Ongoing cough??

[Jem]

I know this might sound like a dim question ... but, how long is it "normal" to suffer a cough for - once you have your diabetes diagnosis??

What I mean to say is: Prior to the last 18 months (during which time I strongly believe I was un-diagnosed diabetic) my coughs and colds would last anything from a few days to maybe 2 weeks ...

Part of my illnesses which led me to the doctor's and my eventual diagnosis was ongoing coughs and colds.

Yes it's true my lungs have never been great (asthma for several years, reformed smoker, had bronchitus a few times etc) >>>

But this cough has been going for a month and shows no sigh of getting any better.

I have an appointment at my GP's on Friday so will probably get him to check there's no residual infection or anything, but being as this is "ask the experts" I thought I'd take a straw poll about how long these things tend to last with you guys - if it's longer and worse compared to pre-diagnosis - and why this might be (I understand the diabetic body's lesser ability to fight infections - is that why?)

I am getting a bit miffed as it's raised my blood sugars up a few points and I had gained such good control so quickly (with the reduced carb intake) that it's making me think I'm eating the wrng things again

Cheers for any help!

Jem xox

 

[graham64]

Hi Sarah,
You could be right about statins :twisted: I can recall having an irritating cough and sinus probs whilst taking simvastatin :twisted: It may just be a coincidence but both cleared up shortly after coming off statins.

Regards
Graham

Hi Jem, if your numbers are within a normal range then in theory you shouldn't be any different in healing than a non diabetic.
Are you on a statin? Some do cause a cough I think.
Hope you feel better soon.
S.

 

[wiflib]

....and ramipril. Persistant and annoying cough is a common side effect.

wiflib

 

[Trinkwasser]

....and ramipril. Persistant and annoying cough is a common side effect.

wiflib

Yes any ACE inhibitors (-prils) can cause this, usually it goes away if you switch to an ARB.

My experience has been a major reduction in all forms of illness with BG control

BUT

about two years ago there was a killer strep doing the rounds (literally) and something very similar is back now, I'm hacking up a lung on a regular basis but it has been determined that antibiotics will not be prescribed.

Mother has it really bad and I'm seriously expecting her not to survive, currently she's on massive amounts of steroids and amoxycillin and it's not really improved.

May or may not be the same bug but a friend in Baltimore has progressed from bronchitis to pneumonia, and another one in Virginia is going down the same road.

If this IS the same or a similar bug then the current refusal to use antibiotics at an early stage WILL cause deaths. So they will be saving money twice. Just hope you're not a victim of this one.

 

[Jem]

not on statins (yet) or inhibitors ... ust have slightly doddery old lungs lol ... as I've only been measureing my bg for the last 5 weeks (and have seen them drop dramatically with lo-carbing) and for a few weeks had very nice reasonable numbers ... just this last week as the cough get worse, my numbers seems to be hiking up ... I have had so much amoxyC in the last 18 months that I strongly doubt it will do anything for me, but give me thrush ... ah well, have a doc's appointment Friday so hopefully sill still be around.

@ TrinkW - if your mum is hospital bound do keep an eye on her environment ... the elderly admitted to hopsital are at great risk of hospital spread virus/es, my Nan died in February courtesy of novo followed rapidly by c-dif. She went in with a broken pelvis (being 91 years young and having survived not only two husbands but major heart surgery a few years previous, I KNOWthat a broken hip was nothing for her to be concerned about) in the rudest of health and died after 3 months of total uncleanliness; the only time she was cared for diligently is in the hospice where she spent her last 5 days, ironically the place she went to die. If you think the staff are slack, then talk to them. Make then change aprons & gloves when handling etc ... hope she mends soon x

 

[Trinkwasser]

not on statins (yet) or inhibitors ... ust have slightly doddery old lungs lol ... as I've only been measureing my bg for the last 5 weeks (and have seen them drop dramatically with lo-carbing) and for a few weeks had very nice reasonable numbers ... just this last week as the cough get worse, my numbers seems to be hiking up ... I have had so much amoxyC in the last 18 months that I strongly doubt it will do anything for me, but give me thrush ... ah well, have a doc's appointment Friday so hopefully sill still be around.

