TLDR Excessive phlegm production causing aggresive coughing - Anyone know if it has a name?
For the last twenty five years or so, I've had a "chronic cough". I've been to many, many doctors and have received no definitive answers.
In the last few years, I had been suspecting that the cough may not be an average cough. I developed theories, I thought about times it would happen and what would instigate them, I tried pouring through my memories in an effort to create a history of it and all of its quirks.
I started greatly suspecting that the cough was actually an unusually large production of phlegm that never ends. I bought a microscope and on one of my particularly bad coughs I shoved my hand down my own throat and retrieved some of the phlegm. I compared mine to my roommates but the microscope didn't really yield discernible results.
What I did find out was that a tiny amount of my phlegm acted more like some sort of rubberized slime - It would stretch by two or three feet when my roommates barely stuck to my fingers and stretched less than an inch.
I came to the conclusion that the slime phlegm I produce was constantly getting clogged in the airway and instigating a cough pretty much 95% of the time. I shoved a flashlight down there and had the roommate look when I was choking.
Sure enough, she saw it. It was acting like a thick spider web that obstructs the airway and we think that's what causes the aggressive coughing.
For some reason, NAC can reduce the severity, the length of the cough, shortens the length of recovery and reduces the cough to once or twice a week instead of multiple times every day.
What I would like to know is if this problem even has a name? I feel like if I knew that, I'd likely know how to get rid of it once and for all. Any ideas?