Wheezing and cough

[butterfly8537]

Hi, I'm a 28yr old girl and I've noticed that I get a lot of wheezing - but it's only present when I laugh. No chest pain or shortness of breath but I also get a cough. I've had this for quite a while and thought it would just go away.

Just to clarify a few things:

I don't smoke/drink/take drugs
I weigh 7.13 stone/50.5kg/99lbs with a BMI of 19.7 (healthy weight) and I'm 5'3" tall.
I suffer from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis/hypothyroidism and take Levothyroxine at 150mcg per day.
I had high plasma viscosity in January 2013.
I also had a high red blood cell count as well, this was in May 2013. I can post all lab ranges if required for more clarification.

Can anyone help?

Thanks :)

[butterfly8537]

Thanks Jemma, I'll try and do that. :)

[jemma116]

Have you got other doctors in the practice that you could see and ask them to do the blood test and tell them that you have a concern?

You should not have to spend your redundancy or benefit money to order a blood test.

Make an appointment with a different doctor at the surgery an discuss your concerns with him/her.  

Best of luck.

[butterfly8537]

Thanks for getting back to me.

Well, my thyroxine has been increased from 125mcg to 150mcg as of yesterday (18th Nov)

My treatment course has been as follows:

25mcg for 2 weeks
50mcg for 2 weeks
75mcg for 3 months onwards

Doctor then increased to 125mcg in August as I still experienced symptoms and the TSH was at 4 (0.27-4.2). I had trouble adjusting to the sudden jump in meds so I alternated by taking 75mcg and then 100mcg, back down to 75mcg and then back to 100mcg and so on.

Once I felt ok on that dose I then alternated my 100mcg dose with the proper full dosage, back down to 100mcg and then back up to 125mcg.

I'm suspected of having an autoimmune illness attacking my thyroid as I had an increase in thyroid antibodies. 4 months later I'm diagnosed with hypothyroidism as my TSH went sky-high - 22 when the range is 0.27-4.2. FT4 was 10.9 (12-22).

The doctor I spoke to yesterday said that a finding of thyroid antibodies in the blood is irrelevant to the hypothyroidism (despite the fact I had a high count of thyroid antibodies when I was tested) and will not test me again for antibody profile or do a Free T3, so I'm going to order a Free T3 test online and have it done privately. I begrudge doing it this way as I'm out of work and the money is coming out of my redundancy money which I've been living off of for a little over a year.

Thanks for your help.

[jemma116]

Using the stethoscope the doctor was probably listening to the noises in your lungs for any infection, or your heart rhythm.

I am not saying that it is your thyroxine that is causing your problem.  The reason I mentioned about getting your meds checked, is that some meds can cause irritation in the throat that can trigger off a coughing reaction.

If your doctor says that you are under medicated for your thyroid problem, what is he doing about it?  I would have thought that your thyroxine would have been adjusted by now.

Hope you get on OK.
Best wishes.

[butterfly8537]

Hi, thanks for your answer.

I haven't been tested for asthma but nothing really triggers it anyway.

I did go to the doctor for chest/rib pain with breathlessness once and all they did was use their stethoscope, check my blood pressure and pulse oximetry. All came back fine, no more action taken.

I didn't know thyroxine could cause side effects like this and according to my doctor I'm under medicated.

Thanks for your help

[jemma116]

Asthma can present itself with a persistent cough that can be triggered off by a range of all sorts of things; the atmosphere being too dry, too cold, too hot, irritants in the air, smoke, sprays, animal dander, pollen, feather pillows and duvets, dust mite droppings (not visible) just to name a few.  People to vary so what triggers off your cough and wheeze, doesn't necessarily trigger off someone else's asthma.

The cough may be a side effect of your meds.  As you have experienced wheezing and have a persistent cough, I would suggest you make an appointment with your doctor so that he can do a lung function test to see if you have asthma.  A lung function can be carried out at the doctor's office and it entails you breathing into a breath pressure metre.  The doctor may decide to send you to the hospital to get a more accurate lung function done.