Faux Cough (and die)

Over the past week I have been afflicted by the cough from hell. I have no idea whence it came, but I really wish it would fu-cough back there. My throat feels like it has been cut to ribbons by the constant sharp wracking coughs which convulse my body every few minutes. Indeed by Sunday, so sore was my throat that I discovered it is no longer possible to drink orange juice as the acid stings too much. I honestly felt that sooner or later one of my coughs would actually break through the red raw lining of my throat and start me bleeding. It hasn't happened, but it still feels like it might. I think since Sunday (the low point pain-wise) what has happened is the my throat has just become numb. The side effect of this vicious ailment is that I have barely slept in a week - the cough intervals at the tail end of last week were averaging out at around 2 minutes, which obviously doesn't give you the chance to get much shut-eye. The cough's frequency has slackened off since then, and is now down to about 10 minutes , so there is more possibility of sleep, but it's not exactly simple. Indeed the overwhelming symptom I have now, surpassing the cheese grater ground glass coughing, is exhaustion. I'm also about to lose my voice.

The doctor, who I saw last week, assured me I didn't have an infection, but that my throat was "a bit red". No shit.

[/Moan moan moan self indulgent bullshit moan whine whinge]