I have been given this by my doctor today for my chronic cough and thick phlegm which is causing me to loose my breath and can’t breath, has anybody else had this and has it worked for you.
Today was the first time that the doctors have listened to me, and it made me quiet emotional.
Yes it's frequently prescribed to thin mucous & mKe it easier to cough up.ru familiar with lung clearance techniques to get it up
hi no I’m not, it’s the first time that the doctor has listened sympathetically to me, I have a chronic cough that I’m seing a respiratory doctor, but he hasn’t helped at all.
Ask to see a respiratory physio who will teach you.meanwhile read up on asthma Lung uk website, on lung clearance techniques- acbt,huffing technique.there are videos too.with having mucous,carbocysteine will thi it so need to get it up,perhaps twice a day.itll help reduce coughing and put u in control.just relax doing it.i use plastic cups,tissues and nappy bags - u can see how much,colour and consistency.i spose we all have our own way.x
Yes, I've been prescribed them for COPD mucus. Sometimes they make me sick so it's a balancing act, when I'm on a flare up & on my rescue pack the Carbocisteine on top makes me really unwell so I try not to take too many meds at once, whatever they are.
Always find a few biscuits in the morning line the stomach so sicking isn't so frequent. But that's my issue with meds, many make me heave, like strong painkillers. But moving the phlegm is hard and I often choke so why Carbocisteine was prescribed. Do try breathing exercises and keep calm - being emotional and afraid can make the choking harder.
I’ve been taking it for 18 months. I’ve had no side effects and it certainly helps, particularly with lung clearance. As Patk1 says, I would ask to be referred to a respiratory physio and in the meantime look at huffing techniques on line. I hope the medication works for you.
Hello Driver6, I’ve been taking carbocysteine for a few months and they’re really helping me, but be aware it takes a couple of weeks before you’ll notice any effect. Previously, I was producing such thick phlegm that I felt I constantly had a dead slug stuck in my throat, and I couldn’t get anything to move. The carbocysteine, together with Mucoclear 3% now means that the gunk is thin enough to move upwards from my lungs. Sounds like you need to get control of that cough though and see a specialist, as others have advised. Good luck and I hope things improve for you.
Yuk dead slug, but yes I know what you mean, I’ve been on it 3 days and feeling the benefit already. The cough is doing me in, I’ve had that many tests and except for a few things ie, little marks on lungs, thinning of osophegus and hiatus hernia, remulatologist likes to tell me these things but that’s it, doesn’t tell me anything to make myself better.
I’ve been outside this morning tidying garden and my husband said I hadn’t coughed once, but soon as I came in and sat down I started coughing but no phlegm thank goodness, I’m going to mention to him that I get really bad when I sit down, maybe something to do with bending to sit, I will try anything to get better.
Thank you x
Hello,
Sorry to read about your cough, exhausting isn’t it ?
I have taken Carbocisteine now for 8 years or so. The maintenance dose is 2 x twice a day. ( morning and evening) During a flare up then I increase the dose to 2 x three times a day. I increase my fluid intake of water and practice mucous clearing methods to try to shift it.
The Carbocisteine does take about 10-14 days to begin working. Just so you know.
Hope you feel better soon.
Go well.
Pauline
Hello, I've been on Carbocisteine for several years now although I'm guilty of not always taking them as I should, they really do help me bring up the gunk. I've not had any side effects from them. I take 2 x 2 a day and increase to 2 x 3 times a day when I need to. They really do help. I hope you find they make things easier for soon.
Yes. It works for me and many many others.
Hi. Yes I've been on it for 3 years, I have emphysema and bronchitis . Yes it can make you cough but you shouldn't get breathless unless you have asthma maybe.. !? Tell your doctor. The whole point of carbosistine is to clear your chest
Hi Driver. I have taken Carbocisteine for a few years. It has been very helpful in clearing my chest. Please ask your GP to refer you for Pulmonary Rehabilitation where a combination of excercise and chest clearance methods will be taught. Cant recommend Pul Rehab enough...really helped me. Good luck Driver xxx❤️
Drinking lots of water frequently is important for thinning mucus which makes it easier to cough up.
Agree Pul Rehab is very helpful.
Unfortunately carbocisteine didn't work for me. I ended up presenting at A&Es all over Kent with mucus pouring out of all head orifices. Eventually, after ruling out stroke each time, they CT scanned me, my sinuses were totally clogged up with mucus, all of them, and it had become infected. Resulted in a FESS - and I still haven't been offered physio to clear the mucus, or had anybody interested in where/why all this mucus came from.
I offer this only for what it is worth - my story, it happened to me 2022/23.
I’m coughing all this phlegm up but also mucus streaming out all the time I’m a right mess, are you sorted now, and how.
Well, the FESS - functional endoscopic sinus surgery - cleared out all the sinuses, at that point in time (Aug 2023) but they've been filling up gradually since then and no follow-up from the surgery has been offered. So I'm basically doing everything I can research to keep the sinuses unclogged, ie to try and control the mucus. This included buying a nebuliser ( , Omron, about £30 online - much more expensive in high street -an hour, 2 or 3 times a week - with, added to the saline, menthol, colloidal silver, oregano oil etc etc); gargling with saline solution, using a neti pot with my head basically upside down to let the solution (essential oils in saline) flow into the farthest reaches of the sinuses. Also, I;ve found information about getting rid of the fungal infection (which has been cleared out, but which apparently is likely to come back) and this involves taking citricidal (a really nasty tasting oil); garlic oil (i got capsules) a drop each in coconut oil (to disguise truly nasty taste) per day for minimum of a month. All this is ongoing. The internet, which is only place I can get information, seems to think that this sort of constant mucus dripping is likely to be diet/allergy based - so as well as all that the house is being rewired and replumbed in attempt to check there is no mould (!) as I simply cannot move. Plus doing elilmination diet to try and check out any dietry allergy. So, as I told my totally uninterested GP last week, this mucus/sinus thing has taken over my life.
Good that you are coughing phlem up, at least you're getting rid of it.
plus water - have to be well hydrated to keep the mucus thin and stop myself getting woozy which happens when it becomes too thick,
have been on carbocisteine for a long time roughly 3 years. It helps but nothing really clears the phlegm. i suggest you drink plenty of fluid which can help. If breathing gets too bad after coughing - do you have asthma/COPD. Just a thought Or perhaps you are allergic to something. Tests are available for asthma,COPD and allergies.
Good morning. Yes, I take it 3 times a day and it seems to work for me. If I miss a dose I certainly know about it. I've been on it for 3yrs and it really helps. Hope this helps!
Hi Diver6 yes it really helps. to thin the mucus to help the cough. I am 75 yrs and use it when I need it
hello chocolate goodness knows where all this has come from, been healthy all my life thankfully and I got this cough that the doctors really took no notice of, until it started to make me breathless and started with all this mucus, trying to sort myself out in our Autumn years I’m 75 as well, hope we are both going to get well soon. X
Hi Diver6 yes we have to Soldier in and try all sorts of things to clear our airways. We here in South Africa don't have NHS so costly to see private doctors. Our public health care facilities are dreadful!!! What we're you diagnosed with?
I haven’t had a proper diagnosis, I’ve had all sorts of tests I’m seeing a respiratory doctor at the moment and I don’t think he knows what’s a matter, after I’ve had tests and scans he just goes over all my notes and says ‘it could be this or it could be that’ very frustrating, he even blamed my parrot saying I could of breathed in feather dust, we have had her 36 years so we can’t get rid of her, if he said it was Definatley was that, then a family member could take her.
The coughing is starting to depress me and my poor husband is on tender hooks all the time thinking I’m going to have a heart attack because it’s that bad.
Hi I coughed like that until I was diagnosed with Asthma. They did a lung function test. Two inhalers prescribed Symbicort and Venteze. These cause shaky hands so between devil and deep blue sea.makes life very difficult to have hand tremor spilling food etc. Too scared to quit inhalers. You May be better off if you could get tested for lung function. Wishing you well. Oh yes also Nadal spray for allergies causing post nadal drip which causes cough and thickly throat.
I'm taking it, mucus very thick and difficult to cough up
Hi, I've also been on carbocisteine for a couple of years and take it twice a day as maintenance, increasing to 3 times a day during flare ups. Combined with breathing exercises (I use an acapella device but breathing exercises without a device are as effective I think) it really helps. I'd also reiterate what others have said re pulmonary rehab - it really helped me. Good luck with all of it - it's horrible having the consistent cough and not being able to bring the mucus up but the exercises and meds will bring you some relief i'm sure....
Thank you I’m seing my consultant next week, I’m going with a list of questions, he hasn’t been very helpful, my husband wants me to stop seing him , he is respitory and I’m wondering if I’m seing the wrong doctor.
Oh and I think you’re seeing the right consultant if he’s respiratory…
U could ask if whn it's very thick u can increase the dose,dropping it when it thins.some people take a soluble mucolytic with gd results - o think it's called N-acetaleine( or something similar)
Thank you I take 2 three times a day, I’m going to start taking them breakfast, dinner and tea time, because if I leave my last 2 till bedtime, I find I’m really really bad coughing straight after my tea, the phlegm is starting to reduce but the coughing is awful, it lasts for over an hour and stresses me out.
I’ve only been taking them 1 week, helping the phlegm but not the cough.
Do u do dedicated lung clearance sessions? If not it's a gd place to start - read up on aluk= acbt,huffing technique. Id do cpl times a day as carbocysteine,after first cpl wks,will help liquify mucou.its got to come up or it will get infected;.id ask to see respiratory physio.do drink plenty to keep mouth + throat moist.Read up on aluk,controlled pursed lips breathing technique- it'll help cough reflex and Airways to relax x
Definitely go with questions - that’s what I tend to do , otherwise you will think of things afterwards that you wish you’d asked. It’s good to have someone with you too , to remember things discussed etc. Previous consultants I’ve had haven’t always been helpful - I have felt like someone to be crossed off a list - but I’ve changed to another hospital and found this team to be far more receptive and helpful.
This forum has helped me such a lot with advice and encouragement so do ask whatever you need to - there is always someone here with great advice..
good luck next week …
hi. Ive got COPD & i take carbosistien 2 x2 daily & they really help me clear of all the gunk on my chest, no more coughing fits & being sick trying to clear my chest. Good luck but a definite positive for clearing your chest.
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