Dry cough?

[mysticrose]

My DD and DS have been having a dry cough lately. My DD's has lasted about 3 months. It is totally spiratic and just sounds painful. She is not coughing up anything. Last CF visit last month I addressed this with the doc. While in clinic she coughed a few times so he heard her coughing. Her baseline is no coughing so this has been out of the norm for her.
When I called the clinic to find out what the throat culture was they said it came back with "just staph". Can "just staph" cause this type of cough?
I'm not sure what her PFT's were as far as if they were up or down from her previous ones. We had a hectic visit because my oldest DD's port wanted to malfunction which started a whole chain of paniced doctors.
When do we worry about "just staph"? (YES I know that is not the official name for it but it should be). Should I try pushing for treatment for it? She was on hyper sal but we switched pharmacies and now I'm having a heck of a time finding a good reliable one that can carry ALL of their scripts. I asked the clinic if we could use the CF pharmacy and they looked at me like I'd grown a second head.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Jen. mom to 4. 3w/cf and one lucky red head.

 

[JENNYC]

If her baseline is "no cough" I would call back and talk to the dr to see what you can do to get her back to baseline, especially if it is bothering her and has gone on for so long <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> Maybe a round of abx to treat the "just staph" is all she needs to feel better. Good luck and I hope she feels better and is back to her normal self soon!!

 

[edan]

Have you considered post nasal drip?

 

[Ratatosk]

DS developed a dry throat clearing cough when he was 5 or 6 and I just thought it was a habit or post nasal drip. Then he cultured Steno. Maltophilia and his doctor put him on Septra and the cough went away. Spoke with another parent recently whose child had a similar cough and cultured the same thing.

 

[Ratatosk]

The other thing you can do is request your lab results. I've been told the result are normal by the nurse only to get the report back indicating that DS is growing something and what the abx sensitivities are. With the Steno Maltophilia, our local doctor decided it was a non-issue as they normally don't treat it; however, his CF doctor decided otherwise.