<p>I was just diagnosed this morning. An anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic and something for the cough. I don’t really feel all that bad, but when the coughing start it is just painful and goes on for a good half hour. After a coughing spell, I am just exhausted. They tell me this can last up to six weeks!</p>
<p>Yes, I had it my last year in grad school. It’s absolutely the scariest illness I’ve ever had. Unfortunately I came down with it in Uganda and no one was sure at the time what it was or how to treat it. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I would die because I couldn’t get any air. Then I’d cough and cough until I threw up. One of my brothers was ill at the same time. We’d all picked it up at Thanksgiving being exposed to too many unvaccinated kids. I had no idea that the pertussis vaccine didn’t last forever. It was only really bad for a few weeks for me, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Hope you feel better soon. I actually felt fine between attacks which mostly occurred at night.</p>
<p>Pertussis or whooping cough is certainly popping up in different parts of the country. As adults our immunities have waned since we had the DTAP as children. Recommendation is that adults now have a TDAP to protect against whooping cough. Babies are especially vulnerable. I just recently had a TDAP and my daughter that is a sophomore in college just received a shot as well. Whooping cough can be horrible and last for a very long time.</p>
<p>father had it as a child when vaccines were not available. He saw many many children die in the old country when he was an md intern. He has a sunken chest.</p>
<p>My friend at work had it a few years ago. She said it was pretty awful. She slept in the recliner for weeks because lying down in bed made her cough more.</p>
<p>During the summer…I thought I’d developed a horrible allergy to something, the coughing was uncontrollable and relentless and wiped me out. It lasted nearly 4 months. Was prescribed antibiotics when I finally went to the doc, but I didn’t get better until a while afterwards. Ruined my entire summer, it was awful.</p>
<p>My doc thinks it was whooping cough after all. There were many cases in CA.I also had that “whoop” sound when trying to take breaths during the coughing.
I’ve been vaccinated now. I hope it was whooping cough in a way, because if it is a weird summer allergy…I can’t go through that again.</p>
<p>I contracted it as an adult even though I had received the vaccine in childhood. I coughed so violently and threw up after every episode. I seriously felt like I was going to die. I have never been so ill in my entire life. I thought I broke a rib from the coughing (but fortunately did not). The antibiotics do not cure the disease (there is no cure), they just prevent secondary infections. The cough got better after about 10 days, but the lingering effects lasted for months.</p>
<p>The good news is, that supposedly you are immune for life once you contract the disease.</p>
<p>My mom had whooping cough as a child and suffered with lung problems her whole life. Time for me to get a booster!</p>
<p>So far I have not thrown up with the coughing, but the episodes are painful to the max, last upward of twenty minutes and when one passes, my head is throbbing and I am just exhausted. It gets much worse when I lie down, so I spend most of the night propped up on couch. Average 5-6 episodes a night, between the coughing and the sleeping sitting up I am exhausted. </p>
<p>I swim, and for about a week I thought it was related to the pool, ie swimmers cough, but no, the Doctor said whopping cough. She did tell me that I should stay out of the pool for a week ( I should be past contangious by then) but that after that swimming may actully help. Hurray!</p>
<p>I had it several years ago, at the same time as my son and several members of another family in our church. There were a number of local cases, and articles were appearing in the newspaper and on the internet about adults getting it even though they had been vaccinated as children.</p>
<p>My doctor was on vacation so I had to see another doctor in the group. This stupid #$%%$! insisted that I couldn’t possibly have whooping cough because I’d been vaccinated, and was incensed that I dared question her. After all, she was a doctor!</p>
<p>I had coughing spasms so bad that I thought I was suffocating. The coughing was forceful enough to break a number of blood vessels in my eyes and my groin. So attractive, with blood-red eyes and massive bruising of my lower torso. Yeah, it was just a cold…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>We are currently experiencing a mini epidemic here in Iowa. Mostly kids who had not been vaccinated. I volunteer in our local library and did story time several weeks ago and had kids crawling all over me. I guess that’s where I got it. The doctor did say she hasn’t seen many adults so far, but she is expecting a up-tick after the holiday.</p>
<p>lololu, I really hope you get over this soon.
A good thing is that you went to the doc early. My mistake is that I didn’t, thinking it was an allergy I developed to ligustrum (a plant the flowers of which can cause havoc for some). When I went to the doc the first time, he gave me nasal steroids. Well that didn’t help, and then I developed a secondary infection in my chest and the coughing came to a point that my diaphragm felt as though it was rupturing, …and I was scaring the neighbours. Finally got antibiotics, and eventually got better. That’s why the whole thing lasted so long with me…just horrible.</p>
<p>Whooping cough is also known at the “100 Day” Cough. Not uncommon to have a lingering cough for 3 plus months. My youngest had it at 10 months of age, and it was misdiagnosed 3 times…first it was just a cough (no whooping sound in small kids sometimes), then it was bronchitis, and finally after doing hours of internet research I told the doc that I was convinced it was either Pertussis or Cystic Fibrosis. The doc finally acquiesced and did the Pertussis culture, all but assuring me that nothing would grow. Told me to go home and treat with TLC and OTC meds. Well…he was profoundly apologetic when he called back a few days later. It was indeed Pertussis, one of the first diagnoses in our area in 1998. Son’s cough lingered for 3 plus months. At the end of all this we learned that although he had had completed most of the DPT series, the vaccine they were using was highly ineffective. A switch was made to a different manufacturer after the local outbreak.</p>