Breathing and habit of cough producing white or food coloured phlegm because throat feels blocked

[hellohru]

My son, 13 y.o. has this annoying cough which he believes is necessary because his throat feels blocked. He also says that he can cough up phlegm which is normally white or the colour of recently eaten food and that his throat feels blocked by this 'phlegm'. If it has anything to do with it, he gets into the habit of blinking weirdly (on purpose) occassionally. He is a swimmer and has trouble breathing and has a deep noise coming from his throat when exherting himself (I believe this is wheezing). He says he is always tired and has trouble getting to sleep. He also wakes up @ night fairly often. Some nights he will wake 3 times and others he won't wake at all. He also says he feels weird sometimes nit exactly dizzy but like nothing is real?? His x-ray was clear, sputum cultures clear, blood test showed a strain of whooping cough which the dr believed was just the vaccination but the spirometery declined from something like 98% of normal to 78% of normal in a matter of weeks. He also plays the violin and gets this strain in his upper right chest when holding the violin up and needs to lie down to relieve it. Anyone know what this may be. The dr believes that it is asthma but the ventilator and  turbuhaler don't seem to help.

[Penellope420]

It's mold in your home! I have had the same symptoms for months every summer, including: swollen lymph nodes, itching, metallic taste in mouth, breathing problems, excess clear phlegm. I looked up mold symptoms because my home has an iffy sewer line, and floods occasionally into my finished basement and I was amazed how many things I hadn't even noticed, but we're a problem, confusion, memory issues, lethargy. I'm tearing out the drywall tomorrow and treating with Concrobium from home depot. Look for mold! Anything leaking, previous flooding... especially in drywall, it gets inside and you might not even see it! They sell home mold tests that don't cost that much! Good luck!

[Celeste07]

Pertussis (whooping cough) has been on the rise for years now though few doctors acknowledge this fact.
I'm not a doctor, but if I were you, I would take your sons positive whooping cough results to a specialist and ask that your son be treated for such while they look for other possible causes. (Doxycycline is the antibiotic of choice along with some short term steriods)
Although I repeatedly asked about whooping cough, my father and I were misdiagnosed for 3 months until I fractured my ribs in several places from it. Even then, it was my dogs Veterinarian that suggested the steriods (I took my dogs prescribed prednisone) that finally cleared it up. Before my dx,  I saw numberous doctors and I was also put on asthma meds and various antibiotics, excluding Doxycycline, to no avail. My lung function decreased as your sons has, I had periodic wheezing and I had normal x-rays. It's usually a self limiting disease in older children and adults with little chance of complications, but its course is extremely miserable. Because of my lack of diagnosis in the begining, it took me almost a year to recover fully.

Best wishes!

[heartofgld]

You should try posting your question at the Respiratory Forum. Good luck!