A Breath of Fresh Air

💡TL;DR: If you are wheezing, first decide if it is an emergency, then use the fastest safe steps to open your airways. Mild wheezing with easy breathing can often be calmed at home with rescue inhalers, nebulizers, or breathing exercises, while severe shortness of breath, blue lips, or noisy

💡TL;DR: Most sore throats are viral and get better in a few days; only about 5–15% of adults and 20–30% of children have strep (CDC). Strep usually starts suddenly with severe throat pain and fever and no cough, while viral sore throats build more slowly with cough

💡TL;DR: Croup = a barky upper‑airway cough that peaks over 1–2 nights, RSV = a wet cough with wheeze that runs about 1–2 weeks, and whooping cough = long coughing fits with a whoop that can last for weeks. Nearly all children encounter RSV by age 2 (CDC), while

💡TL;DR: After COVID-19, a new or returning low fever, a cough that worsens instead of easing, and new shortness of breath within 1–3 weeks can signal walking pneumonia. See your doctor to confirm with a chest X-ray; don’t assume it’s just long COVID. Most people feel

💡TL;DR: Rhonchi are low, snoring-like sounds from mucus in the larger airways and often clear after a cough. Crackles (rales) are brief popping sounds from fluid or stiff air sacs and usually do not clear; wheezes are high, musical whistles from narrowed small airways. Use lung sounds as clues,

💡TL;DR: RSV and whooping cough are different illnesses: RSV is a virus, while whooping cough (pertussis) is a bacterium. Antibiotics treat pertussis (especially early) but not RSV; RSV care is mainly supportive at home or in the hospital if breathing is hard. Protection also differs: DTaP/Tdap prevents pertussis,

💡TL;DR: Recurrent croup means more than two barky-cough episodes in a year or croup showing up outside the usual age window (about 6 months to 3 years). It can be a risk signal for asthma, but most children do not develop chronic asthma. Practical next steps: watch for wheeze

💡TL;DR: The fastest way to calm a cough is a 30-second sequence: briefly hold your breath, switch to small nose breaths, and sip water. Most coughs from colds settle in 1–2 weeks without prescriptions; quick home fixes cost $0–$10 (water, honey, lozenges), while a bedroom humidifier runs

💡TL;DR: Chest pain that worsens with deep breaths often points to pleurisy, while pain you can reproduce by pressing the chest usually means costochondritis. Musculoskeletal chest wall pain is common in primary care (about 20–40%) and costochondritis is a frequent cause, while pleurisy signals inflammation of the lung