How long can you have a cold/chest infection?

I have had a cold / chest infection / flue / cough since about 3 weeks before Christmas!

Every time I start to get over it I get hit by the next phase. It varies over time, so far my highlights have been:

-> Complete body aches and shivering

-> Coughing up blood after a bike ride

-> Bleeding nostrils where the skin got soft soft from residual snot I managed to blow the end of my nose off

-> Waking up hardly able to breath and spending 10 minutes coughing my lungs into the toilet before I have the energy to whimper for coffee

-> Feeling okay, feeling okay, collapsing exhausted in a pile of sweat at 4pm and going to sleep for 18 hours

Fed up.

Mines been hanging around since the Monday after Christmas, felt like I was getting over it so went out for a ride on the new years bank holiday and came home ten times worse. Have had an enforced period off the bike and away from the gym, and now feeling vaguely human again, just in time for going on holiday on Thursday.

Got mine a week before Xmas 🙁 Syill coughing up so much stuff it’s getting scary.
When on the bike my lungs kill…. But it hasn’t stopped me 😀

I thought I was the only one- started a week before Christmas, after Christmas it turned into a chest infection, Amoxocillin, finished course then it cameback. Rode on Sunday and was absolutely shot.

sounds like you need to a) see a doctor and b) not leave without antibiotics before it turns into something worse…trust me I’ve been there…

Chest AIDS? 😯

You’re just getting old WCA 🙂

+1 hora. You’re lucky it’s not the bad kind of AIDS.

horajunior in the hospital last week coughed like an old man and I commented ‘I’ve told him to cut down to just 10 a day’ 😆

sounds like you need to a) see a doctor and b) not leave without antibiotics before it turns into something worse…trust me I’ve been there..

I’ve had a horrible phlegmy cough for well over a month now – I’ve been avoiding going out on my bike, because last year I had a chest infection from October to March. 🙁

After two weeks I went to the doctor to see if I could get some antibiotics (like I needed with my previous chest infection), but I was told it was viral and there was nothing that could be done. Getting really, really bored of it now.

I didn’t think that antibiotics did anything for normal chest infections?
http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/chest-infection-antibiotics-1234362.html

/Edit I was too slow typing for Mrs Toast post 🙂

I didn’t think that antibiotics did anything for normal chest infections?

My last one was bacterial, this one’s viral. Both were/are delightfully phlegmy. Doctor basically told me to WTFU then went back to her Christmas shopping on the Asda website.

EDIT: Too slow to see Ian’s edit! 😛

If antibiotics haven’t worked, ask the doc to try antivirals. Worked for mrsmidlife year before last after a ten week cough with no other apparent cause. Cleared up quick too.

antivirals? What are they then?

Similar to some of your symptoms WCA 🙁
The bit about blowing blood out of my nose is the “new” bit that I’ve never suffered from before this.
It all set in about a week before Christmas and has had the effect that I just can’t generate any power when riding. Only 20 miles around Winter Hill on Sunday but feeling like I’ve done >30!!!

I’ve had a horrible phlegmy cough for well over a month now – I’ve been avoiding going out on my bike, because last year I had a chest infection from October to March.

After two weeks I went to the doctor to see if I could get some antibiotics (like I needed with my previous chest infection), but I was told it was viral and there was nothing that could be done. Getting really, really bored of it now.

Same here, my chest used to rattle when I went to sleep!

& felt worse than the Pneumonia I had 3 years back!

Seems to clear up (4 weeks for me) then come back for some more, our Doc said the same, to keep away from antibiotics & when you think your are clear, give yourself another two more days to make sure.

Clear now at last – fingers crossed 😉

I had a cold and chest infection from early September til just before Christmas. Just couldn’t shake it. I’ve never has anything last anywhere near as long before.

I had a [really annoying tickly] cough that lasted 6 months 👿

A cold only lasts a week or so and is viral and self limiting. If you have a cold “that lasts weeks and weeks” you have actually caught a succession of them

A chest infection lasts as long as it does and can be viral or bacterial.

