Justice. It sounds like you are going through the exact same thing I went through that started last September. It lasted for 5 months. It was Horrible. I too am a long time smoker and I HAD to quit the 2nd month I was sick. I just couldn't smoke. When I did the coughing and choking were debilitating. I had no problem quitting when the motivation was there to stop. I had never had such a lung infection as this one was. It was diagnosed as Legionaire's Disease and it took 3 courses of antibiotics to get it to go away. The Magic one was Clindamycin. Once I started taking it I felt a dramatic improvement on about the 3rd or 4th day. But the total time I was sick was a little over 5 months. I thought in the 2nd month I wasn't going to live through it and my voicebox, larynx, is damaged from all the violent coughing. I have problems now and use a store brand inhaler which I used throughout the illness. Doc did give me a couple of albuterol inhalers during the worst of it but wouldn't give me any refills so I do the best I can with these now.

If you'd like to talk about this in detail you can PM me. I usually come in here at least a few times a day.