permanent excessive mucus in throat /frequent coughing

[pengyou]

Dear all,

I am 46 years old. I have excessive mucus in my throat since last November.
I started by coughing and suffered during 3 months. I passed all medical exams and did not get any useful solution from doctors. Finally my coughing disappeared this February. But I did not get a day to celebrating because the mucus is still there.

I have started to cough again since last weekend. It is due to a cold. Now I know I have two troubles: mucus in my throat (it might last many months) and combined with a coughing (it will last again 3 months?).

How hard my life is? I hate Mucus and/or coughing.

Could you give me some ideas or encouragement?

Kind regards.

Pengyou

[Parachutepotty]

I'd advise you to look into adrenal exhaustion and also candida overgrowth/gut dysbiosis. Your health problems sound similar to my own. Good luck xxx

[pengyou]

I finally saw my pulmonologist again. He said again that my lungs are fine. And he asked me have a new chest x-ray and the result is fine.

However, I still have the bloody mucus when I clear my throat in the morning. So my pulmonologist suggests me to have a bronchoscopy test if it will continue for another 15 days.

I still have dry cough.

---

For my problem of excessive mucus all the day, my pulmonologist did not say anything but told me it is not necessary to be operated for deviated septum. He also said "reflux esophagitis" is not my case as I took the medecine for that and no improvement.

Now I am completely lost: I suffered with my excessive mucus and dry cough. I worried for my bloody mucus in the morning. And the doctors have not yet done anything for me.

Should I got to see anther doctor?

[Mccaig77]

Hi can I ask if you got a solution to your problems. I have almost identical symptoms and not coping at all. No cause found

[pengyou]

Thanks for all of you.
I would summarize my health problems for later use.
Currently I have three symptoms.
1. Constant excessive mucus in throat (since last November).
2. A little dry cough (worse in afternoon and evening) (since three weeks ago).
3. Bloody mucus in throat in the morning (since two weeks ago)!
My otolaryngologist recently diagnosed me as "deviated septum" due to "hypertrophy of left internal turbinate" and recommends me for a surgery. She does not worry about my bloody mucus but also asked me to listen to my pulmonologist.
My gastroenterologist recently diagnosed me as "reflux esophagitis" as put me on treatment (I could not see any result).
My pulmonologist said I had no lung diseases based on CT scan of my lungs in this February. He is not aware my recent bloody mucus symptom.  I will have to wait for seeing him until next Monday.
As I had twice pneumotorax operatios 18 years ago due to persistent cough, I know my lungs are very weak. Now the symptom of bloody mucus brings a lot of anxieties to me.  

[Victoireh]

I read up an old post from 2005, that provides some information that I thought you might find useful.  The site doctor responds to a question similar to yours, and had some other ideas that we haven't discussed yet.

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Respiratory-Disorders/Excessive-mucus-in-throat/show/283679

[Bonnie009]

I feel your pain.  I have a very difficult life and it is getting worse.  I had a myocardio infarction (silent heart attack), adult onset of asthma, ptsd, and more and chronic nasal mucous problems that hurt and cause anxiety along with back problems falls etc.  I don't have an answer for you but just wanted to let you know you are not alone.  I had a deviated septum and 3 surgeries to fix but still have problems and wonder if if the surgeries that cause this but the doctors don't know a thing.  It is frustrating.   I wish you the best.  I choke, throw up etc.

