Anyone here have any effective home remedies for horrible coughs?
For whatever reason, over the past five years, Mr. Melisande always seems to get a nagging post-viral cough whenever he gets sick. I always urge him to go to the Dr., which he doesn't do, because he always says the cough is getting better, which it does -- slowly. This time, however, it's even worse, he never fully stopped coughing from a cold he had in early November before this latest one hit. And now it's so bad he's having problems sleeping (even with NyQuil and sitting up in a chair) and talking without coughing. It's also frankly scary for me to listen to because it sounds like he's struggling to breath. And just this evening he told me that his throat hurts horribly whenever he coughs and he even coughed up a little bit of blood last night. (Hit the panic button there, no?)
A couple of days ago, it was already so bad that he decided for himself that he needed to see a doctor, which he did (our primary) who did some kind of throat swab and plied him with all kinds of medication: antibiotics (which he is refusing to take unless the throat swab comes back positive -- good for him!); antihistamines (in case the symptoms are allergy related); cough medicine and nasal sprays. Of course, none of these are working. I have urged him to go back to the doctor, preferably a specialist (I'm thinking ENT) and hopefully he will soon.
In the meantime, is there anything we can do? Any cough remedies that have worked for anyone else? For whatever reason, although he is a tenured professor, he is refusing to take any sick days and just stay home and rest. And now he says he has special Friday night and Saturday morning meetings that he promised to attend and which involve speaking in front of quite a few people, which frankly I don't know how he thinks he's going to get through.
Anyway, back to the remedies. After doing some on-line research I suggested licorice & thyme tea w/ lots of honey. This really helped him while he was sipping it, but as soon as he stopped, the cough came back.
BTW, in case anyone is curious, my husband is 59, does not smoke, has never smoked, but does have very mild Crohn's disease (no symptoms with medication), mild GERD and various allergies.
