In September last year (2019) I had some sort of severe chest infection, which made me very breathless. It took 2 courses of antibiotics but then cleared up. I was more breathless than I'd ever been before, like really struggling to breathe - every breath was an effort.
Since then I've had a couple of otherwise mild colds which have also left me breathless. One came with a nasty cough, but the other was otherwise just a slightly runny nose.
I now have another. Again, mild cold symptoms, but I'm really having to work for each breath, even while sitting still or lying down. Don't really have a cough or anything.
Is this normal or should I be worried? I'd never really been breathless with a cold or cough before. It's really quite frightening; I'm currently lying in bed trying to breathe normally, but my chest and throat are rattling every time I exhale and I just feel that I'm not taking enough air in with each breath. I constantly feel like if it gets much worse I'll have to go to hospital, but it never gets quite bad enough for that!
I guess I'm just surprised that I feel so breathless and don't know if this is a normal way to feel with a chest infection.