Chronic cough of 9 months won't leave me be. 19 years old, 171cm, 61kg male.
Hello, I'm a 19y.o. international student in Germany. Back in December 2025, around Christmas, I started coughing. It's your usual cough with phlegm stuck in your throat, nothing extra. For winter break I traveled back to my home country where my symptoms became worse. My cough turned into a high fever, around 40°C which wouldn't drop any lower than 38 for 1-2 weeks. I drank a lot of antipyretics and antibiotics and anything else, nothing was doing anything. I had to get an IV drop to fix the situation, after which my temperature normalised. After my fever(my cough is still there) I noticed that whenever I breathe too deeply my back whistles and shakes around. I went to the doctor and had to use a medical nebuliser for 2 weeks, which helped a bit.
After the winter break I went back to Germany, where my whistling breath came back. It would worsen in cold weather and go away when I'm in a warm room. After a few doctors I settled with using an inhaler, beclometasone for long-term solution, and a Salbutamol inhaler to take immediately when I feel the whistling. After a month of inhaling the whistling is finally gone, tho the weather also warmed up quite a bit so I'm not sure which one helped here.
After all that I'M STILL COUGHING. A few other doctors told me it's probably allergic considering how long it's been troubling me. I went to ENT where they checked my nose and throat. They said there's some colorless mucus but it's probably old mucus that keeps dripping down my throat. I was given a Budesonid nose spray and some pills for a week. They helped just a bit but didn't solve the issue.
Fast forward to summer break I come back to my home country. I go to another ENT which sees that my sinuses are full of mucus and reddish in colour. I give a blood test for allergy: C-reactive protein, Total Immunoglobulin E and HbA1c-glycohemoglobin. All 3 are withing the normal range, meaning it's probably not allergic.
I'm currently taking lyophilized bacterial lysates 7mg pills for 10 days and a Mometasone Furoate Monohydrate nose spray twice a day. My pills finished yesterday, I'm still taking the nose spray. Today I have been coughing like a lung-cancer patient who has been smoking a pack of cigars everyday for the last decade.
I have never smoked myself but both countries are known for heavy smokers, often when I go outside I'd smell at least some smoke or weed. I've never had any allergies before, mostly just skin conditions like eczema or seborean dermatitis. I have mild scoliosis. I have done a lung X-Ray twice which showed nothing both times. I am exhausted of going from doctor to doctor just for them to tell me the same thing and for that thing to not help at all, please help me.