I know it's happened before, but for the past several mornings (though not this morning, at least I don't think) I have woken up not by the alarm, but by me coughing up all the snot that I've generated all through the night. I have so much phlegm that for most of these mornings I have been seized by a series of extended coughing fits. It feels like my body is trying to cough up all the snot that collected down my throat, and sometimes it takes, no joke, up until noon before I'm done with these coughing fits. I don't remember ever having a cold this bad that I have to do this, but I remember having bad colds.
I'm fixated on this because I don't remember, specifically, any time where I am stymied by a cough this bad for so long. In fact, if I get woken up because I have to cough up my spit, I wonder if there have been other times throughout the night where I've woken up because of the phlegm in my throat. Coughing in order to clear my throat means that if I don't clear my throat, I can't breathe. So I am guessing I have woken up because my body is telling my brain and motor muscles, "Oh no, I can't breathe." But what happens if I don't wake up? What happens if I generate so much crap that I choke myself to death? I've heard horror stories of people choking to death on their own vomit, but that's because that guy drank so much that he passed out and deadened his wakening instincts, or, something like that. That can't happen to me ... can it?
Man, I need this cold to go away. Our current cold snap -- where I went out to Brit's Pub when it was -13 with a windchill of -35 at 7:30 this morning in order to watch soccer, and where it's not supposed to rise above 0 all day today -- is not helping.
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