Cough for over 1 year

[matthew]

Hi All,

I have had a cough for about one and a half years now. It is not a chesty cough, but one in the back of my throat and nose if that makes sense.

I went to the doctors and he prescribed me with a steroid nose spray and some strong anti-histermine pills. It's like I feel saliva/phlem at the very back of my nose/throat and I want to cough it out and as soon as I do there is more there again.

I have another 15 days or so left of my anti-histermine pills and nasal spray and I hope it is getting better, but I am still worried about it what with all of these new adverts on TV saying that if you have had a cough for over 3 weeks then it could be lung cancer.

So of course I have started to worry that it could be something serious wrong..........

Has anyone else experienced a similar cough for this kind of period of time and knows what it could be?

thanks for your support

Matthew

[countrygirl]

I've been coughing for 20 years because i have allergy to house dust mite that gives me post nasal drip and I cough alot in the mornings due to all the gunk that has gone into my throat overnight ( sorry tmi!).

The trouble with the adverts is that they don't also list what they call red flag symptoms for lung cancer that your Dr knows about. The Drs are cursing these campaigns as all they do is spread fear and Drs are inundated with people with normal benign conditions - this was said by my GP.

A Gp would take into account how old you are, have you ever smoked, what are you coughing up, have you lost weight etc etc and listen to your lungs as well.

Nasal sprays need to be used for about 6 weeks to be truly effective so give it time and if after this you are no better then do go back as you may need see ENT to find out what is causing all the catarrh and to rule out polyps in your nose for example.

If you are a smoker then tell your Dr and also your worries about lung cancer but remember 99.9% of coughs are NOT due to lung cancer.

[Em84]

Ugh! This is my biggest health thing at the moment....Lung Cancer....

I've had some horrendous coughing going on since December...sometimes dry, mucusy..I cough up stuff all the time and only just got over nasal mucus problems...I've had chest infections, throat infections and apparently it's all down to an allergy....I've been given q nasal spray as well but I hate it so trying pills instead.

I've had bad right shoulder blade pain, made worse by coughing, sneezing, this has been for 3 weeks now. I told the doctor last week and she said I might have pulled something. I'm going to leave it another week then book another appointment as Dr Google says this is Lung Cancer,,,.....

Maybe yours is an allergy as well...keep taking the spray as it's true it can take weeks to work, it depends on the allergy as well....

X