Hi all,

My Gran is a insulin dependant diabetic and is 86 years old. She has a terrible dry cough which hurts her chest and the GP has prescribed her 2 courses of antibiotics which she has now finished along with linctus cough medicine which doesn't work.

I was wondering what type of cough medicine you use or if there's something I can make at home for her? Everything in the pharmacist contains sugar and the only thing the GP will give Gran is Linctus which is useless.

Thank you.

check with the pharamcist where you fill her meds most have a sugar free cough medicine made for diabetics

Hi all,

My Gran is a insulin dependant diabetic and is 86 years old. She has a terrible dry cough which hurts her chest and the GP has prescribed her 2 courses of antibiotics which she has now finished along with linctus cough medicine which doesn't work.

I was wondering what type of cough medicine you use or if there's something I can make at home for her? Everything in the pharmacist contains sugar and the only thing the GP will give Gran is Linctus which is useless.

Thank you.


Mystictiger...
Is your grandmother by any chance taking an ACE inhibitor? They are blood pressure medications, and they're often also used to protect diabetics from kidney disease. They often cause a dry cough which can be very debilitating. Check with the doctor to make certain this isn't the reason for the cough.

The cough medicine I use (on very rare occasions) is called Tussionix...it's a narcotic-based medicine, and you only use a teaspoon once every six hours, but it works immediately and does a good job of suppressing the cough. They won't keep prescribing it, though, due to the narcotic in it, but if your gran has some sort of virus, maybe they'd give her some for the short-term, so she can get some rest.

Ruth

Hi,

Ruth, great thought about the ACE.

When I have a cough, my doc has prescribed a drug called "Tessalon" and it is a non-narcotic. It's in pill form and works great for me. Good luck.

Sharon :)