A Hundred-Day Cough

I started developing a persistent cough back in July this year. 

At first, I hoped for it to go away. It didn't. So off I went to see a doctor.

The doctor prescribed the usual medicines for cough and runny nose, and a course of antibiotics since it had been a week or two. After I finished the medicines, the cough did not get better. I returned to the doctor for more medicines and a new course of antibiotic for upper chest infection.

It didn't get better, still.

I let the cough be for a week or two before I went to see another doctor.

As usual, the doctor prescribed me different types of medicine for cough and runny nose, and a new course of antibiotics. 

After getting nil result from the medication, I returned to the same doctor for yet another set of medicines, plus a different type of antibiotics. 

After 4 trips to the doctor and completing 4 courses of antibiotics, my cough was as bad as ever. The doctor sent me to SATA for a chest x-ray in case there was something sinister lurking in my body.

Nothing.

So I gave up on taking medicines and seeing doctors.

By then, I stopped having coughing fits every minute, so that was an improvement, but I was coughing persistently on a daily basis still.

I had to stop going for my facial treatments for a few weeks as it would be impossible for the beautician to do anything when I was coughing non-stop.

The cough depressed me. I stopped having cold drinks for more than two months as I didn't want cold drinks to aggravate the cough. I took Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao (pi pa gao),  sea coconut cough syrup, and everything William recommended. I bought and tried the $75-a-dose Chinese medical hall powdered medicine. When you are desperate, you try everything and anything. 

Nothing worked. I started to think that my cough would never get well. At my lowest point though, I was looking at coffins, in case my cough was a foreshadowing of something deadly. I told William that I would like a white coffin. When I googled 'white coffin Singapore', there really was one! I played around the funeral service website and was intrigued by the differences in costs of the different types of funeral. When I told my mother about it, she actually said,"Next time, give me a Christian funeral, because it costs the least." 

I could only hope that it was a 'hundred-day cough' and would go away after 100 days. After all, I had been coughing for 3 months.

Then the cough started to get better. The cough became milder and the frequency, lower, albeit on a daily basis.

Then in November, my cough stopped, eventually and gradually.

It's great to be alive again!