It started a week ago Friday (7/8) when I had an "aspiration event." That means that when taking my iron pill, instead of it going down my esophagus, it went down my trachea (as they say, it "went down the wrong pipe"). This caused immediate coughing (bringing up blood for the first 12 hours) and just non-stop coughing. Mitch insisted I go to the doctor (he was right, and I was stubborn, of course). Googling it, I realized that the problem was that my trachea was scratched and/or inflamed and it would just take a bit of time and a lot of rest to heal. Finally, this past Friday, after non-stop coughing for a week (and being in a lot of pain), I went to the doctor (my regular PCP couldn't see me so I went to a different location). Chest x-rays were taken and pneumonia was ruled out. I was given a steriod for the inflammation, which didn't seem to make a difference.
Today, I had a follow up with my own doctor. He agreed that my lungs sounded clear and that indeed I had injured my trachea. He also agreed that time and rest would definitely help BUT I could not get that chance to rest if I couldn't stop coughing (duh!). He gave me a codeine based cough medicine and said that if he's right, I should be all better within 2 days.
I took the first dose when I got home at 11:30am and I can tell you my coughing has decreased by about 90%. So, yes, I believe my system will get the rest it needs with this medicine. And if I had listened to Mitch earlier, this would have been over with much sooner.