Chronic Cough - Asthma and Allergy meds not working

Hi all,

I am a 21 year old male living in Toronto, Ontario and do not smoke. I have severe allergies to most trees. For the past 6 years I have developed a chronic dry cough in the fall season until it snows in the winter. When I blow my nose, there is a sticky white mucus that comes out. I have been told by the allergist that this is asthma and allergies. I am taking 2 puffs of QVAR in the morning and night, half a tablet of reactine and singular at night, and Avamys in the morning. During bouts of coughing, I have tried taking my ratio-salbutamol puffer but it doesn't seem to help. Over the years I have tried a variety of puffers to no avail.

Since we are now at the end of November it seems as if most of my allergic triggers are gone, so it seems to rule out an allergic cause. Since the ratio-salbutamol doesn't help at all, I am also wondering if this is asthma. My coughing bouts begin when I overbreathe or talk a lot.

Can anybody share any insight into this??

Thanks.

[Tammy2009]

I would ask for a methacholine challenge test that will give a yes/no answer of whether you have asthma.  Also, ask your doctor to watch you use your inhaler, I found out I was using mine wrong and it really cuts down on the medicine you get into your lungs (the medicine "works" 10 times better now that I'm using the inhaler properly).  

You may have a mold allergy as well as the trees.  That would act up in the fall and winter, some molds aren't tested with standard allergy tests.  Ask your allergist the specific molds that were tested and ask if there are any he could test for that aren't on the standard test.  

Post nasal drip can also cause coughing as well.

[velovl]

Thanks for the response. I will ask for the tests when I see the allergist.

I read that asthma cough and post-nasal drip affect people greatly during their sleep, however, when sleeping I have no symptoms at all.