Well, that sucks
I've had a hacking cough for the last five or six weeks. Yesterday I went to the doctor, as I was sick of the cycle. While at the doctor's office I learned my last flu shot was BEFORE the current formulation came out, and when I went to get my DTaP a year or two ago, there was a mix-up and I only got the DT shot. This means I did not get a pertussis booster. While I was vaccinated against pertussis as a child, like tetanus, the immunity wears off and needs a booster.
Since I hadn't gotten the pertussis booster I though I'd gotten and my cough had lasted a few weeks, the doctor decided I needed to get a pertussis test. The cough is long running, but not consistent with actual whooping cough. I'd have to by a Typhoid Mary grade atypical carrier for this to be Whooping Cough, but I got tested anyway.
Getting the test resulted in an hour of bouncing from one room to the next as they tried to figure out if they needed blood, saliva or a nasal swab, and who would do it. Have you ever had a pertussis test? They take a needle like swap on the end of a long thin metal wire and twiddle it around in your sinuses for what feels like a gratuitously and sadistically protracted period. They have to do this twice, once for culturing and once to be genetically sequenced.
In the end the doctor prescribed a nighttime cough suppressant, which works nicely, and a daytime cough suppressant, which kinda works. The daytime medication is supposed to be supplemented with an OTC cough suppressant if it doesn't work by itself, and I can't take it until AFTER I drive my son to school as it makes me a bit dizzy. I'm also being put on an antibiotic course in case the pertussis test comes back positive.
The final insult? After the cough fades, I have to go back for the pertussis and influenza vaccinations.
Since I hadn't gotten the pertussis booster I though I'd gotten and my cough had lasted a few weeks, the doctor decided I needed to get a pertussis test. The cough is long running, but not consistent with actual whooping cough. I'd have to by a Typhoid Mary grade atypical carrier for this to be Whooping Cough, but I got tested anyway.
Getting the test resulted in an hour of bouncing from one room to the next as they tried to figure out if they needed blood, saliva or a nasal swab, and who would do it. Have you ever had a pertussis test? They take a needle like swap on the end of a long thin metal wire and twiddle it around in your sinuses for what feels like a gratuitously and sadistically protracted period. They have to do this twice, once for culturing and once to be genetically sequenced.
In the end the doctor prescribed a nighttime cough suppressant, which works nicely, and a daytime cough suppressant, which kinda works. The daytime medication is supposed to be supplemented with an OTC cough suppressant if it doesn't work by itself, and I can't take it until AFTER I drive my son to school as it makes me a bit dizzy. I'm also being put on an antibiotic course in case the pertussis test comes back positive.
The final insult? After the cough fades, I have to go back for the pertussis and influenza vaccinations.