On 9/3/2008, I developed a cough. I am a masters student and this cough was so disruptive that in the past 2 weeks, I have had to miss class or leave class early. To make an extremely long story short, I have in the past 2 weeks been prescribed guaifenesen, claritin, prednisone, an inhaler, hydrocodone, zpack, tessalon perles, and suggested OTC to help me sleep at night (nyquil) and general pain medication (excedrin, tylenol).

Yesterday, I acquired a pain in my chest when I breathe. It has now expanded from the right front of my chest, to the back right, and is spreading to the left back. I have consulted with four doctors now and physically seen three different doctors. I've heard allergies, bronchitis, pneumonia, or some strain of coxsackie.

My question is, through out all of this, if it is just that I am allergic to something and I just don't know it yet, would cough suppressants work on allergies? Is that what Claritin does? I stopped taking it because I was just constantly being prescribed new things and when I took it for a few days I noticed no difference.

I just got a new down mattress topper. I thought I may be allergic to this, because I was seemingly fine when I took my current meds (inhaler, hydrocodone, zpack, and prednisone). I still experienced pain in my chest a little bit, but the coughing seemed to have subsided for the most person. I was, however, propped up most of the time somewhat. When I went to go lay down in bed, I started coughing again, causing a great deal of pain in my chest. I don't know if it's allergies or the mere fact that I wasn't propped up for a brief moment in bed.

Bottom line: if it's allergies, would a cough suppressant work?