Phlegm problems.

I don't know why - dryness in my apartment causing nasal irritation? hay fever, though it'd be very early in the year for that? - but for like 2-3 weeks in a row last month, I'd wake up in the morning with this heaviness towards the top of the back of my throat, and as I'd gradually wake up and go about my morning routine and put on the coffee, I'd realize that that small heavy feeling at the top of the back of my throat was built up phlegm, and then I'd go snort and hock up dime size pieces of the phlegm into my bathroom sink.

And, often, they were a dulled bright green, though sometimes they were more on the white side, especially if for some reason I got some later in the day.

Anyhow, one morning I was doing this, and they were really dry and thick, and as I began to snort to hock them up to spit them out, one gob must have half come off the back of my throat and it just sat there, and it hung forward onto my soft palate or something and began gagging me, but no matter how much I hocked, I kept gagging and my breath kept being brought short and drawn back in against my will from some shortcircuited physiological reaction no matter how much I tried to undo what was happening, with the result that I was caught in this short rapid breathing and gagging state for what seemed like endlessly.

And then, after what seemed like a full minute of breathless erratic gagging, the small piece of phlegm finally dislodged and came up and went out into the sink, and everything was back to normal.

Overall, it was a really, really horrible experience, almost like drowning, much like that time I almost started drowning back as a kid.