For the past 2 weeks I have had a persistant cough. My parents said it was because my room was too dry so I bought a humidifier about a week ago. Two days ago I woke up with a fever, a bad headache, and felt extremely tired. Today the headache and fever are gone but the cough is much worse and is now accompanied by shortness of breath when I do just about anything, and Im now starting to feel some pain in my chest. I had surgery 4 weeks ago (bone graft taken from my hip to replace a broken bone in my wrist) and a friend of mine told me that having fluid in your lungs is a common side-effect of general anasthesia but I dont know if he's right about that. I dont even know if I do have fluid in my lungs. I dont cough anything up, I just cough a LOT. What could this be?