Dry cough causing windpipe scare

[GlazedOwl]

Yes I am sort of seeking reassurance at this moment. Some days I borderline manage my HA, some days, like this, it's quite difficult. Hopefully I restrain myself from asking about the other issues bothering me.

Basically this is just a stupid anatomical question really. I've come down with something, cold, flu I don't know, but my main problem is a dry cough that absolutely shatters me. The dry cough started last monday so it's been going for a week and a half, and since two days ago I've had your typical cold symptoms. This has happened 3 times in 2 years now with the dry cough staying for weeks, 1 time it was definitely due to a lung infection, the other time I think I went to the doctor a bit too late and they said my airways were clear so post-viral.

Now, what scared me now was a few days ago during a coughing fit that lasted around 15 minutes and I was almost at the point of vomiting it felt like, I pressed EVER so slightly on the bottom of my throat (where the dip between the clavicles is), like almost no pressure whatsoever and I started wheezing like my airway was completely shut off :( Now I imagine some people will just say you're literally choking yourself that's normal, but I BARELY put any pressure on, like maybe I put 2mm worth of pressure. I can't recreate this if I put slight pressure on the sides or higher up. It's just making me think that I have a blockage in my windpipe now, and that combined with my esophageal fears is just driving me nuts.

I have gone through so many anatomical pictures trying to reason logically with myself but they just made me question my windpipe even more :( Really just want to know whether this is a normal anatomical issue or whether it's due to the cough; I have gone to the doctor recently but he was a traveling one and completely ignored my illness complaint, my lungs or throat weren't checked so I don't even know whether this is viral or bacterial or what.

[venusbluejeans]

Dry coughs are awful aren't they!

but they do cause things like this and I am guessing that when you were having your coughing fit then you were starting to panic and get worried... which would have caused you to cough more and the also would make the feelings seem worse than the actually are.

If you feel no better cough wise in a few days or so then head back to the drs

[ankietyjoe]

If there was any kind of blockage in your windpipe you would be writhing on the floor. Your body knows there's a blockage there and would be doing literally anything to unblock it. You're prodding something that's already very irritated, it's like tapping an arm that is sundburned. Your windpipe will also be covered in mucus, and that's what will be causing the wheezing.

I would simply NOT prod there again, and definitely not start looking at anatomical diagrams while trying to diagnose a problem that isn't there.

[GlazedOwl]

Dry coughs are awful aren't they!

but they do cause things like this and I am guessing that when you were having your coughing fit then you were starting to panic and get worried... which would have caused you to cough more and the also would make the feelings seem worse than the actually are.

If you feel no better cough wise in a few days or so then head back to the drs

They are the absolute worst, I don't remember the last time I had a productive cough though :( yeah coughs are notorious for anxiety and it doesn't help when a dry one drives you to the point of pain. Problem is that when I saw a nurse for a dry cough during the winter months she said there is pretty much nothing you can do about it :( I think I'll see where I am in a weeks time, I don't want to pester doctors but considering my last gp 'appointment' I think I'm owed one, it was useless!


If there was any kind of blockage in your windpipe you would be writhing on the floor. Your body knows there's a blockage there and would be doing literally anything to unblock it. You're prodding something that's already very irritated, it's like tapping an arm that is sundburned. Your windpipe will also be covered in mucus, and that's what will be causing the wheezing.

I would simply NOT prod there again, and definitely not start looking at anatomical diagrams while trying to diagnose a problem that isn't there.

I think I'm just worried by the fact that it doesn't take a lot to narrow the airways significantly. I was under the impression that the windpipe is quite a wide tube, so surely something like a 2mm 'narrowing' shouldn't affect it this much? That's why my brain goes 'oh there must be something on the other side narrowing it as well'. I'm really really trying to find a reasonable logical conclusion to this but I'm just finding nothing, this just seems like the most abnormal thing :sad: And surely if I have such a dry cough there is pretty much no mucus in my windpipe anyway? God knows what's rattling in there when I do cough :scared15:

[ankietyjoe]

Dry cough is irritating. Any irritation in the windpipe will produce mucus. You can't cough up all mucus, which is why you still cough. I know because I was told this by a paramedic and a doctor when I coughed up blood once. The best thing you can do when you cough is try and bring it up gently, and use something like a steam inhaler. A stubborn cough can take weeks to go away.

You are making an assumption about your windpipe narrowing, when all you are really doing is feeling mucus. You are looking at diagrams you can't possibly understand or correlate with the symptoms you are experiencing because you don't have the decade of training a doctor does.

IF.....you were narrowing your windpipe, you would know about it. You are creating a problem in your mind that isn't really happening. If you hear rattling, it is mucus.