I ve had recurring persistent coughing fits for the last three weeks, after having similar symptoms which I assumed were caused by bronchitis from last November to March. I have mild asthma whose chief usual symptoms are coughing fits of this type set off by climbing up multiple flights of stairs from the subway in cold weather. Now I m having the coughing fits after coming up the subway stairs even when it s over seventy degrees outside. Recently my coughing fits have also been triggered by eating (usually things that are somewhat chewy or crumb-producing, but occasionally even soft things like yoghurt), inhaling and exhaling too deeply, or sometimes for no apparent reason at all. For a couple of days during the first week of this, I could actually feel the phlegm (or some sort of semi-liquid substance) in my lungs. That feeling had gone away by the time I went to my doctor one week after the symptoms began, and she said my lungs were clear when she listened with a stethoscope, even though I burst out coughing the first time she asked me to take a deep breath. She asked me if I had post-nasal drip (I did, but, as I told her, I have that to some extent all year round) and then prescribed Flonase. However, when I read the instructions on the packaging it said not to use it without checking with your doctor if you had cataracts or glaucoma. Since I d already had cataracts that were bad enough to require cataract surgery on both eyes (which I d mentioned in the records I filled out for her), this seemed like a potential problem, but I haven t had a chance to talk to her about it since. I was also dubious about how much a nasal spray that seemed aimed primarily at treating postnasal drip would do to relieve coughing that seemed unaffected by actual cough medicine.