It was nearly midnight. I was just five years old. I woke with a start, coughing, not able to stop. I headed down the hall to my parents bedroom. Before I had even got there, my mom was already up and had the cough medication ready to go.
She tried to throw the medicine down my throat in between the constant coughing and weezing. It didn't take her long to suspect that this wasn't just a regular cold.
It was decided at that moment that I was going to pay a visit to the doctor in the morning, if the cold was worse. I wasn't really givin much of a choice, but I was too tired to make any objection.
The next morning, my mom made an appointment to see the family doctor. …
