Did he say Whooping Cough?

[kumir_k9]

Actually, the doctor said Pertussis. When I stared at him blankly and then said, "What the heck is Pertussis?", then he said Whooping Cough. I'm posting this primarily because my "friend" silwayseems to be telling my known world that I have everything from typhoid to syphilis, because I've been getting ribbing from multiple friends about what horrible disease I'm spreading to the world.

(**Hopefully silway knows that I'm only pulling his leg here and that I'm not mad at him for that last statement.) ;-)

So yeah, Whooping Cough. I had been hacking away for over two weeks when I decided to see the doctor. I'm sure most of you in Grum's Company will verify this after the weird mating call going on between hope-ish and I both nights as we hacked back and forth across the cabin.

I'm hoping the doctor has misdiagnosed this and I believe he has. I have exactly one out of about a dozen symptoms, the cough. I have no runny nose, no sneezing, no fever, no vomiting, no body aches, no nothin'. Whooping Cough is highly contagious and yet I have not left one person coughing in my wake, not even my wife who was trapped in a condo with me for one week of that hacking.

But I am taking the antibiotics because it probably won't hurt and if it helps, so much the better and then we will see. So yeah, no typhoid or syphilis or any of the other plethora of horrible diseases you may hear tell of. Though I am getting awfully tired of coughing and tired in general as it disrupts my sleep. Other than that, I'm fine.

Comments

[sensicalsmile.livejournal.com]

According to WebMD, whooping cough is the most common vaccine-preventable disease among children younger than 5 in the United States.

The things you can learn on the web.

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Ok, LJ ate half my entry which I have now restored. There were actual facts about Whooping Cough.

[silway.livejournal.com]

No worries. :)

Hope the Sweating Sickness clears up soon!

[ezrem.livejournal.com]

:(

Feel better soon!!!

[pbsweetheart.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon!

[keyla87.livejournal.com]

I had whooping cough about 5 years ago and I did not even have the signature 'whoop' cough. I did have a persistent cough that was not going away and I, like you, went to the doctors to treat my 'cold/bronchitis'. Noone in my office caught it from me despite its high contagion. It turns out that the vaccine that most of us had for this as children wears off in effectiveness and we can catch it as adults, yeah fun.

The test for Pertussis is easy and I hope they took a sample from you to confirm. For your sake, I hope it is not Pertussis as it took me 4 months before all the coughing went away. At the time I was taking the T to work and had to climb stairs to get to the trains. I was so bad I had to actually take the elevator, cause I was so out of breath from the Pertussis.

Long story short, I hope you don't have it, and if you do, I hope you recover much faster than I did.

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

I didn't know the vaccine wore off. How bizaare.

Yeah, activity gets me coughing hard. You can imagine what fun a LARP weekend is for that.

The doctor did not perform any lab type tests. He made his judgement solely upon the symptoms and by listening through a stethoscope. Maybe there's enough of it around that he feels he knows what he's looking for.

I don't know. I'll make him notch it up to the next level if the antibiotics don't do the trick. In the meantime, I'll cross my fingers and go through lots of cough drops.

[branoven.livejournal.com]

Yea, a bunch of those vaccines are only cause a temporary immunity. It lasts long enough to get kids through the vulnerable stages, but by late adolescence the immunity is wearing off or already gone. They noticed a sharp upswing in adult cases of whooping cough, in 2004 or so, and recently started coming up with plans to begin vaccinating adults again, more to protect newborn populations that are at risk before their first scheduled DPT vaccine at 2 months or so.

Ok, I'll stop lecturing now. Fell better soon, and I third and fourth the cough medicine thing.

~Patrick

[keyla87.livejournal.com]

Yep, 2004 is right about when I had it, I remember my Mom, an RN who was working at a local hosptal, said that was the big illnees currently going around.

[cliodhna.livejournal.com]

BLEGH. Feel better soon! :(

I am surprised that your doc didn't give you a scrip for cough medicine as well as the antibiotic, esp. with you being kept up nights... if nothing else, I have had excellent luck with DelSym, which is carried by many drugstores? Good luck, man!

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

If I'm not better when the drugs run out, I will try that... and go back to the doctor for clinical tests.

Thanks.

[keyla87.livejournal.com]

Good point! I forgot that I had prescription level cough medicine to help soothe the cough. Get some!

It will help you to sleep! I had mine still some when LARP season started again. It sucked, but you will get better, and soon or else....

[hope-ish.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm going back to see my doctor again. If you went after two weeks, I have no excuse for not going back after a month of coughing.

Feel better!!!

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Thanks. You too. *cough*cough* ;-)

[winterswan.livejournal.com]

Ugh. What craziness with coughing this year! And here we thought H1N1 would be the end of us all! :-p Best of luck getting better. I am finally to the point where coughing does not bring up a lung, so I'm pretty happy about that.

[the-other-me-2.livejournal.com]

OMGOODNESS- does this mean no thanksgiving?

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

No, it's not as bad as it sounds. I really don't believe that I'm contagious and if the drugs do their job I'll be fine by then.

[embermwe.livejournal.com]

Pertussis actually goes around every 3-5 years or so. It is also nicknamed the 100 days cough. THis according to the RNP that did my physical for me recently, and told me that they have recently put the P back in the DPT shot after having reduced it to only the T a bunch of years ago. She told me in no uncertain terms that I should go get the booster and save myself alot of sick-time and sleep loss.

Feel better SOON!

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

That's good stuff to know. Thanks.