Coughing red mucous/gurgling lungs

[marlu]

My husband's lungs gurgle and he coughs while reclining and he regularly coughs up red mucous.  He uses a lot of prescription drugs for back & leg pain as well as anti-anxiety and sleep aids.  He is also a heavy drinker.  I'm not sure he needs as many pills as he takes and he does abuse them.  He also has chronic pericarditis which has not flared up recently.  He also has un-diagnosed enlarged prostrate because it takes him forever to urinate.  He won't talk to his doctor about any of this because it means having to tell the doctor he drinks and the doctor will restrict his pain pills.  He was a smoker for 22 years but quit 4 years ago.  I think his lung problems are related to the combination of drugs and alcohol and he's slowly committing suicide.  He believes that too but doesn't care.  However, I also believe he may have other underlying severe problems like prostate cancer, emphysema or chirossis of the liver but I don't know the symptoms of those.  Could I be correct in that assumption?

[ktdidn0t]

A related discussion, Gurgling sounds in chest as cough was started.

[National Jewish]

It sounds like your husband's major problem is substance abuse and possibly also depression.  These two are often related.  It will be difficult, if not impossible to make any progress with either of these as long as he remains unwilling to talk about them.  Try to find someone he can talk to.  Someone he trusts and respects, be it his doctor, a friend, a relative or a clergyman.  A call to him from any of the 3 might induce him to seek further help.  Yes, he could have emphysema, liver disease or prostate cancer.

The red mucus could be from bronchitis or from more serious lung disease, including cancer.

[Dressage Rider]

I would get your husbund in right away. My uncle died from lung cancer last year with the same symptoms. He wouldn't go to see his doctor and ended up dieing 2 weeks after his first doctor visit. He started to cough up blood and had that girgle sound when he breathed. Don't wait another day, get a chest x-ray tomarrow!!! It was way to late for my uncle as he had cancer that filled his chest including his heart. I hope that this isn't his problem, but anything red coming out of his lungs is not a good thing.