Yes sometimes the first sign of being ill is your numbers will go up for no apparent reason. Last time I got this I discovered quite by chance I was doing some very high spikes at 1/2 hour which were dropping back at 1 hour, but presumably they were so short they weren't triggering any other symptoms.

Mother hasn't got the thrush but she gets severe squitters.

@ TrinkW - if your mum is hospital bound do keep an eye on her environment ... the elderly admitted to hopsital are at great risk of hospital spread virus/es, my Nan died in February courtesy of novo followed rapidly by c-dif. She went in with a broken pelvis (being 91 years young and having survived not only two husbands but major heart surgery a few years previous, I KNOWthat a broken hip was nothing for her to be concerned about) in the rudest of health and died after 3 months of total uncleanliness; the only time she was cared for diligently is in the hospice where she spent her last 5 days, ironically the place she went to die. If you think the staff are slack, then talk to them. Make then change aprons & gloves when handling etc ... hope she mends soon

Yes that's the dilemma. A few years back she had a blocked bowel (adhesions) which the then clueless GP claimed was a bladder infection, when she went into hospital she was hours from death.

They fixed the bowel no probs but she got cellulitis in both legs.

A couple of years back (after we'd moved we've had much better doctors but the hospitals are iffy) she had what looks suspiciously like the same infection she has now. One of the GP tests showed a possible pulmonary embolism so I shipped her up to the hospital for an X-Ray. The refused to give us the results as the GP had requested, and told us since it was urgent they would be contacting our GP within three days instead of two weeks (!) so the GP had to ring them back and they told her she did NOT have a PI.

But she still got no better so I had her admitted to the *other* local hospital. They wouldn't say whether or not she actually had a PI, but they treated her for one anyway. Plus they only gave her cellulitis in ONE leg.

So believe me I sympathise, and I can understand why she is so resistant to going back in again.

The dilemma though is, if I do not have her admitted and let her die at home will I be arrested on suspicion of murder because I didn't "take all steps" to have her treated? This has happened, though I like to think the local police aren't that thick, at least the ones I know are surprisingly intelligent. Whereas if I DO have her admitted and she dies of a hospital-borne infection no-one will want to know

<sigh>

 

[Jem]

Sorry - it's the worst kind of dilemma to face and I really didn't wish to add to your struggles by bringing up my own experiences ~ sounds like you've had plenty of those already!

You have to do what is best for the two of you ... I found that the larger the hospital, the worse the leves of cleanliness ... the cottage hospital / hospice where Nan passed on was beautiful and clean as were the staff, I guess there was a slightly lower ratio of patients to staff there as in a major hospital but surely the nhs mus realise that if 60% of eldery admitted on OTHER grounds succumb to hospital borne infections, and of those a staggering 66% die from them, that people will be wary to admit their loved ones.

I wish there was an easy answer ... if you have a cottage hospital nearby it's possibly worth a look round ... you should have some kind of choice in the matter as should you mother.

good luck x

 

[Trinkwasser]

Sorry - it's the worst kind of dilemma to face and I really didn't wish to add to your struggles by bringing up my own experiences ~ sounds like you've had plenty of those already!

You have to do what is best for the two of you ... I found that the larger the hospital, the worse the leves of cleanliness ... the cottage hospital / hospice where Nan passed on was beautiful and clean as were the staff, I guess there was a slightly lower ratio of patients to staff there as in a major hospital but surely the nhs mus realise that if 60% of eldery admitted on OTHER grounds succumb to hospital borne infections, and of those a staggering 66% die from them, that people will be wary to admit their loved ones.

I wish there was an easy answer ... if you have a cottage hospital nearby it's possibly worth a look round ... you should have some kind of choice in the matter as should you mother.

good luck x

Yes we have a cottage hospital but they hardly do anything there - and last time she was ill it was closed "temporarily" for six months (a lot of us thought it would not reopen but actually it did, where we used to live they closed down all the little hospitals and sold them off for Executive Housing, closed down the big mental hospitals ditto (chucked the occupants out on the street) and built a new hospital on a greenfield site. As we were leaving they were talking about closing down the new hosptial and another one in a neighbouring town and replacing them with an even bigger one built on the green belt, thus releasing even more land to build Executive Houses probably for all the hospital managers and accountants) sorry am I ranting?

