Medical Question for Me, Not Baby! :)

Go to the doctor! Reports just came out that CA is dealing with a pertussis epidemic and little ones are very susceptible to this~~adults need a booster if they haven't got the immunities to it (look at news reports for whooping cough/pertussis)

When you make the appointment make sure to tell them that you been sick and coughing for about 6 weeks, and that since yesterday you're having trouble breathing... That you can still breathe but it's very difficult to exhale, and should you come in right away or go to the ER?

Those symptoms should get you in fairly quickly... because they shout fluid in the lungs... and the legnth of time nixes the zillions of patients who are scared about pertussis and are probably ringing their phones off the hooks (which you could also easily have given those symptoms).

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Your cold may have turned into pneumonia. It's better to get it checked out. Last year, I was told when I thought I had pneumonia that is was just my asthma and sent on my way. A day later, it was so much worse and I couldn't breathe at all. I went to the E.R. and found that indeed I had pneumonia and pleurisy....and getting close to having been needed to be in the hospital. It lasted about 2 months after.. :(

Go to an Urgent Care center or office.

Your lungs sounds constricted... the airways.

I would go to an urgent care center.. and not wait around for your Doc to have an opening.. .or just call them and tell them you need to be seen pronto.

Yes! Call the doctor so they can rule anything serious out.

They always keep appointments open for emergent situations. Explain to them exactly what you explained to us, and I'm pretty sure you'll get seen quite quickly. if not, go to a MinuteClinic or something similar. Most of the Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants who practice in them are also in other offices and are really well trained.

For $65, you can at least get the ball rolling until you know exactly what caused it.

Few of us have medical training, so we can only guess. A cough, without hearing it and doing a chest x-ray is hard to pinpoint the cause of. Seek medical attention and trust your instincts. Putting it off may likely only make it worse.

This is EXACTLY the same thing I have!!!!!!! Everyone in my family got the same thing and they're all fine now. My cough and sore throat keeps coming and going and I feel it in my chest off and on too. I'll be fine then it comes back. I went to the doctor and they said it was viral. Because I'm breastfeeding and I'm allergic to antibiotics, I can't really take anything. They said to let it run it's course. I always get stuff like this when I have a 2 month old baby in the house. My immune system must get stressed out around this time. I'm taking Airborne to help my immune system. I hope you feel better soon.

If you have also been tired, I would get in because you may have walking pneumonia and need some antibiotics to knock it out. This happened to me at Christmas and I had all the same stuff you describe. Best of luck!

I had a cough like that last winter. It held on for 8 weeks. My ribs got sore from coughing so much. I had no fever, but the darn thing just wouldn't quit. Whooping cough is characterized as a cough that doesn't let you catch your breath. The whooping sound you make as you try to breathe in is what gives it it's name. It doesn't sound like what you have.
I rinsed out my sinuses with saline using a neti pot as often as I could. I took hot baths and steamy showers as often as I could. I used Mucinex (a very good long lasting expectorant). I slept with a heating pad set on low on my chest. You can use a mustard plaster, but you have to be very careful not to burn your skin. I drank plenty of fluids (tea, juice, soup). I don't know if it helped, but I also took an echinacea supplement and a B complex vitamin and vitamin C, and FINALLY it went away. If you can't catch your breath or if you have a fever that keeps coming back or if you have a hard time breathing, you need to go to an ER or see a doctor asap.

I would go to the doctor. Pertussis is epidemic in California right now, and you should be very careful since this has been going on so long. Pertussis, or whooping cough is known also as the "100 day cough" and while you will probably be fine, you need to know if you are spreading this to other people, particularly to infants to whom this could be deadly. If you have a secondary infection, you may benefit from some treatment, and if you don't have have pertussis, you should find out so that you can get the booster shot. 5 infants have died in California this year already, so if you don't have it, having experienced such a difficult time with the resperatory issue you have now, you want to be sure that you protect yourself, and your baby once they are born.

And yes, if it is pertussis, it will go away on it's own, there is not a treatment, it has to run it's course. Find out for sure, anyone who has been coughing for as long as you have needs to be seen by a doctor!

Good luck!
M.

go see the dr... tell them how you have been feelilng..if he can't see you soon... and it's that hard to schedule an appt.. maybe find a new dr... good luck.. hope you feel better soon..

Go ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is probably like lyme disease