Mother coughs constantly for the last 5 months

Hi @pfritz and welcome to Connect. That must be so frightening seeing your Mom have this chronic cough. It can be very difficult to see a loved one show ambivalence toward the situation.

I thought @ginak may be able to share their experience with chronic cough and offer you support.

Has you mom been willing to go see a doctor since this has lasted for so long? Does she exhibit any other symptoms?

I too had “The Cronic Cough” for 2 years. Dr told me it was psychological, along with shoulder pain. During my flight physical at Mayo Clinic my brilliant physician listened to me, ordered a chest CT. I was in surgery within 48 hours! A brilliant team lead by a thorasic surgeon removed a 3cm tumor and my upper left lung lobe. I had lung cancer. I Never Never smoked !
Lung cancer take 422 lives each day. With proper diagnosis and proper treatment at a larger medical facility, away from my small town, I am grateful to be a 12 year lung cancer survivor.
Do you know lung cancer is the #1 cancer Killer? In this Centry 1 Billion people will die with lung cancer.

I commend you for asking and caring for your mom!
I hope you encourage her to get a second opinion and a chest CT that may address your concerns.

The Pulmonology Medicine Department is a good place to start!
All the best,

Thank you for your response. As far as I know it's just the cough. She says she has a constant tickle feeling.

Thank you for listening. I am trying to see if I can get het her to see a specialist after the holidays. She's very focused on that right now but perhaps she'd be willing to see someone once it is over. I will recommend a chest CT.

Thank you again.

My husband had a cough last year and still has it off and on. He was due his ct scan for check up to make sure no cancer spread from pancreatic cancer and he asked that they include his lungs. He has organizing pneumonia.. also referred to as BOOP sometimes. It really isn't pneumonia.. research it. They say it has cleared but they keep an eye on it. He had to take steroids for months before it cleared. So I highly recommend a ct scan. Of course many things it could be and test will rule out what it is and isn't.

@zeroga Wow, that is interesting. It is good information to know about. Appreciate our sharing this with us.

@pfritz In response to your mom’s chronic cough. I’m sorry to hear she doesn’t want to check on it. Perhaps if she is older she feels she doesn’t want to bother making changes in her routines. I always had constant throat clearing and a dry cough. Found out that “tickle” can be caused by acid reflux. Which can also cause lung nodules and MAI/MAC. I was also Dx with bronchiectasis, for which I was advised to use an Aerobika device for lung clearance and I nebulize 3% saline every day. Now, I hardly ever cough throughout the day unless I eat or drink something that irritates my acid reflux. I was also advised it’s counter productive to take cough medicine unless it’s an expectorant. You don’t want to suppress the cough because you want to clear out whatever is in the lungs. Good luck, I hope she will reconsider going to a Dr.
Gina K