post nasal drip

[tgjones]

my husband is a vietnam veteran with diabetes caused by agent orange.  he has chf asthma copd allergies among other things.  he has a chronic and almost constant cough from the post nasal drip in the back of his throat.  sometimes he coughs up phlegm and other times he does not.  i fear this substantial coughing will affect his heart.  will it?  will a sinus ct help in any way?  what can i do to help him?  i am willing to do anything.  what about treatment in your facilities?  i will bring him if you feel you can help him have some quality of life.

he also has difficulty breathing.  he takes a number of medicines including combivent theophylline breathing treatments with albuterol and atrovent.  when he coughs he does not breathe well at all.  often he cannot eat because he cannot breathe while he is eating.

he has been hospitalized numerous times and been intubated several times or on the bipap machine.

i am afraid he is dying right in front of my eyes and i feel helpless.  please tell me what i can do?

[National Jewish]

It is very unlikely that chronic cough will have any effect on your husband's heart.  Less than optimum treatment of his lung disease will put a strain on his heart.

Chronic sinusitis is probably contributing to his postnasal drip.  Daily treatment of the sinusitis with nasal washes and a nasal steroid spray would help.  A CT scan and examination of the phlegm could show infection that might be treated with an antibiotic.

What you say suggests that he has some kind of bad lung disease.  You should ask his doctors what exactly is the diagnosis of his lung disease.  If he has not ever been seen by a lung specialist that should be arranged soon.  He may benefit from other medicines he is not receiving, maybe even oxygen.

[Inanga]

hi. your predicament sounds terrible, I hope you have some postitive progress soon. I had a somewhat related problem for quite a few years although a lot simpler. I found I had several things going on that made the final picture very confusing. Slowy I have managed to sort out each problem and am now practically 100% by managing each condition. It gets tricky when medication for one problem aggrivates the other. To keep it short I am responing to the post nasal drip problem you mention. I have had this for about 10 years very badly. The docs always treated it as seasonal pollen allergies and this was definitely a factor in summer. But there was another allergy going on which worse than hayfever - I'd get hrrible thick mucous post nasal drip down my throat. At times I'd choke on it. For abuot 2 years I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a nigth from waking up choking on mucus. It was terrifying to be jolted awake stuggling for breath. After a long time I identified food as a cause for this. I tried elimintating wheat products and going gluten free - that certainly helped a great deal - but gluten free products can still give me the same problem so I suspect the problem in an additive used in wheat products. White bread is one of the bad ones for me bu it's packed with additives to control texture, etc, etc. I currently suspect soy lecithin but haven't identified the exact cause yet. I have discovered that the antihistamine I take for hayfever also allows me to eat fairly normally - so there is definitely some allergic reaction going on. I will try to get some tests to identify the exact cause soon. It's been a long process putting together clues. unfortunately i've had several doctors who won't see beyond the hayfever part. Avoiding the problem foods has been far better than treating the symptms. I wish it was so easy for you - there just might be several condiotions going on and you might be able to separate out one and treat it and make the rest more tolerable. Good luck.