Is this just an ongoing common cold or is it worse? shortness of breath, ongoing cough..etc?

To be quite honest, unless you are a regular smoker, that would be signs of a semi-serious issue to me. The shortness of breath as well as an ongoing cough would be signs of lung damage or a chronic lung infection. If you smoke or drink or take drugs, that is most likely influencing this, you should cease anything like that as much as you can bear, cutting back on caffeine will possibly help too because all of those things are diuretics. You should try your hardest to drink atleast 64 ounces of water a day, I know that sounds like a lot but its only 4 bottles of water, no big deal right? On top of that try to eat atleast some green vegetables everyday, and some piece of fruit like a banana or an orange. That way you give your body everything it needs to fight this and get over it.