Seven Deadly Shins
hello all:
I haven't been around for a while. Trying to crowdsource some medical help, which I know is dumb. Anyway... maybe somebody has an answer.
I've got a sore throat on April 21, five days after Boston. Didn't make much of it, just thought a regular cold. It usually passes in 5-7 days.
So I've had general cold symptoms for the next 8-10 days, even took a few days off work to get better. It got better but it never really went away.
I've had cough, sore throat, congestion, slight headache and a bit of sneezing, thick brownish-greenish mucus when I went to see a doctor on May 10. He thought it was something bacterial and prescribed a course of antibiotics. I've taken them for 7 days and got better - well enough for a 10 mile run and a trip to cottage.
Then it started again. General weakness and muscle ache this time plus all of the above. The doctor now thinks it's seasonal allergy and presribed Allegra D, corticosteroidal nasal spray and for some reason, asthma inhaler. I've never had allergies or asthma, and I am 45. Had a slight fever last weekend.
Went to get chest X-rays to rule out pneumonia. Nothing found there.
Been staying home for 4 days now, and feelling stuck with the same symptoms again: congestion, sore throat, occasional cough, spitting greenish-brown stuff. For the last few weeks, deep breathing causes cough and wheezing in the chest. No fever. No itchy eyes or runny nose.
What the hell is it, and has anybody experienced something similar? It does not look like asthma or allergy to me. Allergy medications seem to have no effect whatsoever.
thanks for your input!
Hi!
My first suggestion was to check for asthma. I was diagnosed at age 35, so it's not necessarily a young disease. I started as you, with a cough and congestion that lasted 10 months. It could be temporary, just a bad case of allergies affecting your breathing, so the asthma inhaler will help with that and we are in allergy season. But if Fall comes around and you still have it, chances are you are going to have to test it. Having said that, the color of the congestion and the fever sound like it is not asthma (it's usually clear), so the doctor probably gave you the inhaler to breathe better. Use it for now!
Oh, the general weakness is the lack of breathing. I could be in bed for days when I get a bad bout of asthma and I feel so tired all the time.
Hope you feel better!
Damaris
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Healed Hammy
Dr. Knowsnothing here, take my advise with caution.
I developed allergies (pollen I guess) in my late 40's after never having them my entire life. I get them for about 3-4 weeks in May of each year (Northeast US area) then they go away. I too feel congested, I blow my nose several hundred times a day (lol), and spit phlegm in mornings till I can move around a bit. I too can feel run down a bit, but not enough to keep me in bed.
One suggestion is to try and keep your windows closed to eliminate pollen, wash your sheets/pillowcase more often, some even shower before sleeping to get the pollen out of their hair overnight. Might take 1-2 days to get the house less infested, but see if that helps to mitigate the symptoms.
Allergies can be strange. When the humidity first kicks up in summer I get an itchy spot on my forearm near the elbow for about 1 week, then it goes away till next year. Also have you changed any laundry soap or fabric softner? Keep us updated and good luck.
There has been a virus going around here where people were deathly ill for two or three weeks. Two of my coworkers in particular caught it, and have had the same persistent hacking cough since winter!
The one guy sneezes his ass off everyday and it's like dude why don't you do something to help your immune system?!
I actually have caught it two different times this spring! Both times I wasn't down as long as other people have been, probably because my system is pretty strong, but it was very frustrating indeed as there was a time I went years without catching a cold.
These days though, it seems that everywhere you go someone is wiping their nose (after they shake your hand!) or coughing and hacking like there ain't no tomorrow!
Vitamin C anyone?
Could still be a respiratory infection of some kind, that the original course of antibiotics weakened temporarily but didn't completely kill off. Sometimes docs will prescribe another course, or a stronger one. (They love their antibiotics.) You may have mild asthma that doesn't normally give you problems, but is being exacerbated by the infection.
