The Sixth Doctor.

So…ever since I have been here with Mum she has had an irritating cough every, now and then. Sometimes she ends up being sick and other times it's as if she is choking. It is very distressing to witness. She always says it sounds worse than it is and it is just a tickle in her throat that causes it but I don't like it.

After about a month of it not going away I phoned the doctor.

Now getting a quick doctor's appointment here is almost as rare as winning the lottery but Mum is registered as ‘housebound’ at her surgery. I rang at dead on 8.00 am on the morning in question and put in my request for a home visit, describing Mum’s symptoms. I was told it would be added to the home visit roster and a doctor would ring later to find out more.

The first doctor, we shall call him William Hartnell, rang about 11ish and I went through the symptoms again. He said he would call to see her later and he did.

Previously, while in hospital, after her fall, the doctors had upped Mum’s blood pressure medication and given her an extra tablet in the evening, Ramipril.

William Hartnell listened to Mum's chest and said he could hear a slight rattle so prescribed a short course of antibiotics and also took her off the Ramipril because, in some cases, it turns out it can cause a cough in patients. He changed it to another medication and went on his way.

The cough continued.

So after another month I rang the doctors again. This time I had trouble getting through at dead on 8.00 am and finally got through about 5 minutes later and discovered I was 45th in the queue! Unbelievable!

Luckily, you can hang up but your place stays in the queue and they ring you back later when your turn finally arrives. They rang back about 45 minutes later and once again I waxed lyrical about Mum's cough.

The second doctor, we shall call him Patrick Troughton, turned up without another pre-visit call. Once again he listened to her chest, thought he could hear a rattle and prescribed another short course of antibiotics and said that the replacement medication for Ramipril can also cause a cough (!) so he took her off that but this time didn't replace it.

The cough continued.

The third doctor, we shall call ‘her’ John Pertwee, was called a month later. No antibiotics this time but she sent her for an endoscopy at the hospital which was carried out just over a week after his visit. Nothing untoward was found in her throat but they discovered she had a hiatus hernia which we already knew about. I asked if that could be the cause of the cough but the nurse said that was unlikely.

The cough continued.

The fourth doctor came another month later, we shall call him Tom Baker. He sent her for a chest X-ray to rule out any lurking nasties of which there were, happily, none but the cough continued.

The fifth doctor, Peter Davidson, upped Mum's reflux medication from 20mg a day to 80 mg a day, for a fortnight but the cough continued.

The sixth doctor….doctor who?…Colin Baker of course, heeded the call a few weeks ago and prescribed Gaviscon after every meal and before bed and recommended a 20mg reflux tablet morning and night.

With bated breath I think there is some improvement at last. She still coughs on and off but it doesn't seem to be as much or as intense as it was.

Thanks be to the sixth doctor! We might not need Sylvester McCoy!