Yes the big hospital is actually bigger than this town, and of course the fact it's full of ill people doesn't help any with infection control. Gosh do you possibly think there could be a connection here?

The other big hospital was an order of magnitude better, they have a fast turnaround unit where she was before BUT you still have to weigh the odds of the infection she has now vs. the infection(s) she's likely to pick up as a patient. This is obviously happening all over the country.

Personally I would also be extremely unwilling to go inpatient unless I was severely ill, if the hospital borne infections didn't do me in the food surely would.

 

[Jem]

oh gawd it's all enough to make me want to take up a(nother) career in politics ... well not quite ... not sleeping at night because of illness is one thing, it would another entirely if I had a conscience to assuage!

Our town hospital has slowly had more and more departments shifted 23 miles up the road to the giant trust hospitals in the city - we lost children's ward and hepathology (spelling??) and they want to close down out maternity unit ... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight? so our hospital (which serves a town of well over 40,000 long standing inhabitants, plus the recent influx of an additional 8,000 polish, plus a plethora of surrounding villages plus overspills from local towns - and they want us to drive to bl**dy Oxford to give birth?

yeah ///

Lots of things going wrong, only 24 hours in one day to complain about it ...

Seriously though, I wish you all the very best in attaining a decent level of care for your mum. You'd think that the elderly would deserve a little bit of good treatment (well, most of them anyhow)

xx

 

[Trinkwasser]

Our town hospital has slowly had more and more departments shifted 23 miles up the road to the giant trust hospitals in the city - we lost children's ward and hepathology (spelling??) and they want to close down out maternity unit ... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight? so our hospital (which serves a town of well over 40,000 long standing inhabitants, plus the recent influx of an additional 8,000 polish, plus a plethora of surrounding villages plus overspills from local towns - and they want us to drive to bl**dy Oxford to give birth?

BTDT. It's easier for the important doctors if they're all on one site. If the patients aren't prepared to travel 30 miles then they're obviously malingerers.

What I want to know is, who gets all the profits from the land sales etc.

Well I bit the bullet, called the GP out again and had her admitted, she was too weak and breathless even to dress herself this morning. Amoxycillin hasn't shifted the bug at all.

Curiously I thought she was better last night as she wasn't coughing so much (unlike me!) probably she no longer had the strength.

Sorry to hijack your thread, how the hell are YOU doing now, any better?

 

[Jem]

You have to go with your instincts and I'm sure they'll change her meds, get her an x-ray and say oh it's developed into blah-di-blah and then put her on stronger anti-bios ... *sigh* save a penny spend a pound

and yes I'd love a share of the land sales profits from the nhs sites that've been mothballed ... the old stratford upon avon hospital is now a hugely exclusive complex ...

and never apologise about hijacking one of my threads ... if we're discussing stuff that's important or even *relish the thought* having a laugh, then it's all good for the community, right?

better than flogging off vital health departments eh ... ?

xox

ps - am still hacking most of the time but have an interesting new earache, swimmy *might faint* feeling (possibly due to lowering of sugars today for some reason) and dastardly headache ... seeing dr on Friday *hopefully*



J/x

 

[Trinkwasser]

You have to go with your instincts and I'm sure they'll change her meds, get her an x-ray and say oh it's developed into blah-di-blah and then put her on stronger anti-bios ... *sigh* save a penny spend a pound

Yup, at least the last time they gave her heparin for the blood clot they told her she didn't have. I think they used IV antibiotics, they restrict stuff other than some penicillins and tetracyclines to hospital use only round here.

ps - am still hacking most of the time but have an interesting new earache, swimmy *might faint* feeling (possibly due to lowering of sugars today for some reason) and dastardly headache ... seeing dr on Friday *hopefully*

Uh-oh, watch out for that earache! If this is the same bug that did the rounds a couple of years back I had an aunt and a neighbour who both got an inner ear infection and vertigo to the point of falling over and being unable to get up again, it took months to improve. It killed an uncle (kidneys) I had blood in my urine for a while but no lasting damage was done, it made a neighbour's leukemia flare, and it generally got into lungs and bronchi and sinuses and even gums all over the place. So if they try to fob you off with cough mixture and no antibiotics it might be worth exaggerating your symptoms to the point they actually treat them *before* it gets so bad they have no choice.

