Thursday, November 10, 2022

November 10, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Coughing.

 I have never understood coughing.  For instance, when a person coughs, they take drink of water.  And it seems to help the coughing, even though the cough comes from the lungs up a tube and the water goes into a separate tube into the stomach.  Even Ken had no idea why it worked.  There are a lot of things about coughing that I do not understand.

Ken had a life long cough.  I always knew where Ken was in the house because I could hear him cough.  Sometimes he would go to bed and go to sleep.  Other times, when he went to bed, he could not stop coughing.  Great hacking cough which did not stop.  So Ken was required to get up, walk around, drink water, read, then try again to go to bed.  I asked him once if he could tell ahead when the coughing would begin.  And he said no.  He had no clue but it was certainly difficult for him.

After a cold or flu, I have always been left with a cough.  This has happened all my life.  Sometimes the coughing lasted for weeks.  Several times over the years, Ken has admonished me to just stop coughing.  My lungs were clear as was my head, yet I kept coughing.  He suggested that I had just gotten into the habit and urged me to control my coughing.  I was actually able to control the coughing  for a period of time.  Then I would begin coughing again.

Ken told me a trick to stop coughing.  He would take very deep breaths and let them go.  And repeat it.  Keep repeating it.  Much to my surprise, sometimes it works.  He had no idea how it works but he often used the technique when he was in a situation when coughing was difficult. Recently,  I have been using this drill.  But so far I am still coughing.

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