Same up here in Ontario. Daughter has had it for over a month, wife going on 2 weeks. The 2 boys of the house have had it easy <knock on wood>.
That may also be because for the past 5 years I have been laid out sick with everything from pneumonia to hand/foot/mouth due to kids in daycare. So I feel like superman right now.

Good luck to you. I had a cough for 2 months last year.
Mark

Could it be walking pneumonia. my wife had it took forever to get over it lots of antibiotics but very different from normal pneumonia

I also live in Ontario and have had a cough for the past couple of months. I would start feeling a bit better, and then it would get worse again. As you say it is probably viral, in which case there isn't much you can do - besides stop suppressing your immune system with Type A training loads.

Started as sore throat,congestion. Coughing and sleepiness for 19 days now. Just got up from a nap which I never take. Pulled a muscle in my side coughing and nearly barfed a few times just after going to bed.

Valley Fever is on the rise in California - theories abound but it likely has something to do with the drought and heavy rains. Just something to think about.

If it were me I'd get a chest x-ray - no major downside.

Yep, the Double Round Crud is indeed pretty common this year. It's a beast, but it does seem to let go after Round 2. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I was patient zero among my workmates, and I'm also pretty sure I got it from a friend's toddler in the Bay Area. Little bastard.

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

"If it were me I'd get a chest x-ray - no major downside."

spent over an hour with my primary care guy on friday. he says no pneumonia for me, but ordered a chest xray anyway, which i'll get in a day or two. and a valley fever test (we get that where i live).

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

There have been many outbreaks in the past few weeks throughout the US. RSV is on the rise and it's a nasty bug. I usually look at the CDC website. They keep surveillance of common viral outbreaks: https://www.cdc.gov/...ce/nrevss/index.html

There are different stains of each virus with varying virulence, which can vary from year to year or even within a season. Viruses are good a mutating. Most people are aware of this from hearing about swine and bird flu.

You could have had back to back infections (i.e. one viral following another or followed by bacterial). Having one infection makes you more predisposed to having another. I see a lot of viral upper respiratory infections (common cold) that would progress into a bacterial infection (pneumonia and/or bacterial sinusitis). Have you had a chest x-ray? Also, the coughing could be due to post-nasal drip from a sinusitis.

The media doesn't do a good job reporting/informing. They only report things when it is sensational like bad flu outbreaks and norovirus.

It is alive and well in NC! I have been fighting round II since the week after Christmas. Never had a fever but an unending cough. Last night, finally, is the 1st night in 3 weeks I didn't wake up coughing. Interestingly, although I never (ha ha ) get this sort of thing, I picked up and raced with a very similar type thing in Hawaii and had it 'til November.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

i've got a not-terrible version of it now. Had such a hard time catching my breath and easing HR while hiking one day i thought i had given myself heart damage. Then the chills set in and I realized it was just an incoming virus. The fever and lack of appetite cleared in a day, then it went bacterial fast.

Lots of hacking here in London, and lots of anecdotal about how long it lasts.

sorry to hear about your cough. Bummer. So far I'm good. Live in Sacto and haven't heard anything - yet.

2 winters ago I had a mild cough that took for - ever to go away. Was able to train through it. Had my best season in years.

Go figure.

Take care (everybody).

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

My 14 year old son has had it for a month. My 12 year old son has had it for 2.5 weeks. I have had it for about 1.5 weeks. I never take naps, but have the past three days and then am sleeping more than 9 hours at night.

Sorry about that, I might've spread something to CA since I was visiting the in-laws for Christmas!!

But seriously, I got some kind of light cold/congestion at the end of October (never went full blown sick) and was feeling pretty much over it by mid- December. But then the week before Christmas my wife/son catch something. Most likely from my son's playmate as they started coming down with something the day after they had a play date. Sure enough a couple of days before Christmas I start to get worse ironically when the son/wife start feeling better.

Still have a cough with the thick congestion stuff currently (no color to the mucus). This week it seems the congestion isn't as thick as last week but it is annoying to be with something this long. I'm about to try to return to light running/trainer work because it doesn't seem to be getting any worse and I don't think it'll be 100% gone anytime soon. Seems like it won't do any more harm since it is in the head only now.

