I have croup!

Ronni

Ronni

The motormouth ;)
Location
Nashville TN
I've been dealing with a cough that has been keeping me up nights for a few days now. Ron finally convinced me to go to the doctor. After I explained my symptoms (essentially just a cough that won't go away) he asked me:

Did it start out with a sore throat that lasted just a day or two? Yes
Did you lose your voice for a day or so after that? Yes
And I'm guessing you don't normally sound the way you do right now? (hoarse and croaky) No, I don't.
Are you tired all the time no matter how much sleep you get? Yes.

He then told me I have a virus that is essentially the adult form of croup. I never even knew adults could get croup!!! No barking cough, no stridor, (the two thing commonly associated with croup in kids) but the adult virus doesn't manifest those things. He went on to tell me that I'm going to be dealing with this for likely a couple more weeks because it takes that long to run its course, and that because it was viral there wasn't anything he could give me to clear it up, but that he'd be happy to prescribe some heavy duty cough meds to help control the cough at night so that I could sleep. Yes please.

Both he and the pharmacist cautioned me that the prescription Tessalon perles must be taken with a full glass of water and under NO circumstances to chew the capsules. It works by numbing the throat and lungs, making the cough reflex less active so chewing them will deaden the mouth, throat etc.

I got a full night's sleep for the first time last night. I am still exhausted, dragging my ass to work again today, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
 

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Oh dear Ronni, hope you get plenty of rest with
the tablets.

This is the first I heard about Croup since I was a
boy, I often wonder what happened to old time
illnesses, some change their name and others just
disappear.

Mike.
 
get-well-soon-greeting-card-vector-id1146584344
 
jujube said:
Steam. Best thing for your cough. Pour boiling water into a basin or large bowl, add a little Vicks Vaporub if you want, and drape a towel over your head to keep the steam in. Breath deeply. You'll cough at first but then it gets soothing.

Alternative, of course, is to loll in the shower.
Click to expand...

I've been doing a lot of that...it really does help. I pulled out the humidifier too, and it helps, but not as much as those long, steamy showers.

I haven't used the steamy bowl of Vicks, but I've been rubbing it on my chest before i go to sleep and that's been helping.

Those Tessalon perles have helped me with the coughing at night, but the downside is that I wake up in the middle of the night with a throat SO DRY that it's almost painful. I haven't read anywhere that that's a side effect of the perles, but it sure wasn't happening before i started taking them, so I dunno. 🤷‍♀️
 
I used to get Croup when I was a small boy. My mom once told me that she would actually reach down my throat to clear my airways of mucus. Maybe this is why I don’t have a gag reflex. I seldom slept at night and ran a high fever. The doctor told mom that he was trying to keep me from going into rheumatic fever. I think the only antibiotic used at that time for such a disease was penicillin.

Then, in 1973 while I was still working at DuPont, I came down with pneumonia. That was scary for me. I thought only old people got this disease. I was hospitalized for ten days. My fever broke in the middle of the night and I had to call for the nurse. Not only was I completely soaked, like I just got out of the shower, but my bedding had to be changed.
 
It seems some of us have had the same symptoms but with different labels, I went to Urgent Care n was told I just had an old fashion cold, for my cough they recommend 8 ozs. of pineapple juice n 1 tlbs. of local honey my cough was gone in 3 days!! get well soon, Ronni
 

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