Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Where There's Smoke...

For the last several days we've been sitting in smoke. There are four fires nearby and the valley is full of yucky air. About 17,000 people were evacuated, and from what I've heard, four homes have burnt down. The first day the winds were crazy which made the fire terrible to fight. At one point they had it contained, but then days later it was only 40 % contained. I'm not sure how contained it is now but I heard they allowed about 6000 people to return to their homes.

This is not as bad as the BIG fire of 2003. But for those of us with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and other chronic illnesses any smoke is bad! Whenever there is a fire any place the valley fills up with smoke as it gets bottle-necked in here. That's true even for some fires down in Washington.

Since the big fire in 2003 they have changed the way they measure the air quality. So it's real hard to know just how bad it is.It doesn't seem like it's as thick as it was then.. that fire was much bigger. But it seems like it must have burnt into some new kind of trees etc yesterday because it started bothering me much more and the smoke smelled a bit different.

For the last few days we've been confined to the bedroom, the only room with an air purifier and window air conditioner. (It's been in the 90s and the house is hot) Surprisingly Dh hasn't had the awful coughing fits. But he can't leave the room without having his lungs hurt and feeling miserable. Neither can I, though I've ventured out long enough to throw in the dishes and get supper.

Exposures like this can cause all kinds of symptoms for those of us with MCS: headaches, dizziness, fatigue, fuzzy-brained, brain spin, achiness!, breathing difficulties, focusing problems, blurred vision, sore throat --- and more, all of which we've had.

Last night I was awake more than asleep. I couldn't breath and it was too warm. Tonight the AQ number is higher alreadythan it was late last night. Late nights seem to always be worse than during the evenings. Soooo... looks like we might bein for a trying night again. Daughter has to be at work at 10 am and I am hoping that hubby-pooh will be up to driving her because I know I won't be able to!

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I Could Have Had A Nice Little Rest...

Off and on since last week I've had a sore throat, keep loosing voice, and feeling really cruddy otherwise. I've been miserable and not up to doing a dern thing .

A few days before my friendly worker at Timmy's had told me I looked horrible and asked me what was the matter and I unloaded my tale of sore throat woe. This was one time when my feeble condition was visible apparently, something I have sometimes wished was the case on other occasions when I've felt dead on my feet and some kind soul gives me one of those "but you look fine!" comments.

So yesterday when I was out running around, or rather dragging around on a couple of errands I stopped in to grab a cup of coffee. Ms Timmy's worker ducked back and about gave me the exorcist's sign of the cross with her fingers begging me to stay back from her. Then she informed me to three gals there were off due to some spreading bug with the same symptoms I'd been having.

So--- what I've had is something going around? ! So it's not just the usual junk it seems (didn't feel quite like it was).

As typical in these situations I say ..."If only I had known! I would have just been excused to sprawl out here on my bed guilt free of the dishes in the sink and thefloors that needed vacuuming!"

Seems we are always pushing ourselves along ... somedays right off the old cliff!

Zona

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