My mum has previously had chemo and now started radiotherapy for lung cancer. She also has severe COPD. She coughs like every 5 mins which makes her cough up thick green sputum each time. I appreciate there is a cough with COPD but should it be like this? She has an inhaler once a day, red and grey in colour which helps a little bit. She has also taken carbocisteine which doesn't really help. I think she has had a bacterial infection due to chemo and hasn't had the right antibiotics, due to allergies. She has no temperature or anything.
Could this be the COPD? Is it a continual infection? Just at a dead end as to how I can help with the cough......if anything....
Thank you for reading.
Paul
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Paulo1976
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Hi Paulo, I have had lung cancer (12 yrs ago) I had my lung removed . Since then I have developed copd. I have coped with it over the years but it got worse over the last year.
I had a respiratory nurse who helped me. she got me a nebuliser , similar to the hospitals. which does help. I also have a tablet called acepriro for shifting mucus, which I found better than the carboceistein. I was bringing up phlegm which wouldnt shift with antibiotics, but then the nurse said to take a sample of the phlegm to the doctors and they would send it off so I got the correct antibiotic for the type of infection.
I wish you luck and hope you can get mum feeling better. xx
(dont give up or be fobbed off , keep on at them).
sorry to read about your mum. when phlegm is coloured, it often represents infection and the cough is a reflex action of the body trying to cough it up literally to prevent it settling on the chest. if she has COPD, is it managed in the community by her GP practice/nurse or does she see a consultant? worth contacting them as inhalers won't shift infection - they're usually to control the breathlessness/other symptoms with one reliever and a preventer (taken all the time). I've had far worse symptoms in the last few years due to chest infections than I did with my lung cancer (removed by open surgery in Dec 2010) and ended up in hospital several times. The most recent in October I was given carbocisteine which didn't help me this time (I had a very dry cough and was straining to cough which seemed to have contributed to a hiatus hernia!) I was told the blood pressure tablets I was on (ramipril) could be making things worse so that was changed for a different type. I find hot drinks, sucking cough sweets (Halls soothers but imagine any boiled sweet might help), inhaling over steam and increasing use of inhalers. This information may help.... hope she gets something to treat it soon - it's more likely to be infection than symptoms from her lung cancer... good luck. physiotherapyforbpd.org.uk/...
So sorry to hear about your Mum's cough. This must be very distressing for her. I think it's important for her to be seen by her GP, as the green phlegm can be an indication of infection as other have said. A specimen of this should be sent to the Microbiology lab for culture so that the correct antibiotic can be prescribed, sensitive to the specific bugs. A temperature is not always present with infection. So she should definitely get it checked out. I see that you have had good advice and shared experiences from others on this forum which will hopefully have been helpful.
This is a link to our Managing Lung Cancer Symptoms information booklet, which has a section on controlled breathing that might be helpful.
YouTube also has short videos to guide breathing techniques to help with breathlessness and cough. This is a link to one credited to the COPD foundation youtube.com/watch?v=ZJPJjZR...
As others have suggested, changing Carbocisteine for an alternative derivative or inhalers to nebulisers could be indicated so should be discussed with your Mum's GP.
Hope some of the above is useful, if there is anything you wish to discuss with us or if you or your Mum would like to chat with us, you can call our nurse led helpline on 0800 358 7200 Monday to Thursday 0900-1700 and Friday 0900-1600. Or you can email us at lungcancerhelp@roycastle.org
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