For a non-smoker, I am battling to get rid of this cough. Being an asthmatic I have been very cautious and upped all my asthma medications. Still no progress. I was able to get into the Dr only if I saw a medical student first and then was reviewed by GP. I agreed to that as I was desperate. The medical student had obviously caught someone's cold as he sniffed away. He was slow but thorough and was obviously interested in reading my medical file while he waited for the dr to come and review. He said I probably wouldn't get any antibiotics as it was a viral infection. Well I'm glad the GP reviewed me. The student learnt that if a virus hadn't cleared within 5 days and the patient was getting worse, not better plus the patient was an asthmatic, then there was need for antibiotics - two sorts apparently (but a second opinion thought that was 'overkill and suggested I stop one) plus a big dose of Prednisone for 3 days. Well, day 2 has seen me feeling a tad better but still battling to get anything to come up from my lungs. So that original appointment I had with my own doctor on Monday may still be used. Joy oh joy. Moral of this story - get your cough checked out and don't believe everything the med student tells you!! say 'Ahh'
I had a very similar experience while staying with my sister at Tin Can Bay. Only there was no medical student, but the GP himself. He wouldn't give me anything. Luckily I was heading home the next day anyway, where I saw my own GP.
I never have a simple cold or virus. It always goes to my chest. And yes, I too up the Asthma meds. I have the added problem of a shrivelled up spleen so it's more important that I get onto antibiotics if there's any doubt.
Thanks Beth. I went to see my own GP today. He seems to think the first GP was treating me for possible pneumonia. Didn't know why he hadn't sent me for an XRay so he did it instead. Fortunately by today the XRay is OK. But he did say that the whooping cough that is going around is not covered by the booster I had.
So I would suggest that all should be very careful with the coughs that are happening at the moment. It could be pneumonia. It could be whooping cough. And then the sad news today of the lady who died after having the flu and trouble breathing.
Didn't they say that was the 3rd or 4th who had died from the flu this winter. Thankfully I haven't had a sign of the flu, always have the flu vaccination around March April. And also had the Whooping Cough vacc late last year. So sad to think people are dying from the flu these days.
Yes, Marj I had the whooping cough booster before grandson was born in 2010 but my Dr's comment this morning was that his second patient in this am had also had it in 2010 and it didn't cover her for the strain she had got this year!!
Yes, we think we are doing the right thing for the grandchildren - like the poster in the doctor's waiting room suggests - and it doesn't necessarily work out. Crazy!
Congratulations to you responsible grandarents !!!
I have been a midwife for over 30 years, and have seen babies infected with whooping cough, and its a terrible sight. The problem is that babies can't be vaccinated until they are 6 weeks old, and by that time "everyone" has fussed over them, breathed on them, and coughed over them.
In adults, whooping cough can just be a prolonged cough that takes ages to go away, and most adults don't realise what they have.
Even breastfed infants receive no protection against whooping cough, although they do get immunity through breastmilk from most other things the mum has immunity to.
Most large maternity hospitals are encouraging new parents to minimise their stay in hospitals, (and reduce their exposure to the germs there), limit visitors and anyone with a cough or fever should stay away. New babies should be kept at home and away from crowds until they are vaccinated at 6 weeks..... and new grandparents should have their own vaccinations before the baby is born.
However, no immunity is absolute, but we can only do the best we can to eliminate this dreadful disease.
You grandparents have warmed the ****les of an old midwife's heart !
I didn't know about it either till my pregnant daughter told me grandparents could go get the vacc. I went in the next day, or maybe the day after. lol
I enquired about it a while ago, after my niece told me about it, and said it was free for grandparents. But typical government...they won't give it free willy nilly, not even for a pensioner! My son and his wife have to have a due date before they'll allow it....they're still trying to get pregnant again. Otherwise it's about $70! My niece's parents must have got it free because she was still living at home at the time.
I always have to have every vaccination going, as my absence of spleen puts me at risk.
Gov't has only very recently stopped the re-imbursement of same. $55.00 at my Dr's. in Rockhampton. My friends son, [the dad of a newborn yesterday] had to pay for his. The mum got it free.
Had a throat swab done, but don't get results 'till Friday. I've started Anti-biotics today.
That's why I rang. Not like him to be off-line so long. I know he said he might be out of touch on-line, but I thought he would have the 'Phone handy. Wish some-one from the Nomads was closer to where he is.
say 'Ahh'
