The dreadful cough

Kelsie has her first official cough. She was treated for a sinus infection before but never had any coughing. This time all she has had is cough. She had the high fever last week. Then nothing but a a few coughs here and there. Some days she wouldn't cough at all, other days she would cough 3-4 times. Then it started ramping up last Thurs and she coughed probably 10 times during the day then a few bad coughing fits that night. She had also been sneezing some, so the doctor told us to try some Zyrtec for a few days (but no more than 3-4 as the antihistamines could dry out her secretions even more than they already are). She said if things did not improve that she would start antibiotics. Well things didn't improve. The cough actually got a lot worse. You can tell she is coughing up a lot of mucous, but it sounds like it is all coming from post-nasal drainage. It sounds like the mucous is sitting in the back of her throat and she has to cough to break it up. Sometimes I can hear it rattling and if I tell her to cough, she will. It is definitely affecting her sleep because when she lies down, it starts draining and causes her to cough. She couldn't even nap yesterday because she coughed the first 30 minutes straight. Last night she coughed on and off for a couple of hours. I held her in my bed for a little while then laid her back down after midnight and she slept well the rest of the night. She has had a couple of little coughing fits tonight but it seems to be better so far.

Her doctor did start her on antibiotics today. Augmentin for 20 days. Thats a long course of antibiotics by the way. Typically, we treat kids for 10 days for infections like this. I asked her doctor why so long  and she explained that they treat kids with CF longer than usual. She said she debated between 14 or 20 days but because she thinks its a sinus infection she decided to treat her for 20 days. However, she said if the coughing goes away completely, we can stop it at 14 days. I certainly don't want her on antibiotics unnecessarily but due to the nature of the disease, I know she is likely going to truly need them more often than not. In this case, it seems as though she got this little virus that normally would have caused some nasal discharge, but it never did. It seems like the mucous just kind of sat in her sinuses and because it never drained out, it just became a breeding ground for bacteria and now she has this sinus infection. Its odd to me though that I never heard any nasal congestion in her the whole time. No mucous to suction out. Its just all going back into her throat I suppose. Anyway, she is on the antibiotics and hopefully this will do the trick very soon. I can't stand to hear her cough. It just makes me cringe. And I can't help but think...this is only the beginning.


 She is still a happy girl though despite being sick. This is a video of her today watching the Fresh Beat Band (her absolute favorite) while doing her chest PT.