For the most part, the coughing seems to have resolved itself.

However, it doesn’t seem like the beta blocker that I was prescribed for the heart issues that are finally being taken seriously is working… at all, because my blood pressure and pulse on metoprolol is now for the most part what it was before I even began metoprolol. But since I don’t acutely feel the “squeezing” that was going on in my chest — the squeezing that had, and has, nothing to do with anxiety because early-onset heart problems are extremely heritable on my mother’s side of the family — I’ll chalk that up to a narrow win and continue to bide my time waiting for my cardiology referral and primary care physician’s request for more detailed testing to go through, hoping that it goes through sooner rather than later to change this med.

So I was put on a beta-blocker for my cardiac issues and referred to a cardiologist, which wasn’t an entirely bad thing… the fact that I have cardiovascular issues that are starting to be recognized isn’t, anyway, because I have a strong family history of early-onset heart disease on my mother’s side. I have been coughing nearly constantly since that started even in spite of taking all the cough medication I safely can. And then I found out that people with bronchial asthma are generally not supposed to be prescribed beta blockers, even cardioselective ones in cases where the bronchial asthma is definitely not mild. This explains why I have literally been coughing for more than a week now. It tracks. If I can get through to my primary care doctor’s office next week, I’m going to be calling them, explaining the coughing thing (which I had intended to do earlier, but I had hoped that it would ride itself out and that this medication would still be viable), asking to be prescribed a different medication, and asking where the hell the second prescription I was supposed to be on for my heart went because I clearly heard “two prescriptions” while I saw him.

This cough needed to go away yesterday though, as my voice has faded in and out and I am just over it.