When you catch a cold, and get a cough with it, how long do you live with it before you go to the doctor to get it checked?
For upper respiratory stuff (a head cold), if I'm not feeling better in 10-14 days, I go to the doctor to make sure it's not a sinus infection.
I know that chest colds can take longer to clear. But how long? And what symptoms make you go sooner rather than later - eg, do you go sooner if it's a dry hacking cough and wait if it's a productive cough? Vice versa? I'd go within a few days if there is a fever that won't go down, but what if there is no fever at all?
(FYI - I left a message for my doctor to ask these questions, but she has a tendency to say - it's can't hurt to check it out, just come in. But I don't have time or $$ for an office visit for a virus and I don't like taking antibiotics if they are not really necessary. So I'm trying to decide where to draw the line.)
Thanks all. It is following a cold, and I FEEL completely fine, other than the cough - no fever, not run down. Just a cough, especially when I go out in the cold weather. It's not keeping me up at night (it was early on when I had an active cold, but now it's not). My gut feeling is that it's just some left over irritation and maybe gunk in there that needs to be broken up.
Good thought on the humidifier at night - with the cold weather moving in, the air is really dry here. That might help a lot. And drinking a lot of herbal tea to keep hydrated. Other tips?
3 days-I'm completely intolerant to any illness-especially bronchitis-it's so debilitating that I think it's better to go get the antibiotic and get it over with. This time of the year, I do not remove my gloves in public-so that prevents a lot of potential illness-feel better!
Depends on how bad the cough and if anyone else has been sick. Right now I'm coughing just a little bit. But when I started coughing after DD had bronchitis and DH had pneumonia I talked to the doctor. I would not wait 10 days for a bad cough.
Mucinex and lots of fluids but you will be ok.
Coughs usually run their course in three weeks or so.
As long as you feel ok, there is no fever, no wheezing, then ride it out.
About a month with a dry, nuisance cough that isn't producing a lot of gunk and has no fever. For me, that's usually from post-nasal drip so I use Sudafed to break up any congestion lurking in the depths of my sinus cavities and Benadryl to dry things up. If that doesn't do it, I'll go in and have it checked out. I had a cough during one pregnancy that lasted 5 months and then took another month or two to clear after I delivered. They couldn't find a reason for it and I didn't want to take any medicine so I lived with it through delivery but it was annoying.
Mucinex is also good for chronic coughing.
My dd's cough is finally clearing up but it's taken a month. The cough is usually the last part of a cold virus. The only danger is that you'll get a secondary infection (bacterial). I would wait one month, Coughs do serve a purpose...they help your body break up all the gunk so you don't get an infection. The only thing a doctor will do is give antibiotics IF you have a bacterial infection. In the meantime, try to do a lot of deep breathing and you might try an expectorant to get all the gunk out.
You have a much higher tolerance than me. 10-14 days! I expect to be better in 1-4 days so I try to go to the doctor at the first signs of something before it settles in and is harder to get rid of.
Getting back to your original question. If I feel it is a productive/congested cough, I would go. If it is a bothersome dry cough that is keeping me awake, I would go.
Okay, I think we've already established that I would probably go :-) Of course my doctor doesn't write everything off as a virus or else I would be put off from going. If nothing else maybe they could write you a prescription for a stronger cough syrup, like one with codeine, that might get you feeling better sooner.
My vote is to go. That is what I would do.
Feel better!
After about 20 days of really taking care of yourself...water, vitamins, sleep and its not gone then go. After 6 weeks if you suck at taking care of yourself.
If after a cold or other illness the cough goes on n on n on n on!
If dry annoying cough, six weeks or so.
Updated
If after a cold or other illness the cough goes on n on n on n on!
If dry annoying cough, six weeks or so.
This is going on with my 12 year old. It started with the sniffles two weeks ago. He had a sore throat for a few days but it went away. Slight cough is still lingering. I called the nurse line last week. She said it was probably viral and it would go away on it's own.
I'm with you, I don't believe in heading to the doctor for every little sniffle or cough. Even fevers, we don't go in unless it doesn't go down in a few days. Obviously if a month goes by and you are not better, then you might want to go.
I have the cold now. It's just more annoying than anything really. I'm trying to build up my immune system with vitamin C and other vitamins.
My record is 10 to 12 weeks.
It certainly doesn't happen all the time but every once in a great while I get a cold that just will not quit for the longest time.
