(Also pls just ignore the nip piercings😩)
For some health context and background, I’m a 23 year old female, October of 2025 I gave up smoking (both nicotine and weed) and haven’t smoked at all since, and 2 months later in December of 2025 I began a small dose of Dexamfetamine (5mg) - 2 tablets twice a day following my adhd diagnosis.
When I first gave up smoking I had a lot of mucus and the cough was wet, but it only lasted a month. Then in January of this year I began having a chronic dry cough where I would be coughing up brown specks. It subsided for a short amount of time so I didn’t think anything of it.
Fast forward to late Feb early March of this year it came back full swing which lead me to have a chest xray on the 14th of April. The symptoms I experienced from this cough are:
•Brown phlegm, it is either in specks through my mucus or it is light to dark brown and it much larger when I cough it up. It also gets stuck in my airways and it is very difficult to cough up which starts to give me sore muscles from straining and trying to catch my breath.
• Tonsil stones that have cleared completely now but lasted atleast 4 months.
• On some Occassions I’ve noticed small traces of blood when coughing up the brown phlegm from how hard I’m straining.
• A ticklish feeling in my lungs as the brown mucus is being pushed out which triggers the cough and breathlessness.
• Coughing fits, which usually occur at night, or if I’m not adequately hydrated which causes a dry throat in turn making it harder to cough the sticky brown mucus up which repeats the cycle of breathlessness and heaving over a bin or sink to try to cough up the brown mucus.
• Reflux when the coughing fits get bad and I if I cough for hours at a time.
• Dizziness from coughing and a pins and needles sensation when the fits get bad.
• Constantly feeling like there is hair, food, mucus or some other irritant either in my throat or deep in my lungs.
I know giving up smoking was the best choice to make but I feel like ever since I’ve given my body this time to heal, I’ve also started experiencing all these health issues along with it and I’m just beginning to feel down about it as I try to take pride in my health and wellbeing, and I feel as though something about this cough isn’t normal. When a coughing fits happens I will cough brown mucus up for hours and it feels like I can’t get any sort of relief…
I understand I can’t come to reddit for a professional medical diagnosis but I’m hoping someone has any advice or insight on the symptoms I’m experiencing and if I could get some peace of mind. I have attached a chest xray that I got recently which showed up as normal so yeah I’m trying to rule out everything, whether that be a reaction to meds, gerd, athsma etc
Thankyou if you’ve read this far haha, I’m seeing my GP again soon for a follow up but yeah I’m in the middle of a bad fit right now and I’m just at my wits end…