I've been sick for over 2 months...help! Please brainstorm with me! update post #17

[jrose_lee]

I need a TF approach to this....

I have had a lingering cough for over two months now. It won't go away! In the morning I wake up with the most runny nose ever and that lasts for a couple hours. Some sneezing too.

I do okay during the day with just a little coughing. When I lay down to nurse ds2 to sleep for a nap it can get worse for a bit.

At night it is the worst and this is what is really getting me. I don't get very good rest anyway because ds2 still wakes every hour all night. Then, because I am coughing so much there are usually at least two times when I am up coughing for over an hour hoping it won't wake ds2.

Here is some background info to help figure out what I should do (if anything). It is getting really hard for me to keep living like this!

We just moved to NZ four months ago from the US- could it be change in environment? Allergies?

We switched houses about 2 months ago- could I have allergies to something here?

We started drinking homemade kombucha about 2 months ago, but I'd been drinking that for months and months before that (from the store) with no problems. Also started milk kefir at that time and that was new.

A couple months ago I almost thought I breathed in a small bit of food by accident. Of course, I wasnt' sure and I just coughed a bunch afterwards. Can't remember if i got sick directly after that though of course- can people really breathe in food and then get chronically ill? I had to have a chest x-ray for moving here and they didn't see anything wrong with it though.

Could this just be a really crazy detox because we're starting to eat healthier again after sort of a lapse?


Any suggestions for food? We have been trying to get back into TF eating after moving accross the country and we're finally getting back into the swing of things. Two things that pop into my head are that I should have more CLO and make some bone broths (which I haven't been doing b/c no good bones here quite yet).

I would appreciate the help so much! It's such a drag being sick this long. never have been before.

jessica

[kjbrown92]

reflux, allergies (food or environmental), or food intolerance. And if your DS is waking up every hour at night, I'd suspect reflux/food intolerances (through you) for him too. You say you started drinking milk kefir a couple months ago. Do you drink/eat other dairy? Is it raw or pasteurized?

[Sara Badger]

before the cough starts what are you eat/drinking 30 mintues before? I found it was a carb or sugar that would do this to me and the reaction was worse laying down.

[cristeen]

My first thought was dairy, since it can be very congesting. And I'll agree with Sara Badger also - I had asthmatic type responses for a while and was put on inhalers (even though tests show I didn't have asthma). Eventually through allergy testing we discovered it was a food reaction, at which point I had an AHA moment and realized that every bout occurred within 20 minutes of eating.

It could also be a mold issue. Is anybody else in the family symptomatic? Did DS2's sleep patterns change around the same time this started for you?

[lucky_mia]

I had a chronic nighttime cough and sore throats and it turned out to be reflux.

[my_baby_love]

HI ! I was thinking that it might be a mold or allergy issue, especially if you think it has gotten worse since you moved into your new house. Plus, it may just be allergy season in NZ and your body isn't used to the various pollens and such since you have always lived in the US. It's no fun to be sick, though! Definitely healthy foods and good probiotics (kefir, yogurt, etc.) can help your body heal. Hope you feel better soon!

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

reflux, allergies (food or environmental), or food intolerance. And if your DS is waking up every hour at night, I'd suspect reflux/food intolerances (through you) for him too. You say you started drinking milk kefir a couple months ago. Do you drink/eat other dairy? Is it raw or pasteurized?

We do have other dairy with seemingly no problems. I've had raw dairy for years now. We have raw dairy from a nearby farm. As I mentioned though, we're new to NZ and new to this particular farm.

The only dairy we consume sometimes that isn't raw is cheese. My other ds1 slept the same way and I tried every food elimination possible (at one point I was eating only meat and veggies). I would be willing to try something I guess, it's never worked in the past but it's a different kiddo

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by Sara Badger

before the cough starts what are you eat/drinking 30 mintues before? I found it was a carb or sugar that would do this to me and the reaction was worse laying down.

I haven't eaten anything before this begins in the morning really. I starts from the moment I wake up. I do eat whole wheat no knead bread throughout the day and a bit of sugar sometimes.

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by cristeen

My first thought was dairy, since it can be very congesting. And I'll agree with Sara Badger also - I had asthmatic type responses for a while and was put on inhalers (even though tests show I didn't have asthma). Eventually through allergy testing we discovered it was a food reaction, at which point I had an AHA moment and realized that every bout occurred within 20 minutes of eating.

It could also be a mold issue. Is anybody else in the family symptomatic? Did DS2's sleep patterns change around the same time this started for you?

