I forgot to add that it can't be caffeine since my cough got worse after I changed my coffee - which I always drank to much of = for decaffeinated tea which is apparently very drying!
When did I change around Xmas time when I had the chest infection and my cough started - coincidence or an exacerbation?
well my MS Nurse insists that neither my cough or stomach problems are MS related but the speech therapist was less sure and she is the expert on swallowing etc.
Mary, Chocolate, tea and coffee can cause reflux as they contain something (can't remember what) which can relax the sphincter at the top of the stomach (can't remember the name of it).
I haven't got to the bottom of mine yet but as long as I am not coughing I don't care - it is not a trivial thing and seriously disrupts your life.
Pat x
ok, so a dry cough, for no reason, everynight that will wake you up, could be an ms symptom???? I need to know more info on this.
I am still trying to piece together alot of symptoms I have had. Some have been obvious to me, while some , like this one, is something I would've never thought of.
Pat, I'm soooooo glad to hear you found something, anything that helps for even some amount of time against that cough. I always heard the near despiration in your posts about coughing and wished I could find a release trigger. I'm delighted a therapist was so observant.
I've known for some time that chocolate is a big offender for causing cough soon after consumption. I didn't realize tea and coffee could do it. I wonder what it is in the chocolate? Caffeine? That would make deliciously horrible sense wouldn't it?
Mary
I had to pop in a tell you my story so that you can see you can have lots going on with this.
I was dx with MS after 20 years of sx in December 2008.
I started with a cough last Xmas which has gone on for 9 months and that nearly lost me my job,(I am a lecturer), stopped my most important hobby after 40 years as a singer, and generally made me incontinent when it happened which was 14 - 20 times a day. I just couldn't make anyone understand how badly it was affecting my life and that of my family.
This started after a chest infection and I won't go into all the different treatments and approaches but all came back clear with just a small red patch like you on the larynx. Even an endoscopy showed nothing.
I started a regime of 2 PPI's (Lanzaprazole) a day and Gaviscon Advance (4 times a day) and after a month of treatment the coughing was better but not gone. An MS speech therapist notice I was coughing when she gave me a cup of tea and pointed out that she also thought I was talking on the end of my breathe and my voice was getting tired quite quickly when we chatted, plus i sounded very dry in the throat.
I am now waiting for her to come back to me with suggestions as she felt that I had some MS related stuff but following her visit I gave up all drinks of tea and coffee and replaced them with just warm water. My cough has disappeared - yeah!!! can't believe it. Now starts the process of finding whether the drinks were drying out the throat and causing the cough or causing reflux which caused the cough. Oh and I am still on all the Gavisocn and tablets.
So don't give up hope keep on looking for a cure, I thought I would never get there and as others say it can be more than one thing.
Be well
Pat x
Have your Neuro do a Lumbar Puncture for Intracrainial Hypertension with CSF leaks.
You also might want to research it with your symtoms. I have a feeling you will be very surprised!
I am not a medical professional but I really think this is going to help you~!
Good Luck~!
Jackie
Dolly,
Its so difficult for people outside of our bodies to understand that these sensations are real. Even doctors at times don't believe the patients when they are trying to find answers. It is so easy to dismiss this all as being "in our heads" when it really may be in our head!
That is one of the best things about a site like this - other patients can definitely relate to the symptoms you describe as well as the reaction of your family and friends. Please drop through here often to share and to learn. This is a great community of very talented and giving people - over half of whom are not yet dx'd.
BTW - I have a new wet spot that has popped up in the past day - this one is behind my right knee. Of course it's dry - I don't even bother to mention it to my family. :-)
be well,
Lulu
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
"Sed rate, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), is a blood test that can reveal inflammatory activity in your body. A sed rate test isn't a stand-alone diagnostic tool, but the result of a sed rate test may help your doctor diagnose or monitor an inflammatory disease."
I think the cough lasted for a few months and went away after I started taking steroids.
It's really hard not to think about all of the things going on in our bodies. The physical symptoms are so very present with us all.
I do hope you can find some answers and some relief from all of it. Hugs, Charley
Thank u so much 4 responding. Can u please explain what is a sed rate? How long have you been coughing as well. Did your doctor say if the cough will go away?
I am going to ask my primary physician about a rheumatologist as well.
Thank u so much
Thank u so much for your kind words. I was just so frustrated, I didn't know what else to do, but to type this out and ask for help. It really means a lot to me that u took the time to read it and respond.
I am so glad that I found this forum. I was really on the brink of tears. My family doesn't really understand and they just think that it is in my head and that maybe I am thinking about it too much. The thing is that even when I don't think about it at all, I still feel the wet sensations. I was starting to feel like I was losing it.
I had a very similar cough and was sent to a rheumatologist. I also had a high sed rate. Have you had that checked. It turned out that I have a couple of inflammatory diseases that often come with MS. I was put on steroids that I am weaning off of now. I am now down to half the original dose and the cough is back. Just a thought to try another approach, hugs, Charley
Hi Dolly, Welcome here and you can make your posts as long as you want! :-)
We definitely aren't doctors here, so take what I have to say for what its worth, which is just my opinion.
I was reading your history and thinking ... "why is she posting this on an MS forum?" and then I got to the symptoms that appeared after your surgery. Often it takes an infection or a trauma to the body (such as surgery) to cause diseases (like MS) to be made active.
Please remember too that you could very well have more than one thing going on in your body - we aren't limited to one disease ast a time. The cough would most probably not be related to MS.
It sounds like your doctors, especially your neurologist, are doing all the right things in looking for answers. Finding hard evidence of MS is often very difficult - especially if it is in the early stages.
The wet sensation is one most of us are familiar with - I sometimes get it on my head too. I do find myself touching my head over and over to make sure it really isn't wet. It can be very unsettling.
The spasms and tingling can also be MS, but that can also happen from other diseases too. We have a good health page (yellow icon, upper right side of this page) on MS and its mimics .... there are certainly a lot of things that can initially appear to be MS. I would recommend you take a good look at some of the other options.
Consider yourself fortunate that your neuro wants to look again in 3 months - many don't do repeat MRI's until a year or so. Hang in there and keep looking for answers - you know your body, and if you know something is wrong don't settle for not getting answers.
Weekends are pretty quiet around here - and especially being a holiday weekend. hopefully someone else will pass through and add to this discussion. In the meantime, I hope we will see you around again.
be well,
Lulu