Painful Cough

Does anyone know anything to soothe a raking cough. My husband had his kidney and a cancered stomach node removed on march 13th, then two weeks later April 8th he had surgery to remove a tumour in his right lung however the operation was cancelled because his left lung kept collapsing and they were afraid they might lose him. He also has mets in both lungs. I know coughing is part of lung cancer, but I just wondered if anyone had a secret remedy or any suggestions. He is on his first cycle of Sutent, has Nausea, and Steroids tablets, and is now on ten 50mg tabs of tramal, because on friday midnight, he coughed so much he broke the cartlidge off his rib and also caused a hernia at his removed kidney site. He was so looking forward to his last day of chemo on Sunday and now he is back in bed. If anyone else has had that coughing problem and may know something that might help him. I just hate to see him trying to catch his breathe all the time.

Thank you for any help 

Killian

Hi,

We used a nebulizer and a cough syrup -- Hycodin, Tesslon pearls, and Mucinex for my mother's cough.  We also had acupuncture, which might have done the trick.  The coughs became further and further apart, and eventually stopped.   Roz

On 5/19/2008 Rosalind wrote:

Hi,

We used a nebulizer and a cough syrup -- Hycodin, Tesslon pearls, and Mucinex for my mother's cough.  We also had acupuncture, which might have done the trick.  The coughs became further and further apart, and eventually stopped.   Roz

Thank you Roz.

Did your mum have the cough for long and has she completely stopped, I cant imagine my husband having a day or night, without coughing.

I have been to the doctors today and he has changed my husbands medicine to two x100mg tramal twice a day, and then if this dosent work by wednesday I am to take it up to 2x2200mg twice a day this is also tramal Slow release. However if it hasnt stopped pain by friday I have to go back.

 The Doctor has also given me some 30gcodeine phosphate tablets and these seemed to help but only for the first two hours, so I might try your remedy for the cough tomorrow. I dont have to tell you because you know, but it is terrible to watch someone trying to catch their breathe.

Anyway thank you again, and i hope your mum is doing well

On 5/20/2008 killian wrote:

 

On 5/19/2008 Rosalind wrote:

Hi,

We used a nebulizer and a cough syrup -- Hycodin, Tesslon pearls, and Mucinex for my mother's cough.  We also had acupuncture, which might have done the trick.  The coughs became further and further apart, and eventually stopped.   Roz

Thank you Roz.

Did your mum have the cough for long and has she completely stopped, I cant imagine my husband having a day or night, without coughing.

I have been to the doctors today and he has changed my husbands medicine to two x100mg tramal twice a day, and then if this dosent work by wednesday I am to take it up to 2x2200mg twice a day this is also tramal Slow release. However if it hasnt stopped pain by friday I have to go back.

 The Doctor has also given me some 30gcodeine phosphate tablets and these seemed to help but only for the first two hours, so I might try your remedy for the cough tomorrow. I dont have to tell you because you know, but it is terrible to watch someone trying to catch their breathe.

Anyway thank you again, and i hope your mum is doing well

My mother would have terrible coughing spells, about two or three a day to begin with.  They could last an hour or more.  We would use the nebulizer (it had a steroid in it) and then the Hycodin (which contains codine) if that didn't suppress the cough.  Usually these two medications combined would work.  The other medications I mentioned we gave on a regular basis to try to ward off the cough altogether.  We kept records and saw that there were longer and longer times between coughs.  She started having only one spell a day (usually between 3:00 and 5:00 in the morning) and eventually they stopped completely. (I think after about 5 weeks.)  We also had an acupuncturist come to the house twice a week.  My mom's hospice nurse felt this was the real secret to the end of her coughing.

I hope you can find the trick with your husband.  You're right; it is terrible.  Good luck to you.    Roz