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| My 16-year old daughter has a persistent dry cough that will not stop.
She gets this cough anytime she gets a cold, or the flu. After she
gets over the illness, the cough lingers on. This phenomenon started
back when she was about 9 years old. It is a small, non-producing
cough. And she coughs about every 2-3 minutes. We have tried OTC
remedies such as Robitussin with Dextromethorphan and it just barely
helps, but it never gets rid of the cough or heals the cough. About 4
years ago, a Dr. gave her a prescription cough syrup that had
hydrocodone and guaifenisin in it. This has been the only thing that
actually stopped the cough and eventually made it completely go away.
She is allergic to codeine (it makes her nauseous), but she was
usually able to tolerate the small amount of cough syrup without
getting sick. However, she had a bad experience taking Ultram and
Ultracet this past winter for 3 months, and evidently she is now
highly allergic to codeine and anything closely related to it --
hydrocodone. When she tried taking the prescription cough syrup with
this latest cough, she became very sick, with vomiting, and broke out
in hives on her neck. So, now, I have not been able to find anything
that can help her. We have been to 2 doctors locally. One Dr. gave
her Benzonatate which hasn't helped. The 2nd doctor recommended an
Albuterol inhaler. We tried that for a few days. The cough became
much worse; where it had been just a
light cough in her upper throat, it now became a very deep cough much
like bronchitis -- as if she had a lot of loose stuff in her chest.
However, she still wasn't coughing up anything. They did test her
also for strep throat as her throat is very sore from all the
coughing. The test was negative. She discontinued using the inhaler
as she felt it was just making everything worse.
So, now we are back to the Robitussin D, and a steam vaporizer at
night, but as I said, it is only partially masking the cough, it is
not getting better. She is allergic to codeine, morphine,
Ultram/Ultracet, and sulfa drugs. I don't understand what it was in
the prescription medicine of hydrocodone and guaifenisin that worked?
If anyone has any suggestions or can help, please e-mail me.
Thank you,
Linda
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