Several years ago I had a cough that went on and on.
I never had a fever but the tickle in my throat would wake me from sleeping.
I coughed so hard my ribs were sore from it.
I breathed in steam (got a little steam machine that makes it easy to take steam treatments), took steamy showers, used a humidifier, drank echinacea tea, took vitamins, Claritin and other allergy meds didn't help at all, rinsed my nose and throat with warm saline, took Mucinex, used numbing throat spray, tried cough medicine - I did everything right.
Finally my husband made me go to the doctor and the doctor agreed I'd done absolutely everything I should have, and I didn't have pneumonia or whooping cough - it was just a lingering cough (and I wasn't the only one who'd had it that season - it was going around).
So he prescribed a cough medicine with a little codine in it to use for a few days.
It knocked me out something awful.
I don't know if the prescription cough medicine worked or if my immune system finally beat it but the cough cleared up about 4 days later.
Only twice have I had something like that - maybe 7 years apart but it's exhausting when it happens.
For me a fever is a deciding factor (and still being able to breathe).
If my lingering coughing had gone 2 weeks and I'd been feverish (or I got to the point where I could not breathe well) then I would have seen the doctor much sooner than I did.
With no fever and/or being able to breathe then I wait longer and see how manageable it is.
Unless I have a fever that I can't bring down with home remedies or I start coughing up chunks of tissue, I don't go to a doctor for a cold/flu. I just ride it out.
I really don't know how to answer this..... it seems that just about every fall, I end up with something that ends up with a cough that just lingers, and lingers, and ends up giving me laryngitis! This laryngitis isn't the type that leaves me with no voice, but keeps me out of church choir for 2-3 months......
I know I should go in and get something to stop it at the beginning, but I'm not running a fever, and it seems silly to go to the doctor for just a cough....... it probably starts with an upper respiratory virus thing.. (I work in a middle school, after all, in a self-contained classroom with students with disabilities...)
Rationally, I know I should go in at the beginning and stop it from progressing to that point, but just don't do it......
After 3 weeks I go in. Especially if it's a cough to were I can't sleep at night after medicine wears off.
Depends on the severity of the cough and other symptoms. Does it keep you up at night? Did it start suddenly or follow a cold or other virus? Did it start mild and suddenly turn worse? If it's so bad I can't sleep or it interferes with my ability to speak I go in within a week. Otherwise, I've been known to wait a few weeks. If I am supposed to be spending time with the elderly or infants I have it checked as a precaution. However, I've developed virus-triggered asthma and worsening allergies as an adult. I was reprimanded by my doctor last winter (nasty winter for me) for waiting too long to be seen because of the asthma. Now I have a variety of prescriptions at my disposal and just need to call to get them filled or renewed if necessary. Coughs that suddenly turn worse can be a sign of a secondary infection like bronchitis or pneumonia. My kids spike a fever when they get pneumonia, but I once had a bad case of pneumonia with only a low grade fever (around 100).
It might depend on your basic constitution. I'm more like Robin; colds go directly to my lungs and have, in the past, turned into months-long bronchitis, which I just can't afford. Plus it's miserable, exhausting, and expensive to clear out. I've cracked ribs from coughing.
Ask your doctor's office advice line. My doctor told me I should get evaluated after just 2-3 days, which I couldn't afford, but when I delayed, the illness invariably went deeper, harder, lasted longer, and required expensive office visits plus pricey meds. So now I just go to the doc right away. Sometimes she decides against antibiotics and just gives a high-powered cough med, plus mucinex. Yet I know people who can cough hard for a week, and just get better by themselves.
What's been your experience with previous colds with cough?
depends on what is normal for you.. I tend to get asthmatic bronchitis.. so coughing after a virus is normal for me. I would try my inhalers for a couple of days.. I do not tend to get fevers.. so if I had a fever.. I would go to the dr sooner rather than later.
my daughter on the other hand runs a high fever.. 102-103 for every run of the mill virus that she manages to catch.. the dr says if she has a fever for more than 48 hours to come on in.. I did that a couple of times.. to be told .. just a virus. so now I wait a bit longer.. 72 hours to see if the fever breaks.. cause fevers are normal for my daughter..
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But overall I go by how I feel and how the kid feels.. (if a kid is real sick they lay down.. if they are up and moving most of the day.. they feel OK..) coughs can be serious - pneumonia.. and they can be annoying.. just sinus drainage..
