UKC

Whilst at the gym today I was aware of a chap doing a work out who never seemed to stop coughing for the whole hour he was there. It didn't seem to be the sort of cough normally associated with a cold and it really was incessant - about every ten or twenty seconds.

Having been through Lymphoma last year I was genuinely concerned that he might have a serious problem and I wondered whether to politely suggest to him that he got it checked out.

Anyway, he left before I did and I didn't get chance.

Just wondering what anyone else would have done. I was a bit concerned that he might have told me to MYOFB!

In reply to mypyrex:

I would probably have been coughing too and so we could have compared notes...

It's my specialist subject right now, I've had every test imaginable and I'm on my third diagnosis (not that the first two were wrong, it just turned out to be more complicated). I would have said something I think. There are non-sinister and treatable causes (fortunately) but you're right, there are some nasty ones that need to be excluded too.

In reply to mypyrex:

Possibly he is/was a smoker and has emphysema? I'd imagine if that were the case he'd be angry at you for bringing something so obvious that he has emphysema to his own attention. I'd have left him alone, but if you're genuinely concerned - maybe try and get to know him through casual gym talk before broaching the subject on another day?

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Hope your diagnoses are favourable. I initially attributed my cough to the published side effect of some tablets I was on. Not till it got worse with a serious shortage of breath did I realise the problem.

In reply to mypyrex:

I was laid up for about three weeks with a horrible chesty cough a couple of years ago and got so bored with it I went out and took the bike out and pedalled up the hills to try and clear it out.

Coughed pretty much all the way, and after about 10 miles had to give up as I almost coughed a lung up. But did actually feel a bit better the next day. Maybe the guy was doing that?

I think any reasonable person would take your enquiry in a good way though - good on you for giving a toss, and I hope you're doing ok these days.

In reply to mypyrex:

Id probably say something.
the positives (potentially saving the guys life with an early diagnosis of a serious condition) outweigh the negatives (getting told to sod off/being branded a busy body) for me.

In reply to mypyrex:
I know that when I've had a cold then ended up with a cough, the cough would be every 10 seconds respite & i'd be hacking a lung up for a couple of minutes, turning blue. It always turned out to be viral but it was an awful tickle in my throat that no amount of coughing/drinking water/cough medicine would shift for longer than a minute. It could be one of those evil coughs

In reply to RockAngel:


Aye, one of those buggers that vanishes at night just until you're about to go to sleep, and the suddenly reappears. all through the night.

In reply to mypyrex:


Thanks. Yes, I think so. Seems I wrecked my throat and vocal cords with what it turns out was probably whooping cough (complicated with a bit of asthma, and then trying to do long multipitch routes at 8000ft) and the damaged epithelium was then being further inflamed by silent reflux (apparently quite common and poorly diagnosed). Cue a course of the appropriate antibiotic (clathiromycin), another interesting endoscopy experience and a 6-week course of a proton pump inhibitor and antacids. Seems to have done the trick, finally. Simples.

Hope your problem is resolved too.

In reply to mypyrex:


I appreciate your concern for the guy. But I personally would leave it to family / friends to tell him.

In reply to mypyrex:
I guess you could chat and mention how you sometimes get a cough with hay fever and how it's quite irritating, before talking about a lung cancer information 'advert' you saw where the guy kept coughing, and then ramblingly change the subject in the way people can?