[Victoireh]

if the blood is in your throat, it can be that at night as you're lying flat on your back the mucous is pooling in your throat. Maybe the blood is coming from your throat? You know, before I had my sinus surgery, I had a lot of mucous coming out of my nose and going down the back of my throat. The infected mucous irritated my throat so bad, that my adenoids were quite swollen. The ENT thought at first that was where the problem lies, and booked me in for surgery to get theme removed. I had to see him again 2 weeks before my surgery and I guess the infection subsided and so did the adenoids. At that point he cancelled my surgery. I nearly lost my adenoids! Thankfully, that didn't happen and the real cause was discovered. You see, all these areas are interconnected. In regards to your lungs you've had a CT scan which can tell the doctor a lot of information about your lungs, if there is damage to them or if this are small growths in them. If your scan showed clear, I definately wouldn't worry about anything strange going on down there. And if you were to be coughing blood from your lungs it would have to be from very bad and hard coughing all day long, due infections like tuberculosis or having really bad bronchiectasis (a condition where your airways are damaged, which can be picked up by CT scan). Just relax and be glad your lungs work well. I hate having asthma some days because it feels like you're breathing through a straw and you have no ability to move your body due to such a lack of oxygen getting into your body. I'm sure it will all work out.

[pengyou]

Thanks again for your opinion.
I will decide if I will need the surgery after I found the reason of the bloody mucus in the morning. I still worry about my lungs because I can not see blood in my nose but I have bloody mucus in my throat in the morning.

[Victoireh]

Well, if you want to get rid of the extra mucous in your sinuses you can do salt water irrigations. I do them all every time I have an infection or think I'm going to have one, as it does clean your sinuses up fairly well. Use a large syringe (60 ml) that I got from my ENT and fill it up with salt water (1/2 tsp of equal amounts of salt and baking soda). I hang over the sink and squirt it up each side of my nostrils till stuff comes out. Gross I know, but effective.

The surgery is not fun. I had a couple of surgeries, because it wasn't until the surgeon went into my sinuses during surgery that he saw my septum was very deviated. So I've had my sinuses both scraped out and septum corrected for in the second surgery. both times your nose is shoved full of cotton and left like that for three days and splints are in your nose for support of the septum of course. Your face will be bruised and people will wonder what the heck happened to you. But I must say it was well worth it, because I had chronic sinus infections that badly affected my asthma. Now I may get one infection a year on average that is very treatable with antibiotics and of course salt water irrigations. And the asthma is much happier. A deviated septum can also make it difficult to breath through your nose and you can have bad snoring at night. I guess it depends on how much your quality of life is affected, as to whether you want to go through with the surgery.

[pengyou]

Thank you too.
I just bought baking soda and will try it now.

[pengyou]

Thank you very much.
4 months ago, I had pulmonary function tests and it was fine. I had CT scan of my lungs 6 months ago and it was also fine.
Now I would trust you and don't worry too much about my lungs.
Could you tell me a little about the operation of deviated septum?

[Victoireh]

Due to your deviated septum, you most likely have post nasal drip. The mucous can travel into your upper airways and you end up coughing it up. I used to have that with my sinus infections. At first I thought it was from my lungs till my doctor took a sample of it and had it tested. If it's from your lungs they will feel congested and with enough mucous buildup you will have rattling in you lower airways. You're definitely on the right track, as this is a common problem. I also had a deviated septum, and had it repaired. Now I have way less problems with sinus infections. The bits of blood you see could be from your sinuses, due to the wrong airflow from your deviated septum.  And also if you have lung issues you will have shortness of breath from all the excess mucous blocking your airways. It sounds like you're in good hands. If you do experience breathing issues you could always request pulmonary function tests to see how well your lungs are performing.

[pengyou]

I saw my ENT doctor this morning and she showed the result of CT scan. Indeed I have Deviated Septum and she suggests me to be operated. This Deviated Septum explains excessive mucus in my throat. However, I am still wandering if it causes some bloody mucus in my throat in the morning. For that I worry about my lungs.

[Jannaam]

I had the same, especialy after eating.
Foud out that I have a food-allergie ( eggs , diary and more ).
When I avoid the allergic foods I have no problems.

To stop an attac, take half a spoonful of Backing soda in a glas of water
and you will experience immediate relief.

[pengyou]

In addition to mocus, I satred to spit up blood in the morning. It is blood mixed with mocus and only visible in the first five minues of the day. What could it be?

[Mccaig77]

Me too can you please update me if you can