How to Deal with Coughing due to Liver Mets?

Posted by hollywood817 @hollywood817, May 26, 2023

I've had a deep and persistent cough, often at night, which doesn't allow me to sleep, or sleep soundly. The cough initially hurt my throat but doesn't anymore. The cough may be dry but occasionally is flemmy. Cough medicine, even with codeine, doesn't work. My oncologist said they could do a CT scan and possibly inject botox between the diaphragm and liver as he assumes the cancer has caused the liver to increase in size and it may be rubbing against the diaphragm. As a first step my oncologist recommended I take Prilosec (over the counter anti-acid) for 14 days. No change after 10 days, so I stopped. He also suggested a change in my blood pressure medicine and yesterday my PCP physician changed up my BP medicine from Losartan 10mg to Amlodipine Besylate 5mg. Took the first tablet this morning. Hoping for the best. Anyone else have the excessive coughing? Thank you - Tom

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ilikegreen | @ilikegreen | May 31, 2023

Hi, is your sleep any better since switching to the new BP medicine? If the cough continues your oncologist's suggestion of botox has support in the medical literature (three example links below) for patients when for nothing else worked. Most are free to read online and you'll get a pretty good idea of the patient outcomes. And botox has been used for chronic cough since at least 2010. I hope you're able to get a good night's sleep soon.

Laryngeal Botox injection in recalcitrant cases of chronic cough (2021)
https://www.theajo.com/article/view/4402/html

Supraglottic Botulinum Toxin Improves Symptoms in Patients with Laryngeal Sensory Dysfunction Manifesting as Abnormal Throat Sensation and/or Chronic Refractory Cough (2021)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/23/5486

Use of Botulinum Toxin Type A for Chronic Cough (2010)
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/496294

hollywood817 | @hollywood817 | May 31, 2023

In reply to @ilikegreen "Hi, is your sleep any better since switching to the new BP medicine? If the cough..." + (show)

Yes, the BP switch has helped. Cough is about 10% of what it was and I've been sleeping through the night since last Friday. New BP is AMLODIPINE.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Jun 5, 2023

hollywood817, you may also be interested in this related NETs discussion:
- Cough ! What could it be?! https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cough-what-could-it-be/