The Journey Begins- What's going on?

Last September, I developed a cold prior to a 3 1/2 week trip to Europe. It still lingered as we departed in October. I am generally very healthy and found it odd when I seemed to get reinfected on our river cruise. I had good days and bad days, but seemed to have a runny nose and cough the entire time. After 16 days, we visited our grandson in London who was also sick with a cold. I thought I would be immune to it, but a few days later got very sick. We plodded through 5 days of wet and cold weather in Paris with me worsening each day. During our final 2 days in Amsterdam, I could do little more than lay in bed. Even a short walk caused me to break into a sweat.

The trip home took over 24 hours due to weather delays. I visited my doctor the first day home and was diagnosed with pneumonia-- a first for me. It seemed to slowly respond to antibiotics, but my sinuses remained clogged. Back to my MD a few weeks later and I was given another prescription for antibiotics to fight a chronic sinus infection--another first for me. Weeks went by until I finally seemed to be past my body's rambunctious mucus production. It seemed odd that I had been sick for so long and found it so difficult to get over my illnesses.