I have asthma (actually was diagnosed in childhood for me) that normally does not give me much trouble. (Except for of course when running, but how often do I do that anyway? I take my inhaler before a run & am fine.) But every 2-3 years I get a respiratory infection that might last 1-2 week for most people, but gives me asthmatic symptoms for months. My regular inhaler does not do much good on its own, and I usually need to go on something stronger/longer-acting (e.g. Advair or Singulair) for a while, to keep the breathing under control. You didn't say whether the nasal spray or inhaler helped your breathing/coughing.
We need Dr. House & his team for the differential diagnosis. Good luck!
Dave
Get a second opinion. Your doctor seems stumped anyway.
Edit: By the time you find out what it is you'll probably be over it.
(((Toronto))). No advice. But SO was sick for a good 4 weeks this winter, with exactly the same symptoms. The cough lasted the longest. No antibiotics, it went away on its own. Just rest well. P.S. I wrote you a pm.
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
I have both allergies and asthma. Have had both since infancy, so a very long time. The only time my mucus is brownish/greenish is when I'm sick with some other kind of respiratory infection.
I second getting a second opinion. Hope you get it figured out and fixed.
rather be sprinting
Likely allergies, maybe asthma. Like others, I have both. I find that if I do a good long warmup when I run, the adrenaline clears it up--that's actually how I test to see if it IS allergies, because allergies improve markedly with adrenaline. So maybe give that a try. Actually, a long warmup (honestly, I jog a slooooow mile before every run/workout, and I mean like 10 min mile!) helps with asthma, as well. Mine used to be so bad and it's really improved just from warming up more slowly.
PRs: 5k 19:25, mile 5:38, HM 1:30:56
Lifting PRs: bench press 125lb, back squat 205 lb, deadlift 245lb
thanks guys.
I've been staying home since Saturday and my windows are normally closed. No changes with any househould cleaners, etc. Been taking allergy meds and nasal spray all this time. Absolutely nothing changed - same cough and congestion for the past 4 days after it got somewhat worse on Saturday, then better on Monday - so at this point I think it's safe to say this does not look like allergy.
I was also led to believe that allergy usually does not cause thick greenish-brown mucus or wheezing in the chest.
Asthma could be a possibility, although it's extremely weird that it would suddenly develop at this point in life. There is no family history of asthma (or allergies, for that matter). I've run all these races so far with absolutely no breathing difficulties. For those who suffer from asthma: Do you also get nose congestion and thick mucus in the nose and throat? I thought asthma was primarily cough, wheezing, chest tighness. That only matches a part of my symptoms.
I must also say a lot of other people were coughing and sneezing in the office and elsewhere. I still think it could be a bug, either viral or bacterial respiratory infection. It's just odd that it goes on for so long.
Anyway, I'll probably go get a second opinion, although it's not that easy with our health care system (you are tied to one family doctor who keeps your medical history). Happylily, glad to hear your SO is OK now!
I get both chest issues and mucus, both on the nose AND throat (that amount of phlegm causes me attacks during races all the time) since I have allergy induced asthma and mine appeared all of a sudden. Nobody in my family has asthma. Having said that, the mucus is completely clear with asthma but when I get a cold, the asthma makes it worse and turns like yours.
I second the votes for a second opinion.
Don't necessarily rule out allergies as an initial cause, but it sounds like you have an infection of some kind now.
I used to get bronchitis EVERY spring and could not figure out why. Until my son started to show signs of seasonal allergies, and I realized that they started up about the same time I got bronchitis. I never thought it was related to allergies because the ads all say allergies are "sneezing, sniffling, itchy eyes" and I didn't have any of that. Instead, I would get a deep congestion in my sinuses and dry mucus in the back of my nose, which would migrate and turn into bronchitis. Staying ahead of it with allergy meds as soon as the pollen starts on the trees, along with really clearing out my nose and sinuses on early morning runs, has prevented bronchitis the last 6 years or so.
Good luck!
20,000 miles behind me, the world still to see.
Update:
I went to see another doctor today. This one thinks it's bronchitis caused by some lung infection. I was given stronger antibiotics for a week, let's see what happens.
thanks again.