Coughing and Taking a Bruising

All pregnant women know that growing a little one makes them more vulnerable - and likely – to catch colds and all sorts of other minor ailments. What becomes even more despairing is that being a teacher and pregnant makes you all the more likely to catch something very unwanted. Not that it is only pregnant teachers – I’m sure there are many other professions like this . So it is that, just as the Christmas holidays are approaching, that I come down with a cough. It starts off to an extent I can manage at first – that is until Christmas Eve. At that point, I started coughing more frequently - and at random moments: Before I controlled when I coughed; Now, the cough is holding me hostage, getting ready to strike at any point. And strike it does. That night, I was up several times to a rampant, violent string of coughing attacks. As if it’s not enough that I’m getting up to go to the bathroom, I’m also now prone to this as well. In the last few days I’ve coughed so much that I’ve developed what feels like a bruising across the ribs down my left side. The pain is unbelievable, due to a combination of the persistent coughing and also the fact that baby is taking up space, pushing my organs in even closer proximity of one another. With a weaker immune system, these sorts of viruses aren’t so easy or quick to shift: I wasn’t aware of this before but a woman’s immune system becomes weaker because if it didn’t, the body would reject the fetus, as it would be seen as a ‘foreign body’. Truly remarkable.

It is a worry for any pregnant woman that any ache or pain or symptom they feel could harm their baby in some way and so I made a call to that new number – 111 - where you can get emergency medical advice without the ambulance or the hefty long wait in an A&E room – very handy for a worrier like me. I also want to check which remedies I can take and how I can ease the bruising. The nurse is lovely and very reassuring and tells me that the coughing will do no harm to the baby at all, and neither will the pain I feel on my ribs. So, are there any remedies I can take, or anything I can do to ease this pain? I ask, hopefully.

I’m told that all I can do is take paracetamol, rest and drink home-made honey and lemon drinks – things I am already doing. She then goes on to say that a pregnant woman will need to have a cough for at least three weeks before doctors will recommend any other type of remedy, as the risks are too high, which is fair enough. But… three weeks! I’ve had two weeks of this already – so I now need to go through this for another week before I might or might not start to feel better? By then it’ll be back to school and I definitely do not want to be feeling like this then!

So for now, it’s all hail to the mighty paracetamol and slightly nauseating lemon and honey brews and farewell to all those lovely chocolate and sugary treats given to me at school and by my lovely friends which I had been looking forward to on my break. I had accepted that I wouldn’t be having a glass or two of my favourite Christmas tipple (Baileys) this year but now I can’t even face a glass of my replacement - Appletizer! Unfortunately, the latter of each will have to be left on the shelf for now because I sure heck am not up to drinking or eating them (although my husband has been able to give me daily reviews on each of them). Must say, I’m very surprised there’s not a scientist or doctor out there who has not yet invented a pregnancy-friendly, cough medicine. Hmm. Something to think about!