Well, there's some good observation

Whooping cough starts with about 2 weeks of cold-like symptoms then turns into what I've been through the last few weeks, then coughing tapers off over several months.  In my case I totally ignored the cold symptoms.  I kept complaining that my allergies were crazy this fall, that I usually don't have fall allergies and here I was with a dripping nose and sneezing clear through October/early November.  The "allergies" never got worse and I had been having allergic symptoms for a while before that, so there wasn't a definite change.

But.....I just washed a giant load of whites.  I don't use a lot of white stuff (only socks really and I have a LOT of socks), so I sometimes go a couple weeks or even 3 between waiting to either need socks or have a full load.  The other thing I consistently use that is white are handkerchiefs.  I'm allergic to most tissues so at home I typically use handkerchiefs.  I had no clue how many I'd been going through until I just folded my laundry and realized how many I've used in the last 5 weeks (how long it's been since I did whites thanks to illness and being away).

Those were SOME allergies.....