I am wallowing in misery because my cough persists. It robs me of sleep and I am tired, unfocused and discombobulated during the day. When I wretch, I pee my pants.
For temporary relief, I can take a cough syrup that contains a narcotic. Apparently, it's the most potent cough syrup around and if it doesn't stop your cough, nothing will. My doctor's concern is that while the narcotic stops the cough, it also puts you to sleep and is highly addictive, so she doesn't want me to take it all the time. She doesn't have to worry. While the medicine relieves my cough, it also keeps me wide awake and more alert than usual. Bro said the drug has a paradoxical effect on me - it does the opposite of what it's supposed to. So I can't take the drug and go to sleep and I can't take too much during the day because it's highly addictive. Bah.
In this state of self-pity, a friend phoned to see how I am doing. She told me a friend of hers had a cough like mine that lasted 18 months before the doctors figured out what was wrong. Turned out she had a cough that was common to street people, from the unhygenic environment of living in the street. She doesn't know how she got the cough. It took several courses of aggressive antibiotics before they got rid of it.
A street people cough? I may have a street people cough? Maybe it's my inner bag lady asserting herself. Regardless, I will talk to the respirologist about this possibility when I see him. But that's not for another month. I will ask him about the street people cough, not my being a bag lady.
Meanwhile, I have received reiki therapy to clear blockages to my healing energy. Do I really believe in this therapy? I felt nothing. The Man is urging acupuncture. Needles in my lungs? I guess when I am desperate enough. I have brewed mysterious Chinese herbs and drank willingly. I can't tell if that's helped.
And now I suck on lozenges and gulp down cough syrup with codeine, which does nothing but I take it to convince myself I am doing something to ease the hacking. I brew ginger tea and drink it with lemon and honey. I have had no appetite for a week. But you know what? I've lost 5 lbs! Woohoo! As long as my stomach is flat when I die and the undertaker doesn't say, My, this was a fat one.
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2 comments:
Maybe your friend means mycoplasma. It's a very specific, persistent cough that needs antibiotics. I had it in undergrad. Coughed so much I was starting to bleed from my esophagus. I wasn't a bag lady at the time, though.
Or maybe it's pertussis - whooping cough. There's a new emergence of it in the adult population.
Ask the respirologist about those, but most likely, it was your blood pressure meds.
Of course, there's always cancer.
One side effect of the narcotic cough syrup that you are experiencing is not paradoxical. Loss of appetite. There's a silver lining after all.
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