#I'm imagining the spores from season 2 as basically supernatural asbestos

[symbioticsimplicity]

Hi!! Its me, your resident severe asthmatic! I'm very familiar with the junk your lungs do when they fucking hate you! (And I've been choked out a lot of times, but that's unrelated.)

So a lot of the time when your lungs are compromised, the fluid that builds up in them is mucus-y and it makes breathing much, much harder. Its difficult to cough out, which if you're not careful will lead to puking. Being strangled will cause this temporarily, but if you have any underlying lung issues, like say, breathing in spores from an entirely hostile hell dimension, its going to agitate that A LOT.

The problem with the whole mucus bit, is that it will keep doing that for as long as your lungs are distressed. So on top of any damage you suffered, you're now suffocating in this dense mucus. You can hack it out, but that will also agitate your lungs and its a vicious cycle.

Most people will need to be still for a while to recover and not suffer any additional damages while they do.

Steve Harrington however did not do that, because of course he didn't.

So let me give you a run down of what that would entail: Strangulation, which caused the initial distress then leads to lungs full of mucus-y fluid. This fluid leads to either vomiting or continued coughing which will continue to produce fluid. Having this filling your lungs leads to shortness of breath, dizziness, impaired vision, lightheadedness, and increased body temperature. If left for long enough, oxygen deprivation can lead to confusion, loss of memory, and significant fatigue.

Also?? Having fluid in your lungs hurts, a lot. Homeboy would feel like he's in a vice grip until they sorted that out.

Especially since that happened TWICE.

... so apparently strangulation can cause fluid overload in the lungs and essentially cause vomit to get in your lungs... which can lead to some very very bad problems... and considering the Upside Down particles and everything... Steves lungs are fucked.

( P.S apparently vomiting after strangulation is somewhat common, I'm just thinking... the Creel House is the second time he's been strangled for a while in like, what, 24 hours? Less? baby boy- )