congestion

a few weeks ago i had a bad cough with post nasal drip, resulting in congestion in my chest. I tried regular cough medicines to bring it up, but to no avail. It just sits down in there, and it actually feels as if it has hardened, it doesn't feel "loose" when I cough now. The problem seems to be that it feels a little hard to breathe, to get a good deep breath down in the chest because this stuff is in there. The dr. said he want to give me Antibiotics to deal with this , but that's not the road I want to take! what can I take to loosen this in the chest (bronchial tubes) and get it up? thanks to anyone who can help! Tweet