Chicago: Killing Me Softly

I haven’t been keeping up with my journal very well, so few people know I’ve been “sick” for the past two weeks. Sick? About two weeks ago, I woke up with a really bad sore throat, strong enough that swallowing, yawning, and even hard breathing were painful. This continued for three days, until eventually I also started coughing. Oddly enough, I was coughing for no reason. Nothing was coming up, and no cough medicine seemed to work. I figured I just had a cold; unfortunately I was very wrong.This kept up for days. Eventually my throat hurt so bad, I also started losing my voice. Late one night, Jen took me to the hospital to see about my sudden turn for the worse, afraid I had strep. After about two hours at the hospital, we found that I did not have strep, and my painful throat was marked as pharyngitis. Fast forward one week through a rather miserable Christmas and New Year, and oddly enough, I don’t feel any better. What to do?Take a day off work and go to a doctor, that’s what. The doctor didn’t examine me very long, and seemed to have an immediate idea after I merely listed my symptoms and he took a quick look at my throat. To confirm his hypothesis, he gave me a breath-volume test; I barely registered 80% after three attempts.“Looks like allergies!““God damn it!“According to him, since Chicago has such bad air pollution, people who move to the area sometimes react adversely to the climate. Suddenly the weeks of post-nasal drip and constant coughing made sense. The air was invoking a histamine response, causing my sinuses to constantly produce mucus, and my lungs to constrict. My constricted lungs had bronchospasms, since the constriction imitated clogged lungs. That of course is why I kept coughing without production, and why no cough medicines reduced the urge.So yeah… I’m allergic to Chicago. Now the city is actually trying to kill me. Thanks Chicago! I really needed another reason to liken you to a puss infested boil on the ass of a rotting camel.Eat it, shit hole.