Bedtime Blues

I'm posting this in hopes that somebody might have had the same experience …and hopefully found a solution.

I currently do three breathing treatments a day — with a nebulizer and a SmartVest concurrently — and I'm on a rotation of antibiotics (Augmentin, Doxycycline, and Bactrim) for a very stubborn Achromobacter infection. During a typical day, I cough up a lot of sputum (usually light to dark green and sticky), especially in late morning.

However, when I finally go to bed at night, I go through a really horrible 30-45 minutes of coughing up stuff almost non-stop. I usually end up coughing up so much that my chest hurts like crazy at the end of it, and leaves me totally exhausted as well. It's gotten to the point that the thought of going to bed depresses me because I know what's in store for me. It's also not unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night to cough up more stuff.

I don't know if the change in posture (lying down) is what triggers these really bad coughing fits, but I'm desperate for a solution.