The cough is off as I find a solution

About town - Matt Lawrey

OPINION: Our four-year-old son has a bike with no pedals, made from wood. It has a wooden frame, wooden handlebars and wooden wheels along with a bright red seat, red hand grips and pneumatic tyres. It is undeniably cool. I know this because everywhere we go with it, people say, "Cool bike".

Wooden bikes are all the rage among the under-fives, which comes as no surprise when you see how much fun they have on them. However, if you'd told me four years ago that the greatest gift we would give our son would be a bike made out of wood, I would not have believed you.

You never can really tell just what will grab people's imaginations. This year I've written about everything from helicopters and power cuts to football and recycling, yet it was a column I wrote a couple of months ago that got the most people going.

In case you missed it, I wrote about how I had been coughing like a man on his last legs for a couple of months, and how antibiotics, naturopathy, vitamin C, three different medicines, a chest X-ray and phlegm tests had not helped. It was always worse at night, and I had cracked two ribs from hacking.

As a result of the column, I was approached by numerous well-meaning people with recipes for concoctions involving carrots, pineapple, garlic, ginger and lemons. I was recommended several different cough syrups, encouraged to do a breathing programme, and urged to get myself to a homeopath. I received a letter from 85-year-old Mavis Tennet of Upper Moutere, who told me she was suffering from the same cough. "At my age, I thought it was the end of me but having a strong will, I fought," she wrote.

I also got a call from my GP, which led to an appointment and a course of steroids that resulted in my cough virtually disappearing overnight and people asking if my muscles were getting bigger and my face puffier. Tragically, as the dosage reduced, my cough came back. Being a stoic Kiwi man, I told the doc I'd pass on the offer of more steroids and tough it out.

Convinced I was suffering from the legendary 100-day cough, I figured that sooner or later, I'd just come right. However, by day 110, I hadn't come right. I knew things were getting out of hand when Pete at the brilliant Ka Pie Kiwi Kitsch'n (opposite Nelson Central School) told me to stop going on about my cough on the radio, and a complete stranger at the airport asked, "Have you still got that cough?".

I tried olive leaf extract, but that didn't work either – so, finally, I made an appointment to see a homeopath. This turned out to be an interesting and useful experience. Interesting because I enjoyed it, and useful because the homeopath's line of inquiry led me back to my GP with some questions. Upon learning I was still crook, he urged me to see a specialist.

After a half-hour chat that included topics like my previous respiratory issues, the fact that I'm allergic to bee stings, and our four-year-old's eczema, the specialist announced that he believed I had asthma.

I told him this couldn't be – my lung capacity was too great and I'd recently passed some kind of asthma test. He explained that just because I had decent lungs didn't mean they were immune to asthma, and the test wasn't always conclusive.

I was given a prescription for more steroids and three inhalers. That night, I used two of the inhalers and had my best night's sleep in months. When I awoke, it felt as though someone had swapped my clapped-out lungs for new ones. It felt like a miracle, and I have been feeling great ever since.

Interestingly, in the two weeks since my session with the specialist, I have become aware of how suspicious many Nelson people are about asthma and conventional medicine's ways of treating it. When I tell them of my diagnosis and inhalers, they frown. Does this bother me? Not in the slightest. Why? Life is too short and I feel good.

- © Fairfax NZ News