Brochitis refers to a buildup of "gunk" (nice scientific term there...) in the lungs. This messes you up (short term) two ways:
a) it physically blocks transfer of oxygen and CO2 back and forth
b) it makes the lungs all gooey (another nice scientific term) keeping them from opening up -- thus cutting down oxygen transfer even more.
oh, and
c) means a _lot_ more muscle effort to inhale and exhale. (Breathing takes a lot of work. usually you don't realize it...) oh, and coughing to try to clear your lungs made things even more sore
This reduction in oxygen and the additional muslce work is what gave you chest pain, probably made you dizzy, etc.
The albuterol is a drug that helps open up the parts of your lungs that are still ok, getting you an extra hit of oxygen from those portions.
You should also be getting some stuff to treat the bronchitis directly. If the crud is courtesy of an infection, then you'd get antibiotics.
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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Part two in this saga -- I was back this morning, Thursday, for a followup visit. We used to have a very good doctor, Dr. Charles Empson here in Independence who worked for the Mercy Physicians Group (an independent operation affiliated with but not controlled by the hospital of the same name) which is across the street from the hospital. Dr. Empson (like all the guys in the medical group) are admitted to practice at the hospital itself, of course. My mother went to Empson for at least 30 years. Around the year 1999, he quit taking on new patients and only dealt with his existing patients; it was his intention to 'begin to retire'. His very thick white hair and face makes him greatly resemble Albert Einstein, IMO. People who went to MPG were told 'no more Empson, we have to assign you now to whoever else', so I got back after my Aneurysm and was assigned to Dr. Wilkins' case load instead.Finally, at the start of 2006, Empson's case load got down to only a few 'survivors' (my mother and a few other old ladies) since by attrition others had all died, moved out of town, or whatever. New comers were _not_ given to him any longer. So, Empson turned in his resignation to MPG, and Dr. Wilkins was promoted to Vice President of Mercy Hospital by Sisters of Mercy, the parent company. The case loads were all shuffled around at MPG; several of us got left in limbo for a month of so with a Dr. Naheem, a doctor from India in residency at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City who spent a month or so with us here while a permanent replacement was found, which turned out to be a Doctor Watkins, who is supposed to now be our perm- anent, full time replacement for Charles Empson.
Now I can see some quizzical looks from readers: _Why_ would a doctor doing his residency in New York City or his successor, Watkins, choose to come to Smallville, Kansas to continue his practice? But we here in Smallville, Bumpkins though we may seem to be, were not naive enough to take either of them without _thorough_ investigations into their medical abilities and personal lifestyles, etc. When Mercy Hospital and the MPG people were completely satisfied there were no hidden secrets anywhere, these two men were both employed by MPG to attend to us patients.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I was 'encouraged' -- to put it politely -- by my keepers to go to the emergency room. When I got into ER and the examining area, _who_ pops in the door but dear old Charles Empson. "Charlie," I said (for after so long and in such a small town one does not go by formalities such as 'Doctor', especially when the man also takes reasonably good care of my mother), "they told me you were gone, out of here for good, they put you out to pasture at the end of last year."
"Ah," he said, "I did retire from MPG, but I just could not take the idle time, so I applied over here at the hospital and the director of the ER took me on part time, a few hours per week." Hmmm ... PAT]