A GP is the person to go to for diagnosis

coughing up blood ???? see doctor !!!!!!
i have a good remedy for colds ive been drinking freshley squeezed lemons timy bit of sugar everyday for 2 weeks…cold buggered off now..
there is something to be said for lemons if you can stomach them…

Lemon can aid in the clearing of infections; it has antibiotic and antiseptic properties and can aid in digestion, as well. It can also aid in weight loss and reduce cellulite.

Lemon juice is helpful during cold and flu season; as besides it’s detoxifying action it stimulates the immune system…. 😉

My daughter (19 months) has had hers since the end of November including four lots of anti-biotics (two x amoxicilin 1 x arithmicin (sp) and has just started a new one we have never heard of – begins with a ‘C’ but that is all I can remember). It developed into pneumonia in early December so one lot of amoxicilin was IV and included two nights in the hospital. She had a second chest x-ray yesterday and is having a follow-up appt with the doctor next week and is being referred to a paediatrician too as they are getting concerned it is not going (although they accept it might be different viruses coming back to back).

Every time the AB course finishes she starts again about 3 or 4 days later with the same symptoms as before.

Sometimes she coughs so violently she vomits and it is very distressing to see her go through it 🙁

dreednya – Member

antivirals? What are they then?

Antivirals are medicines which work against viruses. Plentiful and cheap, but not often prescribed for chest problems.

Five years ago mrsmidlife had a huge outbreak of mouth ulcers, big swelling, puss, horrid time. Got to the stage of not being able to eat, and big amounts of pain. Doc got her on big doses of acyclovir tablets (same stuff as in Zovirax cold sore cream) and eventually it was sorted, but she keeps a repeat prescription and at the first sign of a cold sore starts a course.

Last year she has this long winter cough, similar to you describe. Won’t shift, goes to doc. Doc says prob nowt we can do, checks for other nasties, all negative. Tries antibiotics, still no improvement. Week after antibiotics finished, cold sore appears, in go the acyclovir. Cough significantly better by day three and gone completely in less than a week. Doc agrees that’s what shifted it.

Most acyclovir gets used for viruses of the herpes family, chickenpox and shingles etc, and developing resistance to the stuff is not seen a problem like with antibiotics. All I can say is, it worked for her.

I had a chesty cough for months, turns out that it was not helped by dampness in my bedroom. I recently bought a dehumidifier and it has worked wonders.

Do you get a lot of condensation on the windows in your house?

on a side note, on of MrsT’s colleagues managed to break a rib coughing so hard, the coughing alone can cause problems with the lungs that can cause blood, worth thinking about…

I had a chesty cough for months, turns out that it was not helped by dampness in my bedroom. I recently bought a dehumidifier and it has worked wonders.

I thought exactly the same was causing the problems at our house and recently bought one. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked for us though 🙁

You’re lucky it’s not the bad kind of AIDS.

CATAIDS 😯 *runs*

Keeping off the bike and not exercising at all would make a very significant difference!

I thought exactly the same was causing the problems at our house and recently bought one. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked for us though

Then you need a bigger one. 😀

MF this is whats worrying me. As soon as hora junior finished his antibiotics 3 days later he hit 39degrees+

Can the Doc give anti-virals to babies?

MF this is whats worrying me. As soon as hora junior finished his antibiotics 3 days later he hit 39degrees+

Is it being controlled with Calpol/Nurofen? YOu can give alternate doses every three hours and both help control temperature. No more than 4 doses of Calpol and 3 of Nurofen in any 24 hours though.

But that sounds very similar to Izzi – her temperature has been up again for the last few days although oddly, when she isn’t coughing, she is very happy in herself and is playing (unlike early December when she didn’t even stand up for three days).

Yep yep.

Just feel like a passenger to his suffering.

Last night he slept in our bed and in a starfish-shape. ALL night I was laying on the wooden edge of the bed falling off….GRRRRRRRRRRRRR