
Nothing you can do to hasten recovery but important to stay away from pregnant women and new babies that have not yet been vaccinated - its a very serious illness in small babies.

I have been to a number of activities up at the school in the last week or two and have been surrounded by coughing and snuffling babes and toddlers - I confidently expect to have caught something by Christmas!

I think it is possible that we have had whooping cough JessM. We cancelled everything and kept away from other people as much as possible for over two weeks until we felt we were unlikely to be infectious.

Many years ago I had a Dr that believed in lots of different ways of healing things.
Example: if you have a bad cough and can't sleep: take some alcohol, it will calm the throat and let's you sleep and gives the throat a rest. Much the same as taking a sleeping tablet.

That's the sort of doctor to have!

Another 'latest update' .

Well, a fat lot of use the Ventolin has been. It started off so optimistically but on inhaling it this morning, I immediately went into a 'not being able to breath spasm', even though I was quite calm at the point of inhaling. fighting for breath - again. Phoned GP to ask if I should still carry on taking inhaler. Was asked to go to local out of hours hospital to be checked over.

The infection's now on my upper chest, throat area and I've been prescribed a Codeine cough linctus, which should clear the gunge and help sleep (whatever that is). The GP I saw tells me this infection is almost at epidemic levels, it can go on for several weeks, possibly returning. So be warned GN'rs, this particular little buggy-wuggy thingy is really a nasty snotmonster in disguise. Me? I've had a dose of Codeine and look forward to a snooze

PS: definitely not whooping cough

Yes I've had this as well still have a slight weexe and the cough but not as bad...I used an Olbas inhaler and steamed myself with Olbas oil not expensive from the chemist, The Olbas oil in steaming hot water BUT CLOSE YOUR EYES WHEN YOU are leaning over the bowl otherwise it will hurt your eyes,

Went to the Drs before I did this and was sent to hospital for a chest x ray which hasn't thrown anything up.

The inhaler certainly has helped me a lot .

Hope you feel better soon

Ann

We have both had this viral infection too. It went on for about 6 weeks and I feel I'm only just about over it now, though I still get a random coughing fit occasionally. Our baby GD got it as well, and it developed quickly into bronchiolitis, so she was hospitalised. Very frightening for my poor DD, who worried that she would also get it and be unable to care for her DD. Thankfully, she hasn't so far gone down with it. She must be made of sterner stuff than us.
Olbas oil was a godsend - on a tissue on my pillow every night (the nights I actually was able to stay in bed that is!). My DD put a few drops of junior Olbas Oil on a muslin and hung it over the cot, and also put some in an electric oil burner that she kept in the room all night. It certainly seemed to help.
I really hope you'll soon be feeling better boheminan. I can only imagine how frightening it must be to feel so ill and be on your own in the wee small hours.

My DGD found the same as you with her inhaler Bohemian. It makes her cough uncontrollably when she uses it, but she seems to be doing it properly. I just don't let her use after eating .... we were wasting a lot of food as it came straight back up!

It doesn't sound like whooping cough though. None of us are making a really whooping sound, or at least not very often. Can it still be whooping cough if you don't do that?

I don't know much about whooping cough Grannynise but over the last few days I've seen lots of medical experts and no one has suggested it's whooping cough - even though to me the fighting for breath comes out like a whoop.

The hospital ruled it out when I asked.

I stopped using my inhaler as the infection is not bronchitis but higher up in my chest and I was told that an inhaler's not much help for that area.

An inhaler shouldn't make a cough worse, I think it should be pretty instant in stopping the irritation. Maybe your DGD should be checked out that she should be using her inhaler if it's making her cough. I phoned 111 for advice, they were very helpful.

Many many years ago I had the most terrible cough like the one you are describing. I was sure that it was whooping cough because I had been in contact with a confirmed case. How the doctors scoffed when I suggested it! What made it so awful was that I was in the last weeks of pregnancy (I told you it was a long time ago). I went on to give birth at 36 weeks, still coughing, and still being told my cough definitely was not whooping cough. Two days later, after holding and cuddling my baby, they did a swab, and yes, it was whooping cough I had. I was immediately expelled from the maternity hospital, and my baby taken to SCU. I did not see her for another two weeks. My husband had to take my milk up twice a day, and used to bring home polaroid photos of her. A terrible time of my life, which I found hard to get over. Oh yes, try having stitches "down there", and whooping cough. It still makes me cross my legs tightly to remember it!

