I've been on and off school for the past two weeks. Not really a big deal since I got my AP tests over with and the rest of the school year is a joke because I am a senior.
This the the summarized version leaving out many arguments with my doctor and his nurses and some of the very incompetent assumptions they made.
I've had some mystery cough. Like really bad cough. Coughing as in I get 3hrs of sleep each night. Here's what i've done
Went to my regular doctor, he prescribed a zpak and an inhaler in addition to my existing allergy meds
I called him 4 days later to say it wasn't working and the inhaler did nothing buy make me super jittery and have heart tremors
He prescribed another inhaler (xopenex) and another antibiotic
I called him to say that it wasn't doing anything and fought with the nurses as to why albuterol/xopenex does not get rid of a cough and if it does it must take a long time as I had been on it for 12 days
Finally got another appointment with him where I was really pissed and he gave me Robitussin + Codeine to "help you sleep". Well that didn't work 1) robitussin is an expectorant and can make you cough more, 2) Took 2hrs to kick in and worked for about an hour, and 3) Codeine doesn't work on 60% of people.
After 14 days I called the doctor office, talked to another ignorant nurse and said "look, its been 2 weeks, I haven't stopped coughing, your treatment is not working, the cough medicine you finally gave me does nothing, so you either need to give me something that works or you can pack up my records and I'll be there in 20 minutes to pick them up" The nurse said I probably should use the inhaler more.
So 20 minutes later I was there getting my medical records. I went to an allergist that same day who did some tests and concluded
1) The inhalers had virtually no effect on my breathing ability (I'd love to go stick that in the other doctors face)
2) I am very allergic to oak and birch pollen. The prick test for oak on my arm swelled up to the size of a dime even though I was on zyrtec.
3) The antibiotics will do nothing for me
So now I have prednisone and some "real: (in the words of my new doctor) cough medicine (hycodan) and I am feeling a bit better. I did wake up at 3:00 this morning coughing and haven't fallen back to sleep since and I didn't want to take any more hycodan.
