I seem to have been getting more respiratory (lung) issues for the last 3 or 4 years. All fairly minor individually but they're getting more frequent. I'm just shy of 50.
Right now I've got a chesty, mucus-producing cough and have for last 4 weeks or so, and it just won't seem to shift. I don't feel ill at all, no fever, no tiredness, no nothing - I still do quite a lot of exercise. I'm just producing lots of gunk. I also feel a bit more out of breath going up stairs.
In January 2024 I had covid, just a cough and not much else. Didn't feel that ill at all, except for the coughing.
In September and October 2023 I had what I now think was probably whooping cough, coughing to point of vomiting etc. Didn't go to GP as thought it was just a cough but my child caught it in January this year and it was pretty much the same experience.
January 2023 I had a respiratory infection and partially collapsed lung. Antibiotics sorted it out and I forgot about it at the time.
I'm obviously going to go to the GP next week but I'm feeling uneasy. I don't normally suffer from health-related anxiety of any sort and never had anything like this till I turned mid-40s.
Stupidly, I did smoke quite heavily for 7 years or so in my 20s, and grew up in a (very heavy) smoking household. I also had second-hand asbestos exposure as a kid owing to my dad's job.
I'm worried I'll sound like a paranoid fruit loop if I share this with the GP.