Ugh, it 's up here in MI. Got it so bad I would almost pass out from the coughing fits. No temp or stomach issues. Had to stop all forms of excersise for 2 months. Went through everyone at work and then my house.

I've had this since December 23rd. I am in the Atlanta area.

Bay Area here -- I've got it. It's 'only' been about 10 days for me. I've been coughing up foul tasting gunk though, especially in the morning, and just feeling really dragged out and tired. No training at all -- went for a bike ride on Saturday and didn't feel great afterwards. I think today might be the first day I've noticed slightly less gunk being coughed up.

My two little girls have had it and it has bounced back and forth between them. One developed pneumonia, the other bad bronchitis. My wife also got it. Luckily I have avoided but I have been living in a coughing echo chamber. Get well soon!

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It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

its been here in SLC , i've been lucky but wife has battled it for 6 weeks or so. Finally on the
upswing but of course now we have shit for air in the valley. And my neighbors warm their cars up for 10+ minutes
drives me nuts , idling cars while people f' with their phones
attending a clean air rally Sat at Capital

"Having one infection makes you more predisposed to having another. I see a lot of viral upper respiratory infections (common cold) that would progress into a bacterial infection (pneumonia and/or bacterial sinusitis). Have you had a chest x-ray? Also, the coughing could be due to post-nasal drip from a sinusitis."

saw a new primary care DR friday. have a prescription for a chest xray and tests for valley fever, etc. he doesn't hear pneumonia in me at all, but he's schedule the xray just the same.

i don't have yellow/green phegmy stuff. some fluid comes up, but clear. just virus after virus after virus, 3 in a row this year (an abnormal amount for me).

i have a bullshit end-user, working class hypothesis. i have always been subject to bronchial inflammation. i *think* that this might create a spiral, where i cough, the coughing itself irritates my lung tissue, which causes me to cough, and so on, and that makes me more susceptible to the next infection.

because i cough maybe i expel the gram positive bugs that would cause bacterial pneumonia. i don't know. nevertheless i feel like i'm a ready receptor for the next viral bug.

i often wonder whether i would benefit from an inhaled corticosteroid. doctors always want to give me a beta 2 agonist but i don't go into bronchial spasm (which is what the rescue medication would solve). when i ask them about an inhaled steroid instead they scratch their heads and go onto the next subject.

so maybe they know what i don't, that my naive sense of what might help me in these cases is just that: naive.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

We're seeing it in Wisconsin too. I've had both a nasty cold that seemed to linger forever and a stomach bug for the first time since I was a kid. My wife, who NEVER gets sick, has had both as well. Lots of co-workers with very similar symptoms to what you're describing.

Honestly, it would make me feel better to hear that it's every where...this has been a miserable winter.

if you put RSV into google and click the news tab, you'll see a zillion stories that say, "RSV is on the rise." but i don't know what that means and none of these stories place this in historical perspective. on the rise from the month before? well, that's expected, and it's that way every year. or is it "on the rise" year over year, and by a significant amount? and, not only in numbers of those afflicted, but in severity?

so i emailed the CDC about 15 minutes ago, and asked them. we'll see if they give me back anything of value.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Yep, I've got it and so do several of my co-workers. I've taken off more sick days since mid-December than I have in the previous 20 years. Urgent care docs say it's just a virus, and to take Mucinex. Antibiotics are no good for this.

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Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

Actually there is a cough variant of Asthma that some people have. From my experience it's rarely seen but can cause bad coughing and it will be relieved with using a beta 2 agonist. If the Dr offered me a inhaler I'd try it, it might just help. That being said a short course of steroids might help to, but they may be concerned about depressing your immune function. Breaking a rib coughing sounds nasty.

"Breaking a rib coughing sounds nasty."

yeah. bam. strange. the cough is livable. the broken rib is livable. the combo just doesn't work. i had a stash of hydrocodone from 6 years ago, the last time i broke a collarbone. oddly, it's a great cough suppressant. i took those for 3 days until the rib was livable. it's still moving around in there. weird.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman