Suggest Treatment For Chesty Cough And Phlegm

Posted on Tue, 11 Oct 2016

Question: Every year without fail for the last 10 or so years, I get a chest cough that feels like it is in the dead center of my bronchials. It starts out as an itchy, slightly phlegmy cough, but progresses to be full blown "I can't breath" without non stop coughing. It lasts anywhere from a few weeks to a month or more. The cough gets severe and last year I coughed a bit of blood from coughing so hard. When I do get phlegm, it is either light green in color or white. I have been to three different 12 year old quacks at emergency rooms, but still no resolution. It gets more severe with exertion such as walking. If i lay in bed, it is not bad at all. Other 10 or 11 months a year I am in perfect health.

Answered by Dr. Kathy Robinson (36 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
need regular doctor

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
It would be helpful if you had a regular physician to help you sort this out. It may be that you have an allergy issue that flares up at this time of year. This can result in a bronchitis that can persist for a month or more.
One thing you could try would be to start an antihistamine like loratadine around the time of year that you usually get infected and see if this would prevent the problem.
Another option is to get allergy testing to see what might cause the problem.
I hope you get some relief soon,
Dr. Robinson

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar