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severe cough

I am an 18 year old female, I have had a severe cough for over 6 weeks with a lot of phlegm that is difficult to cough up, I also have asthma which is making it very difficult to breathe, especially at night. I have lost 20 pounds and now am 95 pounds and feeling very tired. I am coughing and wheezing all the time, I cant go 3 minutes without coughing and coughing, its very annoying, please what can I do?? I dont want to go to a doctor
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Avatar universal
Thank goodness prednisone can not be purchased without a prescription from a doctor.  Prednisone is good for stopping the inflammation which can damage the tissues in your lungs and bronchi but, Tigerlily, if the the phlem you are coughing up is green or yellow it is indicative of an infection.  Antibiotics from your local physican will clear it up within 4-5 days (but keep taking the entire course of the tablets to ensure they wipe out all of the infection).  

In the meantime, to help you with making it easier to cough up the phlem try the following:

increase your fluid intake to over 2 litres of water a day (provided you don't have any heart disease).  This will make it easier to 'shift' the phlem when u cough.  

take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds then cough as hard as you can, that should help shift the phlem,  If it hurts to cough, brace your stomach with a pillow, that seems to make things more bearable.

Also, try what is called a huff cough. Take a deep breath in and hold it for a few seconds then breath out a little bit then breath out really quickly while saying HUFF then continue breathing out normally for a few seconds then say HUFF again  (helps to promote coughing)  and should clear your lungs a bit more.

good luck,  but do go a see a physician.  

Helpful - 0
942934 tn?1268108382
You know what? I've done the samething as you and guess what you end up taking for many weeks? Prednisone! Do you have a peak flow meter? Have you checked it lately? You will have to go to the doctor. Sorry no choice in this matter. You can create lung damage by walking around for weeks with tons of mucous in your lungs. That is a really silly thing to do. Plus you have a low quality of life. Do you take any steroid inhalers? If so, you should increase your dose in the meantime. And again go see your doctor! This is not wise of you to avoid the doctor and not deal with a very bad health situation. If you get a virus on top of your condition, you could end up in the hospital, because your asthma has gone so bad. I know ranting on, but asthma is not something to be ignored. take care and get your asthma under control
Helpful - 0
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