Dunno if any of the doctors here are seeing or hearing of this doing the rounds? This year everyone locally seems to be getting it but are divided about 50/50 as to how bad and how quickly it resolves. Meantime I have a couple of friends in the States thousands of mile apart who have progressed from bronchitis to pneumonia.

Be Careful Out There!

 

[Jem]

yeurgh ... bit scared ... but will survive, it's aparenltly in my contract to do so

hope your mum will soon mend hun

I've had more than enough non-effective amoxyC in my life to point and sigh and suggest it won't do a bit of good - meanwhile my bgs will stay high and long term problems will be evolving ... and maybe they should give me the little black pills again ... cannot recall what they were called but in January this year, when I had (all at the same time) bronchitus, cystitus, massive sinus infection, ear infection, thrush and skin scabbing - all pulled together nicely with tear inducing conjunctivitus ... and after two ineffective courses of the cheap stuff, these little black pills knocked everything off ... pretty impressive!

surely do not fancy pneumonia ... might involve the dreaded hospitalisating and I sure as hell don't want my kid coming to visit me and catching some **** thing ...

I must point out that I know a few nurses personally, all of whom are extremely dilligent in their cleanliness and care /// unluckily it doesn't follow across the board

J.xx

 

[Trinkwasser]

hope your mum will soon mend hun

Well they checked her all out and sent her home again. No more antibiotics, they've reduced her bumetanide soo she'll start collecting fluid again, they wanted to cancel her allopurinol so she'll start getting gout again (I managed to argue them round on that one) and tomorrow they are bringing round a Nebuliser to replace some of her inhalers.

Now we have to keep an eye out to see whether she was in for long enough to collect any MORE bugs <sigh> they didn't even keep her long enough for me to finish the vacuuming which I intended to do while she was away so the dust didn't make her worse and I could get round the back of the furniture in the lounge and her bedroom. Maybe next year . . .

I've had more than enough non-effective amoxyC in my life to point and sigh and suggest it won't do a bit of good - meanwhile my bgs will stay high and long term problems will be evolving ... and maybe they should give me the little black pills again ... cannot recall what they were called but in January this year, when I had (all at the same time) bronchitus, cystitus, massive sinus infection, ear infection, thrush and skin scabbing - all pulled together nicely with tear inducing conjunctivitus ... and after two ineffective courses of the cheap stuff, these little black pills knocked everything off ... pretty impressive!

AFAICR last year the first strike was amoxycillin, second strike was flucloxacillin and third strike was augmentin but I might be wrong. In the hospital they have access to cephalosporins etc. which I don't think they permit our GPs to prescribe.

This is one of the problems, so many resistant organisms, so they drastically restrict the drugs they aren't resistant to to stop the resistance spreading, which means many of the bugs in the community are effectively uncontrolled and uncontrollable until you are bad enough to be hospitalised. Probably some accountant somewhere has worked out the cost benefit ratio of untreated patients dying and thus saving future costs.

I did a killer prawn curry which made the inside of my nostrils sweat and gave me a MAJOR coughing fit as the entire contents of my sinuses ran down into my lungs and then got hacked up again. After which I've been much better. But I was making so much noise coughing and retching that I made next door's dog bark, I must go round and apologise for waking them up <G>

 

[Jem]

next door's dog must have been concerned for you

hope your mum is on the mend as best as she can be

for me - I was given a clean bill of health (read: chest listened to as I wheezed my way in and out and coughed out half a lung) - diagnosis = no treatment required

I did however get a flu jab flung upon me whilst I was there, which I had considered a good idea to have anyhow, and having it done without the suspenseful wait (which is often worse than the jab for people like myself who despise needles) ... also I didn't get moaned at for requesting 100 test strips a month (result!) ... but did come away with a scrip for simvistastatin ... not sure if I've spelled that correctly but truly can't be bothered to go to the medice pile on top of the "bread" bin (the place where my husband and son's bread live grrrr) ...

also congratulated upon weight loss (yay) although as he's been asking me to lose weight now for ooooooh let's just say, about 20 years, and I told him I was actually eating more calories now (hah) and had actually lost weight for the first time in a healthy manner - I think I may have made a good point to GP about low carbing

never lose an opportunity to make that holy grail point to ANY hcp!



happy sunny saturday

*koff hakk*

 

[Trinkwasser]

next door's dog must have been concerned for you

hope your mum is on the mend as best as she can be

Not really.

