? for one you one lungers

[Amy P]

Mom has had a viral infection for the past 3 weeks or so and has a lot of trouble kicking the respitory piece - I am trying not to read to much into the lingering cough but am wondering if this is just a product of her only having one lung as this is really the first time she has had any other illness since her recurrance.

Frank, Bruce, Connie, Don M or anyone else, have you ever had an infection like this and had the cough linger???? How long did it take for it to go away? She did see the oncologist a couple of weeks ago and the doc didn't seem overly concerned but did want to see her back in a month (we are on a 2-3 month plan).

Any info would be appreciated!

Much Love,

Amy

[Frank Lamb]

Amy, I have only had a few infections since my lung removal.(knock on wood).and one or two of those were urinary tract infections.

However I have had a lot of coughing incidents and unfortunately in my case every time I start a coughing episode bad news usually follows.I would definately ask dr.if anything is wrong or at least ask why they are not concerned about the cough.

[luvmydog2]

I have had several infections Amy, but I have never had a coughing problem. I do cough some when I get hot etc. but not a lingering cough. I guess it might depend on how bad infection is and how irrated the lung/throat is. Does she cough anything up? Might be a good idea to run it by her pulmonary doc anyway.

[Connie B]

Amy,

I have had one to many lung infections to even count. I had lots of problems with coughing during those infections.

Is your mom coughing a lot still?? Are they sure it's viral??? They USE to do that Viral thing with me, then I said, no more, I want to know if it's viral or bacterial. So, they did the test and 99% of the time it was bacterial. ALSO, the first 3 years of my journey, my primary doc told me when I felt a cold coming on, she wanted me on antibiotics. I did that the first oh......4 years. It worked like a charm. Then as time went on and I had to change Primaries I had to play that game of is it viral or bac. Don't do that anymore. It's to damn hard on our lung and body to do all that coughing. And YES my cough lingered and lingered. I won't do that anymore!

If I were her, I would want to know one way or the other what this is. I wouldn't wait either. She can go to her primary for answers as well.

Good luck, and I sure hope she feels better real soon.

Hugs,

Connie

[Don M]

Amy:

I developed a dry cough about 2weeks after surgery that has not gone away. I have had it for 2 months now. I have had no viral infections. Just one short head cold that never got into my lung. I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that when I bend over, I go onto a coughing fit. I thought I might have acid reflux because of the bending over symptom, but I don't think so now. I have been taking protonix for almost a week now, and still notice the urge to cough. And, I have had no feeling of indigestion. I told my onc about it last week, and he prescibed codeine to suppress the cough relex and the protonix just in case I had acid reflux. The codeine seems to help a lot. I take 1 or 2 in a 24 hour period. The last time I saw my pulmonologist, about 2 months ago, he said that the coughing was probably due to my lung getting stretched which causes an irritation and thus the cough. I would think that the coughing should stop after 2 months, but who knows? My onc says he will ask his pulmonolgist friends about it.

If your mom's cough is lingering fromm the viral infection, I think she should check it out for bacterial infection as Connie said. I don't think there is any particular reason that having just one lung should cause her cough to linger. My cough is due more to mechanical reasons. I don't have any sort of infection.

Don M

[Fay A.]

Don,

Something that can contribute to our having a dry cough is the mediastinal shift that takes place when a lung is removed. Even without acid reflux.

Amy,

Don't let anyone play the "maybe viral" game. I understand that their concern is that they don't want to create an antibiotic resistant bacteria. But your Mom is not part of the 'healthy' population the whole "Antibiotics: To Treat or Not" issue was geared towards. Your Mom falls into the at risk group.