My Diagnosis

It started with just shortness of breath, which was no big thing especially with my asthma. However, the frequency of the time when it became harder to breathe increased. In addition, after a brief period of illness, I acquired a dry cough that hurt every time it was released. Symptom after symptom followed after. My breathing became rapid, shallow. I also began losing weight and my muscles and joints ached for no reason. As if to tie the ribbon on a package of disaster, fatigue weighed me down in every aspect of my life.


Finally, I agreed to go to the doctor. They only asked questions at first, trying to glean any information that they could from my answers. However, when those were unhelpful, I underwent a simple chest x-ray. Which, oddly enough, turned up 100% normal. Because I already had too much problems for it to merely be "nothing", I asked for further testing. This came in the form of a high-resolution computed tomography scan. When the pictures came back and specialists had fully examined it, my diagnosis became clear: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.