cough/scratchy throat

[janeths466]

hey all,

4 month post lobectomy update on mom. She has been doing amazing but the scratchy throat and random cough attacks persist. She gets scared. We went to primary doctor but she said my mom has to go to pulmonologist or oncologist. And that appointment will take a while.

Last time she had no spread to lymphs and doctor did not seem too concerned. She is great but her throat becomes so scratchy. In her dyalisis treatments she gets scared bc it gets worst with the cold air. Or dry foods. She was intubated in ICU as well and had to learn how to swallow but this just started happenin a month ago.

Have any of you experienced this cough or scratchy throat post operation?

[janeths466]

they have been happening a lil mor often and she is afraid of cancer appearing. she just gets the scratchy feeling and begins coughing for a bit, her eyes get teary. after she is back to normal

[JanetteR57]

It is almost 9 years since my left upper lobectomy and in the years since I've had several coughs/infections and several have resulted in hospital stays. I've also had numerous bronchoscopies and like your mum was intubated in ICU with surgery. this year I've had several tests to examine what has been causing my ongoing wheeze and breathlessness (that developed a few years ago) after tests evidence that it is not asthma. finally I've seen a speech and language therapist at a specialist centre who believes the various tubes/bronchscopies may have caused irritation/damage to the vocal cords and I've also learnt to breathe in recent years incorrectly so that some triggers (cold/heat/perfume/smoke etc) can cause my vocal cords to close when they shouldn't, blocking my airway and causing the rasping wheeze noise or the 'scratchy' cough. I know it's hard not to think that every symptom after a cancer diagnosis is the cancer coming back but despite follow up by my consultants (who also believed this on a couple of occasions), so far (fingers crossed) although some of the infections have been serious (pneumonia and pseudomonas and RSV this January), none have been due to or are cancer. I hope you can be reassured a little and help your mum through this. I found a book called 'cancer is a word not a sentence' by Dr Rob Buckman helped me cope with moving on after my initial treatment and diagnosis. good luck. x

[Feelingblessed2013]

I would suggest when calling the pulmonologist or oncologist to make an appointment for your mom, telling them about the LC surgery, the coughing and scratchy throat, and the dialysis. Once they set an appointment, if it's a ways away, ask if they have a cancellation list, and if they do can your mom's name be added?

It's been almost 19 months since my last LC surgery, I still get the occasional scratchy throat and cough which tends to get worse when my sinuses start acting up. I try not to eat anything without a glass of water on hand, but I try to sip water throughout the day because I tend to dehydrate quickly, and my throat tends to get dry. Cold air makes things worse, so when I have to go outside in the winter I put a scarf over my nose and mouth, it seems to warm the air a bit before it hits my lungs.