Originally Posted by
sagegrouse
Sue71, my experience may be helpful. I had a cough last winter (2010-2011) for 13 weeks. It began as a sinus infection, which I medicated immediately with strong antibiotics. The cough showed up a week later (on or about Dec. 10). It was awful; I had trouble talking without going into a coughing fit. My son-in-law is an ENT specialist and, at his suggestion, I twice went down to Denver to see the head of ENT at CU.
There are three causes of coughing, I came to learn: sinus and post-nasal drip; asthma (lung and trachea congestion) and -- most surprisingly -- acid reflux. The last is not just the reaction to a spicy meal, but a more chronic condition.
The ENT docs gave me some more antibiotics and a very heavy dose of prednisone. The prednisone is the "gold standard" of treatments and usually clears up the cough. Mine did -- but only for 5-6 days. When it came back, I started taking acid reflux medicine (Prilosec), which was OTC stuff but at a quadruple dosage.
In mid-February I began taking codeine cough syrup very regularly. The cough cleared up about the first of March. I did reveal a drug allergy to Prilosec. It was an angry and itchy raised rash on the torso, which took a couple of weeks (and more Prednisone to get rid of). I now use cimetidine, which is less powerful than Prilosec but seems to work OK.
I don't know how serious your cough is, but here are the lessons I learned. Jump all over a sinus infection and a cough, esp. w/ codeine cough syrup. Coughs tend to feed on themselves. Don't neglect the possibility of acid reflux, even though the cough starts as a cold. And you might inquire about Prednisone, which is good against most allergic reactions (and besides, you feel really strong).
sagegrouse