She has a Nebuliser which sounds like a moped in the lounge four times a day. I don't think she's going to be with us much longer, her heart's giving out, her kidneys are on the fritz, she's basically just shutting down and this cough has been the last straw (she already had COPD) on her 93rd birthday we took her for a good walk, but since going to the doctor and the breathing clinic in the same week we think that's where she caught the infection and she's steadily going downhill now.

for me - I was given a clean bill of health (read: chest listened to as I wheezed my way in and out and coughed out half a lung) - diagnosis = no treatment required

I did however get a flu jab flung upon me whilst I was there, which I had considered a good idea to have anyhow, and having it done without the suspenseful wait (which is often worse than the jab for people like myself who despise needles) ... also I didn't get moaned at for requesting 100 test strips a month (result!) ... but did come away with a scrip for simvistastatin ... not sure if I've spelled that correctly but truly can't be bothered to go to the medice pile on top of the "bread" bin (the place where my husband and son's bread live grrrr) ...

also congratulated upon weight loss (yay) although as he's been asking me to lose weight now for ooooooh let's just say, about 20 years, and I told him I was actually eating more calories now (hah) and had actually lost weight for the first time in a healthy manner - I think I may have made a good point to GP about low carbing

I've been fortunate to avoid the flu for many years now and only had minor colds until a couple of years back when this strep followed the virus around, and this year which is an action replay.

Mother used to be invited in for the flu jab, what a nightmare! They called in all the oldies on the same day with no appointment, first you had to negotiate all the reversing Nissan Micras in the car park, then you had to sit in a room entirely full of elderly and often ill people for hours, she decided the dangers outweighed the benefits.

Here she gets it done at the same time she goes in for one of her B12 injections so less chance of contagion.

What are your lipids? Just curious. Simvastatin works well for me but even so I'm considering dropping it for a month before my next MOT to see what my unmedicated lipids look like.

Good to see you got your strips and also good you repaid the compliment by educating him about low carbing <G>

Mother had a really bad attack this morning, got a pill stuck in her throat and couldn't breathe properly for ages. Double ****** because I was actually lying in bed realising I was NOT coughing and my shoulder was NOT hurting. I think the cough is gradually improving now, the periods between hacking attacks are definitely getting longer. I wish the same for you. MY BG seems to have stopped being silly, that's probably a good sign.

 

[Jem]

Ta SarahQ ~ a healthy cough - yeah haha!! Found some robitussan or something (sugarfree cough stuff) so will just neck some of that -= had even been looking at the lad's cal-cough as it's sugarfree haha ... funny old world!

TrinkW - wishing your mum could have an improvement in health but there's not much I can add to that sentiment just remember to tell her you love her x

My bg's are improved slightly, although they are still higher than I had them first thing in the AM ... fasted about 7 ... had them down to between 5 & 6 ... still, will see as the cough passes :?

Tried the simvastatin - once ... had the worst case of diarrhoea and then instant joint pain all up both arms ... given that up until next time I see the doc - although I'm thinking that the scrip he gave me for 40mg was a bit too much considering my chol was only 5, not 10!!

blargh!

ah well, thebgs have been up and hopegully on the back down now - fingers crossed - koff hakk ...

J/x

 

[sugarless sue]

Try gargling with ice cold water,Jem,very soothing.

 

[Jem]

Ahhh ... now there's an idea Sue - can I put vodka in it? that might help!!

xxx

 

[sugarless sue]

Never tried gargling with vodka,,always somehow,managed to swallow it!! :lol: :lol: