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Whooping Cough???
Hello all! I am hoping there are some here with some knowledge about Whooping Cough. I went to the doctor on Monday of this week (5 days ago) and was told I probably have bronchitis, although if I didn't respond to antibiotics, he wanted to test me for Whooping Cough. He put me on Levaquin because I am allergic to Erithromycin. I have not improved significantly. I'm wondering two things... 1. Does it sound like whooping cough? 2. Even if I get tested, would it be accurate due to the Levaquin?
These are my symptoms...
Initial symptyms (lasted about 1 week): cold like with mild cough, also lost my voice
Next Phase (has been 10 days since this phase began): severe coughing that has progressed to periodic (probably 6-8 per day) coughing fits that sometimes cause me to vomit and have difficulty breathing. I am still in this phase. While it seems like the coughing fits have begun to come at longer intervals between, and the coughing itself seems somewhat better, I still have one period of really bad coughing at night, usually around 4:00 am. Last night I was throwing up and having a really hard time breathing between periods of coughing and vomiting. My airway was definetly tight, but it was more like I couldn't take a breath, like the muscles in my airway wouldn't work or forgot how or something. Weird! I don't have a whooping sound, however for the first time last night I did have a strange sound coming from the airway when I finally could take a breath. More like a wheezing sound then a whoop, but I was breathing shallow.
I should also add that I have asthma and have been using my albuterol inhaler every 4-6 hours. Don't know that it is helping much. I finished my last dose of Levaquin last not and am also on Tessalon Perles every 8 hours. I do cough between boughts of coughing fits, which doesn't seem to fit with whooping cough, but it is mild and I'm wondering if it's due to the asthma.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!
These are my symptoms...
Initial symptyms (lasted about 1 week): cold like with mild cough, also lost my voice
Next Phase (has been 10 days since this phase began): severe coughing that has progressed to periodic (probably 6-8 per day) coughing fits that sometimes cause me to vomit and have difficulty breathing. I am still in this phase. While it seems like the coughing fits have begun to come at longer intervals between, and the coughing itself seems somewhat better, I still have one period of really bad coughing at night, usually around 4:00 am. Last night I was throwing up and having a really hard time breathing between periods of coughing and vomiting. My airway was definetly tight, but it was more like I couldn't take a breath, like the muscles in my airway wouldn't work or forgot how or something. Weird! I don't have a whooping sound, however for the first time last night I did have a strange sound coming from the airway when I finally could take a breath. More like a wheezing sound then a whoop, but I was breathing shallow.
I should also add that I have asthma and have been using my albuterol inhaler every 4-6 hours. Don't know that it is helping much. I finished my last dose of Levaquin last not and am also on Tessalon Perles every 8 hours. I do cough between boughts of coughing fits, which doesn't seem to fit with whooping cough, but it is mild and I'm wondering if it's due to the asthma.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!
Hi. I'm stuck here in Spain and can't find one doctor that really believes us, or has given us the right tests or treatment. My 8 year old daughter has been ill with whooping cough now for 5 weeks. It's just recently shown up in a blood test, and yet they are still not 100% convinced. She has ALL ths symptons you describe, especially the sticky mucus and whooping. Now my 15 year old daughter and I have it too. Not as bad so far as we've quickly started antibiotics.
My 8 year old has just finished her 4th course of antibiotics. The last one 7 days of CLARIMOTRICINA.Last night she has another episode of coughing, whooping and vomiting. They are still trying to tell me it's asma.
Thank you for your information, it's really helpful. I'm sorry you had such a tough time and I hope your baby is better now.
My 8 year old has just finished her 4th course of antibiotics. The last one 7 days of CLARIMOTRICINA.Last night she has another episode of coughing, whooping and vomiting. They are still trying to tell me it's asma.
Thank you for your information, it's really helpful. I'm sorry you had such a tough time and I hope your baby is better now.
i started the same way was sick for a year in 2005 have asthma, they decided i had whooping cough but didn't get any better, sept 2005, i ended up in the hospital, turned out i have tracheobronchialmalacia have not worked since, am on oxygen 16 hours a day, use cpap at night with 2 liters of oxygen, what happens is the trachea and bronchioels collapse when you breathe causing the severe coughing i have not worked since sept 2005, symptoms have improved slightly with some weight loss, but could stand to lose a lot more.
Hi, Not sure if you still need an answer, but would love to post a reply since I have had both asthma and whooping cough.
What you describe sounds like badly controlled asthma. Asthma can cause coughing like that and coughing like that can cause vomiting. Also lot of phlegm can make you nauseous and with the coughing can make you vomit. If you are still coughing (hope not) you should go back to the doctor controlling your asthma. Ideal is to have asthma well enough controlled so that you dont cough at all. Asthma can cause permanent damage to your airways if not controlled. So this will need your urgent attention if you are still coughing. Good idea to see a pulmonologist that can work out a treatment plan for you if you dont have one already.
Whooping cough. My baby got it at 5 weeks old. I got it from her and my husband from me. It was a huge learning curve since many doctors (in South Africa at least) are ill informed about this disease since it is not very common today anymore. Whooping cough does not cause permanent damage in airways or anything. Also does not cause breathing problems in adults and if they were to test your saturation or lung function, both would be 100%. The disease is not in the lungs, but the upper airways, just above the lungs. My baby had to be hospitalized and nearly lost her life every day (about 30 times a day) for 4 weeks long. The disease were for us like this: 1) 2-3 days of runny eyes, sneezing (not coughing!), runny nose... OK, so if you were in contact with someone who have whooping cough and you get these symptoms you dont even have to test for whooping cough, you have it, start treatment.... TEST: ONLY way to test for whooping cough is a lab test from some nasal mucus (take it from your nose with an earbud)..... 2) Coughing start together with VERY VERY VERY sticky THICK mucus... Talking about so sticky that you can stick a painting to the wall if you would use it. So unlike normal bronchitus, flu etc, whooping cough phlegm is THICK, STICKY and CLEAR. This coughing phase last from 2-6 weeks. IF you realise you have whooping cough BEFORE the coughing phase, you can prevent getting whooping cough.
So heres how it was for us:
2-3 days runny eyes, sneezing, runny nose - all 3 of us
2-4 weeks coughing phase:
a) My baby was 5 weeks old. The phlegm was so sticky and thick that it completely blocked her airways. She went blue every time she got a mucus plug like this and needed help (ambu bags, oxygen, sucktion in hospital) to get her breathing. Her coughing was so bad that she would go red with efford, soaked in sweat and to exhaused to even drink anything after a coughing spell. Many babies this age does not survive whooping cough. Lasted for 2 weeks. In hospital, however, she got RSV and Strep Pneumonia from other children in hospital. She was only out for 2 days when it all started again (due to the secondary conditions). Lasted another 2 weeks in hospital. Treatment: Klasid antibiotic for 10 days (ONLY thing that helps for whooping cough) and several other things for symptomatic relieve)
b) I coughed for 2 weeks. Coughing with the classical whoop sound at the end of the cough. Coughing till you CANT cough anymore and then a little bit more. Coughing till you almost vomit. Completely soaked in sweet after every coughing spell (like as if you jumped in the pool with your clothes on wet). Treatment Klasid for 10 days. Klasid really helped from the first dose, nothing else works (at all).
c) When my husband got it, we managed to learn by that time that you can prevent it with Klasid in the runny eyes phase. So he had Klasid for 10 days. He had sticky thick mucus for about a week, no coughing and it stopped here for him :-) Thanks to the preventative antibiotic.
Final phase is coughing for 100 days...
a) My baby coughed for just over 100 days and then it stopped. Just a normal but persistant intense cough (but nothing as bad as the first 2 weeks)
b) I coughed for just over 100 days and then it stopped. It sounded to other people like I was going to drop dead, sounds hectic, but ist fine, just a bad cough that carries on and on and on and on :-)
Once the coughing stop (and you are still alive and no brain damage due to not breathing episodes), you are cured and cant ever get it again and will have nothing at all left from it. You are immune for life (unlike the limited time you are covered by the vaccine). Whooping cough is not chronic.
Hope this helps?? I really think you have asthma.
All the best!!
What you describe sounds like badly controlled asthma. Asthma can cause coughing like that and coughing like that can cause vomiting. Also lot of phlegm can make you nauseous and with the coughing can make you vomit. If you are still coughing (hope not) you should go back to the doctor controlling your asthma. Ideal is to have asthma well enough controlled so that you dont cough at all. Asthma can cause permanent damage to your airways if not controlled. So this will need your urgent attention if you are still coughing. Good idea to see a pulmonologist that can work out a treatment plan for you if you dont have one already.
Whooping cough. My baby got it at 5 weeks old. I got it from her and my husband from me. It was a huge learning curve since many doctors (in South Africa at least) are ill informed about this disease since it is not very common today anymore. Whooping cough does not cause permanent damage in airways or anything. Also does not cause breathing problems in adults and if they were to test your saturation or lung function, both would be 100%. The disease is not in the lungs, but the upper airways, just above the lungs. My baby had to be hospitalized and nearly lost her life every day (about 30 times a day) for 4 weeks long. The disease were for us like this: 1) 2-3 days of runny eyes, sneezing (not coughing!), runny nose... OK, so if you were in contact with someone who have whooping cough and you get these symptoms you dont even have to test for whooping cough, you have it, start treatment.... TEST: ONLY way to test for whooping cough is a lab test from some nasal mucus (take it from your nose with an earbud)..... 2) Coughing start together with VERY VERY VERY sticky THICK mucus... Talking about so sticky that you can stick a painting to the wall if you would use it. So unlike normal bronchitus, flu etc, whooping cough phlegm is THICK, STICKY and CLEAR. This coughing phase last from 2-6 weeks. IF you realise you have whooping cough BEFORE the coughing phase, you can prevent getting whooping cough.
So heres how it was for us:
2-3 days runny eyes, sneezing, runny nose - all 3 of us
2-4 weeks coughing phase:
a) My baby was 5 weeks old. The phlegm was so sticky and thick that it completely blocked her airways. She went blue every time she got a mucus plug like this and needed help (ambu bags, oxygen, sucktion in hospital) to get her breathing. Her coughing was so bad that she would go red with efford, soaked in sweat and to exhaused to even drink anything after a coughing spell. Many babies this age does not survive whooping cough. Lasted for 2 weeks. In hospital, however, she got RSV and Strep Pneumonia from other children in hospital. She was only out for 2 days when it all started again (due to the secondary conditions). Lasted another 2 weeks in hospital. Treatment: Klasid antibiotic for 10 days (ONLY thing that helps for whooping cough) and several other things for symptomatic relieve)
b) I coughed for 2 weeks. Coughing with the classical whoop sound at the end of the cough. Coughing till you CANT cough anymore and then a little bit more. Coughing till you almost vomit. Completely soaked in sweet after every coughing spell (like as if you jumped in the pool with your clothes on wet). Treatment Klasid for 10 days. Klasid really helped from the first dose, nothing else works (at all).
c) When my husband got it, we managed to learn by that time that you can prevent it with Klasid in the runny eyes phase. So he had Klasid for 10 days. He had sticky thick mucus for about a week, no coughing and it stopped here for him :-) Thanks to the preventative antibiotic.
Final phase is coughing for 100 days...
a) My baby coughed for just over 100 days and then it stopped. Just a normal but persistant intense cough (but nothing as bad as the first 2 weeks)
b) I coughed for just over 100 days and then it stopped. It sounded to other people like I was going to drop dead, sounds hectic, but ist fine, just a bad cough that carries on and on and on and on :-)
Once the coughing stop (and you are still alive and no brain damage due to not breathing episodes), you are cured and cant ever get it again and will have nothing at all left from it. You are immune for life (unlike the limited time you are covered by the vaccine). Whooping cough is not chronic.
Hope this helps?? I really think you have asthma.
All the best!!
yes it sounds like whooping cough, you have my sympathies. The only thing that helped me ( I had a very loud whooping and would vomit and almost pass out with the coughing) was to take coedine regulalry, it was the only thing that helped to suppress the cough.
you MUST rest as much as possible and drink plenty of water. It lasts for three months, but you can have permanent lung damage and damage to your voice, you are also at risk of chest infections and pnuemonia ( I've had it several times) so stay away from other people so you don't pick up a secondary infection.
you MUST rest as much as possible and drink plenty of water. It lasts for three months, but you can have permanent lung damage and damage to your voice, you are also at risk of chest infections and pnuemonia ( I've had it several times) so stay away from other people so you don't pick up a secondary infection.
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