Big time scare

Last night I had class.  It was in a different part of campus I had never been to before.  So I parked my car in a parking garage and walked up about 20 stairs and then continued up a walkway that was on a major hill.  All of a sudden, I could hardly breathe.  I have been winded before climbing stairs, but absolutely nothing like this.  I could not get a full breath in my body.  When I looked at how much further I had to go, I decided to go back to my car, that it just wasn't worth it.  By the time I got back down to the parking garage, I was sweating and I shouldn't have been.  It was cool and rainy, so it wasn't like I was hot or anything. 

Just to backtrack, I had surgery on my arm for tendinitis last month.  Before operating on me, they did an EKG to ensure my heart was healthy enough to be put under anesthesia, which it was.  A few days after the surgery, I caught a horrible cold.  That is not uncommon after being in the OR.  Then the cold turned into bronchitis.  I went to the doctor at that time and had chest x-rays done, which confirmed the diagnosis but there was no cause for alarm for anything else.  I'm still sick with symptoms of walking pneumonia, at least that's what I suspect.  I already have an appointment scheduled to see my doctor for something else later this morning, so I'll definitely talk to her about what is going on.  I know what happened last night was not usual.  Granted, I have a lot of weight to lose, but I have never been winded like I was last night.  Normally I can climb several flights of stairs and, even then, I can still breathe.  Last night I really was wondering if I'd even make it back to my car.  That feeling I had, of blaming myself because of the weight, is a contributing factor in terms of why I so badly want to start Optifast now.  I don't want my life to end on a sidewalk after climbing a flight of stairs.