I am 66 ....and this is the first time I have had a cough that has lasted ages,now it's finally slowly going! I caught this cold/ virus off my grandchildren.....first it was a cold then a cough which was caused by clear phlegm which was difficult to bring up.....the coughing fits were usually around 6 pm and were horrendous but I never coughed in the night weirdly....then it turned Into a tickly cough with less clear phlegm....now it's a tickly cough that is gradually going....and this is all over 3 months .....and my Gp did listen to my chest but could hear nothing. Now I have another cold caught off the grandchildren....

Oh tingaloo that's truly awful

I'm pleased this thread is being kept alive, as I reckon the advice and chat could be beneficial to those who at present, or in future get this awful infection (and as it's an epidemic, that could mean quite a few of us).

A few of my friends have now come down with it, but for them it's more like a heavy cold and not the choking type coughing I'm experiencing. I've not coped well because my lungs are scarred from previously having pneumonia, so any infection that goes to my lungs hangs on for a while.

Yogadatti it sounds like we're both travelling the same course but the thought of another 8 weeks of this hacking is an unbearable. The Codeine linctus seems to ease it up.

So sorry for everyone who has a long term cough, I had one for 2 weeks and felt awful. It is now clearing up, but I really feel for all of you suffering for longer. I hated being ill. I am a great believer in steam and inhaling. Hot baths, oil burners, all with eucalyptus oil, or Olbas oil and occasionally (but watch your eyes) some menthol crystals in a bowl of hot water with a towel over the head. Don't know if it really does anything but it makes me feel better.

My husband is finally starting to feel better. He is on the phone to his poor daughter taking her cough by cough through his trauma! Anyone who asks how he is soon regrets it. I see their eyes glaze over as they lose the will to live.

I am also starting to feel a bit better although not well enough to go to the shops apart from the essential supermarket shop. I may not have been as bad as I take an inhaled 'preventer' for my asthma. This may have helped me.

The lesson from my story being, it could be whooping cough even if the medics say not. If you have any contact with small children or babies, ask for a swab to be on the safe side.

It can be whooping cough without the whoop. DD had WC and only whooped once - in my presence but never in front of a doctor. She was sick from coughing without any whoop too. The doctor said that he had never heard a whoop in all his career, and that most doctors were the same. All the childhood jabs that everyone should have had made the bug less strong, but it was/is still about and could/can be very nasty in some people.

My grown up son whooped himself silly, but doctors not interested. In NZ you have to pay to see GP so he did not go back again after initial visit.
As tingaloo remarked you can only know yay or nay if they do a swab. As always NHS Choices website is informative:
www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Whooping-cough/Pages/Introduction.aspx)

DD had whooping cough, coughing, sick and whooping. The GP said it wasn't as 'whooping cough has been eradicated' (the same GP who said there was no need to vaccinate; having the vaccine was controversial anyway at the time). However, the neighbours' children were diagnosed with WC - different GP.
A few years later DD2 and all her classmates coughed for the whole first term in infant school - 'can't be whooping cough as they've been vaccinated' said the local GPs. However, teacher said she knew whooping cough when she heard it!
I notice that someone I know has put a birth announcement on FB and asked people to be kind enough not to visit the new baby if they have not had a WC vaccination in the last 5 years. This is not in this country, I must add.

Hope everyone feels better soon and fingers crossed the rest of us don't catch whatever it is

Well I'm now positive that it is whooping cough. In retrospect the awful gasping for breath whilst making a whooping noise should have been the indicator. All the symptoms on the NHS site fit what I've been experiencing. There doesn't seem to be much you can do about it, although if I'd known I would have been even more careful about passing it on! 3 to 4 months seems to be the duration so I should be ok by the end of January.