Heard from the researchers this morning, asking if “the GERD medication that was prescribed to you improved your cough partially or completely?”
Sigh. I wish.
I let them know nothing has changed; in fact this week has been terrible! Hoping to start the trial medication soon (crossing fingers I don’t end up as a “control” with a placebo.
Yesterday was the worst for coughing. I went to bed last night thinking, “must remember to write a blog post about how bad today is so I don’t forget.” And I’m still coughing this morning!
I think my follow-up call with the doctor is supposed to be this week. I’ll reach out to them if it’s not. Because this does not feel good.
It’s a holiday Monday, and I’m grateful that I got to sleep in today after a weekend of hiking, archery, attempting a high ropes course, and sleeping on a camp mattress that was profoundly uncomfortable. Very grateful to remember I had some Aleve in the cupboard. And that I pre-booked a visit to my physiotherapist.
Also, I had spotting yesterday, and seem to have my period today, 17 days from the last one (16 if you count yesterday as the beginning). Previous was 84 days. Just a slight fluctuation. Sigh.
This has also come with an upset stomach. Or maybe that’s from all the processed food I ate over the weekend. Either way, I’m still taking the PPI, and it still doesn’t seem to be helping my cough or my digestion (TMI processed food gives me terrible gas... I wonder if it’s related to my sensitivity to propylene glycol, an ingredient found in everything from shampoo to salad dressing).
Said I was gonna do this daily, whoops...
Firstly, my physio asked me to keep track of how long it lasts when he “fixes” me, quantified as “when can you do a shoulder check on your bike.”
Last time he fixed me was Friday. Saturday was fine. Sunday was twingy. Monday I didn’t ride but tried turning while walking and it was twingy. Tuesday was definitely the “this hurts” stage.
Secondly, the proton pump inhibitor (PPI—did I remember that right?) effect.
So far, no change to cough.
Had one night last week which was extremely bad, up in the night with heartburn on top of coughing and indigestion. Things have settled down but I am still coughing. Also having mucous in stool, which is weird but not a problem otherwise.
So the med I am taking for the cough is pantoprazole sodium, which is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) designed to reduce acid in the stomach. It usually takes 2-3 days to show results, but could take 1-7 days. To know if it’s really having an effect on GERD, you need to take it for 4-8 weeks.
So the fact that I had a coughing fit last night doesn’t really mean anything yet! Gotta be patient.
From what I gather, the cough is caused by esophagitis which is caused by damage done from the stomach acid. So in addition to stopping the stomach acid from going where it’s not supposed to, I need to give my esophagus time to heal.
If GERD is even the cause! We don’t even know that yet. On the one hand it seems possible; on the other hand all the lifestyle risk factors don’t really apply to me. I barely drink at all, don’t smoke, not overweight, don’t snack at bedtime, etc. The one risk factor that seems possible is caffeine, but I don’t drink a ton of coffee (although I did when I was younger!) and not after noon.
Anyway for now I guess I just have to keep track of what (if anything) changes, and see what the doctor says.
My cough. My doctor once told me they could tell I was in the waiting room because they recognized my cough. And yet, they never really did anything about it... oh I had all those inhalers on my foray through asthma but the cough never went away and I just accepted it.
Well, I recently saw a pitch for clinical trials of a medicine for chronic cough, and thought—sign me up!
So I’m starting that process. Part one is Rule Things Out. Which is to say, in an interview with a doctor during which I tried to remember all the inhalers I tried, they asked, “What about reflux?” Well, my regular doc brought it up once as a possibility, sort of floated the idea and let it hang in the air and then moved on to something else and never tested the theory.
So, now we’re testing the theory.
I started taking meds for GERD (I forget the name, and it’s late so I’m too tired to go look at the bottle) last night, one pill a day, half an hour before dinner. Yesterday I thought, was this better? Tonight I was at the theatre, so of course I extra hate it when I have the urge to cough at the theatre, and yep, it hit me.
Maybe the meds are something you need to take for a while to know if they work? I will try to remember to look it up tomorrow. Meanwhile I’m keeping track here because otherwise I won’t remember (did my cough getter better while I was on the gastritis diet last summer? I don’t remember). So expect a lot of boring cough reports, I guess.
