Update on the cough.

dedoc called me up, heard me cough, and suggested that I not wait until Monday to get medical attention. I called the person who's on call for my doctor, and she offered to call in a prescription for an albuterol inhaler, saying that if it didn't work I could go to the ER afterward. I told her I wasn't comfortable trying a totally new drug and type of treatment without being seen, so she amended her advice and told me to go to the ER now. So if my car starts, that's where I'm going. I'll keep you updated.

Update update.

It's "just" my allergies. The unusually spectacular pollen season we've been having has irritated my bronchioles (I think) and swelled them up, and that's why the cough and the trouble breathing. They did a chest X-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia, and I didn't. Then they gave me an albuterol treatment, which left me wobbly-kneed but breathing better, and sent me home with a prescription for something called "tesselon perles" for my cough and instructions to drink plenty of fluids and see my primary care doctor.

The drive to the hospital and walk in from the waiting room left me wheezing and coughing badly enough that I jumped the whole line to get seen, which isn't as impressive as it sounds given that it was a suburban community hospital, but did tend to add to scaredness. I hit a really bad feedback loop, where my coughing and wheezing made me scared and then being scared made it harder to breathe. But I think everything should be okay now.