6 months post pneumonia, What is wrong with my lungs?
About myself: 21yo female, 1.63m, 63kg, Chinese. I currently take Loette (birth control) and Zyrtec regularly. Also use Bricanyl Turbuinhaler when needed. I do not smoke and never have.
My Pneumonia: I first had symptoms of pneumonia at the end of August. After seeing 3 different GPs, none of them even suspected that I had pneumonia and brushed it off as a bad infection and put me on antibiotics. I was first prescribed Amoxicillin, but when that didn't work I was prescribed Augmentin IIRC. After 1.5 weeks, my symptoms did not get better so my mother took me to hospital in the middle of the night where I got chest xrays done and the diagnosis of pneumonia. They started me on IV antibiotics as well as doxycycline IIRC.
With these my pneumonia began to get better and in the end they found out that I had mycloplasma pneumoniae
After my treatment, I had my chest x-rayed again and it showed that my lungs were clear.
Current Symptoms These symptoms started right after I was cleared of pneumonia for my lungs. I had already been told that I would have a cough for a couple weeks while my lungs recovered. However it has been 6 months and I'm still experiencing symptoms.
Cough with mucus (not dry coughs). When I cough I can feel sputum, but nothing usually comes up when I cough.
Cough occurs in areas with pollen (I have hayfever), so I believe my allergies play a role. However my hayfever has never been very bad and normally I don't even notice it. But with the cough, its made me realise that I have it more often than I think.
Cough also occurs with change in weather, especially cold weather
Cough usually occurs late at night when I'm trying to sleep and am already lying down. This makes it very difficult to sleep sometimes.
Also experience shortness of breath when performing cardio exercises
Wheezing - this is the symptom that bothers me the most. It makes it hard for me to breath and sleep.
Most recently, while I was on a trip, due to change to cold weather, allergies (pollen and cats), my wheezing was so bad that it was hard for me to breath and I was getting short of breath having short conversations. I called a "Nurse on Call" and she recommended I go to emergency. However emergency had no doctors available to see me and I was already starting to feel better since I had taken Zyrtec after the wheezing had started.
What I currently do to try and control this cough I have found that taking Zyrtec (antihistamine medicine) helps. If I take it before any symptoms occur, it usually acts as a preventative measure. I normally take it after the coughing/wheezing starts and the symptoms usually decrease/go away in around half an hour. The recommended dosage for Zyrtec is normally 1 tablet per 24 hours, but I sometimes need 1 every 12 hours to make the cough/wheezing go away.
I didn't expect to be coughing for so long after. The wheezing worries me. I just want to know what is wrong with my lungs, will I have this for the rest of my life? Will I need an inhaler for the rest of my life? Is it asthma?
Thank you in advance.