Oh, thanks! Bastards.

[elfs]

Storm has this persistent, nasty cough. It's the same one she gets every winter, only this winter it seems to be nastier than usual, and is keeping her (and us) up at night. We've tried dextromethorphan and the humidifier. Menthol drops seems to work well, but we ran out last night, so that's on my to-shop list for the day.

Google is no help. The spammers are winning and right now Google's first few pages are tragic. I tried a few other search engines (Blekko, DuckDuckGo, Bing), but they weren't so helpful either.

One of the first-page entries for "persistent dry cough," though, starts out with this list: (1) Tuberculosis, (2) Pneumonia, (3) Lung Cancer. Then it ends with a "ha, ha, just kidding, it's probably a cold or allergic post-nasal drip."

Bastard. And I have to ask, how many people are gonna go reading below the fold? And the "just kidding" part is in a smaller, serif font, different from the body of the article.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Is she taking any prescription medicines for other conditions?

It's worth noting that a persistent dry cough is a known side effect of, for example, Irbesartan (a calcium channel blocker prescribed for hypertension) and probably a bunch of other meds besides.

(Most likely it's due to dry air caused by domestic heating/aircon in winter. On the other hand, it may have tipped over into a chest infection, in which case: take to a doctor who can prescribe antibiotics and let them do the diagnostic heavy-lifting.)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

We've spoken to the charge nurse, and taken all her advice. This appears to be a common cold going around. She's not on anything else, so it's mostly likely the domestic heating combined with an upper respiratory viral infection; she doesn't have the liquidity of a bacterial chest infection. Sadly, the only thing we can do is keep her moist and drugged.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

(Actually irbesartan is an angiotensin receptor blocker [ARB], and it is not commonly associated with cough. The closely-related ACE [angiotensin converting enzyme] inhibitors, however, do commonly cause dry cough, in about 20% of users. It is unlikely, though, that a pediatric patient would be using an ACE inhibitor.)

[l33tminion]

I remember getting croup when I was really young. Wasn't that uncomfortable, but it was disturbing.

I've sometimes found that pseudoephedrine works very well for treating a persistent cough. Even when there's no obvious nasal congestion, there can be a subtle post-nasal drip. Ibuprofen is also very helpful when the throat is irritated.

[urox.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it's croup, too. Irritation of the throat possibly caused by:
1) cold, dry air
2) hot dry air indoors due to heating systems
3) cold weather causing nasal drip causing irritation

Could be whooping cough, also.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I've found WebMD to be pretty good in terms of coming up with suggestions about what to do about various symptoms. Better than Google, in any event.

[mauraanderson.livejournal.com]

There's a potential for cold-trigger asthma, also. Even though she's not *in* the cold, when the inflammation starts, it can persist for quite a while.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I have a handful of kids at work who are all having bigger/more persistent-than-usual asthma fits this winter, according to their families. With, of course, the common cold exacerbating it.

(frozen)

[ladyallyn.livejournal.com]

WebMD, MedLine and NIH/CDC are all probably better resources than most.

Ask her healthcare provider about "Reactive Airway". It's not asthma, in that it doesn't generally interfere with O2 saturation, but can be an annoying (and exhausting) chronic cough, sometimes triggered by cold *or* dry, so the combination of cold /and/ dry sucks. Good Luck!