I was thinking possibly mold....I've always had some issues with dust and mold it seems, but I've never been quite sure. We stayed in a home with mold on the ceiling of the bathroom once and I was sneezing a LOT.

No, ds2's sleep has always been bad. It didn't change since we got to NZ. He just wakes every hour or so to nurse and easily goes back to sleep. Ds1 did the same exact thing and didn't stop til nightweaned.

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by lucky_mia

I had a chronic nighttime cough and sore throats and it turned out to be reflux.

Would that be like a burning acidic feeling in your throat or not? I don't feel acidic, just mucousy. (sp?)

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by my_baby_love

HI ! I was thinking that it might be a mold or allergy issue, especially if you think it has gotten worse since you moved into your new house. Plus, it may just be allergy season in NZ and your body isn't used to the various pollens and such since you have always lived in the US. It's no fun to be sick, though! Definitely healthy foods and good probiotics (kefir, yogurt, etc.) can help your body heal. Hope you feel better soon!

We found a local organic raw honey source and started eating that. I've started taking local bee pollen yesterday. Wonder if that will help.

[jrose_lee]

Coincidence?

This would be an odd coincidence, but it could be a coincidence still....


We had brought over to NZ our nice Latex mattress. It sat in it's wrapping/crate longer than expected. Although we DID poke some airholes in the plastic, it was wrapped up in a mattress bag for 2.5 months while we waited to get it from Auckland.

That was about two months ago.

Around the time I started sleeping on it....also the same time we moved to this new house.....I got sick and have been ever since.

We took the mattress out last night and put it in the room my husband and son (ds1) sleep in. My husband slept on it.

I didn't feel much better last night.

However, my son (ds1) woke up this morning (after being in the same room as the mattress) and said he felt sick. He knew nothing of our thoughts about the mattress so couldn't have just been saying it.

My husband was actually already sick (just a cough for a couple days) so we coudln't tell if the mattress affected him.

Also, though my ds2 got a runny nose just two days ago so maybe everyone is just getting a small cold.

I'm nervous that everyone will get sick for as long as I have been! I couldn't handle all these people sick for months and months!

Anyway...could it be the mattress at all? Ugh! those things costs thousands...that's why we shipped it over!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by jrose_lee

Anyway...could it be the mattress at all? Ugh! those things costs thousands...that's why we shipped it over!

IIRC, natural latex is resistant to molds, mildews and dust mites. So if you're not seeing anything on the cover (cotton I would assume), I wouldn't think it was the mattress.

[Laniemama]

Did you just start turning on your heat about 2 months ago? Maybe the heat ducts need to be cleaned out or filters changed. I used to get up every day with stuffy nose and cough last Fall, until we got the ducts cleaned. Hope you figure it out!

[spughy]

I think it's probably just your body's reaction to the change in environment. We moved to a new house in January and I've had 3 colds since then - previously I would get maybe one cold in a whole year. DD has been the same way, and DH has had a lot of headaches. There is no mold in our new house, but it's far less drafty than our old one and about a hundred years younger... so just different airflow, different materials, etc.

Also, is your older DS in any kind of preschool or playgroup? I think that's where most of our germs come from, and the challenge from the new environment makes them "stickier" than they were before.

[spughy]

Oh, and also - you are sleep-deprived. Your body isn't getting the rest it needs. Waking up every hour, even if it's not a full wakeup, takes a pretty big toll on your body, especially if it's stressed from other things. Take a few nights, and from midnight to six am leave your DH with your boys and go sleep on the couch. No need to nightwean permanently, but you do need a few good nights' sleep to recover.

[jrose_lee]

update

Well....my dad mentioned that he gets coughy if he eats the last three hours before bed. He mentioned reflux.

So...I didn't eat or drink anything after dinner. I still coughed an hour before falling asleep, but I didn't have the middle of the night coughing. I always used to drink an entire kombucha about an hour or two before bed. Maybe too acidic for before bedtime. I'm going to keep up with this and see if it helps.

I was still extremely stuffy and runny nosed this morning, but we'll see how it goes. I'll keep on with the raw honey and bee pollen too.

sigh.

[avendesora]

FWIW, I've reacted to all our organic pillows. Coughing and sneezing in the middle of the night.

[jrose_lee]

Originally Posted by avendesora

FWIW, I've reacted to all our organic pillows. Coughing and sneezing in the middle of the night.

Thanks. We use latex pillows and I've used this same one for a couple years now. It's good to think about all the options though.