went into Wal-mart yesterday to get water softener salt. Since it's heavy, used the garden entrance.
they had the garden space full of Christmas stuff including scented candles, potpourri, etc. the odor was so heavy I could taste it. As I walked to the hardware department I began to get congested, light headed, had trouble breathing. Had to leave store. Got chest pains. really felt bad. Christmas potpourri is what started my problems last year. Finally got the house cleaned out of potpourri odors but am still discovering other volatile chemical odors that bother me. Took about 5 hours for me to recover from the attack in Wal-Mart. The taste in my mouth stayed with me about that long too. They must have poured a gallon of that perfume around the store.

Smelled like a gaggle of French whores, but not nearly as much fun. :-)

Hopefully the vitamin C regimen will get me desensatized, but I am understanding it may take 6 months to a year.

Avoiding Wal-Mart and the likes is still going to be best.

What makes people think this stuff smells good anyhow?

Have you tried nasal irrigating? I no longer have reactions from finger nail polish or chlorine from pool water. Someone use to open a bottle of finger nail polish & I would freak out, had to get out of the house. Now that I irrigate, you can open a bottle in front of me and no problems. I can swim again with no adverse affects. Happy irrigating http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/round.gif

lhacker, you said: "As I walked to the hardware department I began to get congested, light headed, had trouble breathing. Had to leave store. Got chest pains. really felt bad. ... Took about 5 hours for me to recover from the attack in Wal-Mart."

During your 5 hours of symptoms, were you able to test your blood pressure and heart rate?

I have the same problems, it is called MCS: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. IT sucks big time. If you find anything that gives you relief, please let us know. Best of Luck!!

I could feel my pulse in my eyes. It wasn't fast.

I have checked my blood pressure during attacks like this in the past and it has never been elevated.

My Dr. and my allergists have had little to offer. I have none of the common allergies that they can test for. There was an article on environmental sensativities that I read advocating really large doses of vitamin C. I couldn't bring myself to take doses large enough to cause diarrhea, but have been taking 500MG of Ascorbic Acid with every meal for over a month now and it's only these really noticable contacts that cause me problems now. But, I really do go to lengths to avoid products that cause problems.

lhacker, you said: "I could feel my pulse in my eyes. It wasn't fast.

I have checked my blood pressure during attacks like this in the past and it has never been elevated.

My Dr. and my allergists have had little to offer."

Even with a good blood pressure and a good heart rate, one's heart could still be misfiring. It is called "ectopic" beats, where the beat is firing, but not in the correct spot within the heart. It causes a harsh, pounding type of heartbeat.

It can happen when the heart is irritated by something, like smoke, or fumes, or pollens, or chemicals, or stress, or pills, or food, or whatever....

The problem with diagnoses is, if your heart is not misfiring when the doctor is testing you, the misfiring won't show up. It's the same as going to the doctor for hiccups, when you are not hiccupping.

The presence of ectopic beats isn't necessarily dangerous. I get them all the time. It depends upon the severity of the condition, and where in the heart the beat is misfiring.

Many doctors will put a patient through a stress test, which gets the heart worked up, hoping that that heart will repeat it's misfiring, so that the doctor can properly diagnose the problem and prescribe the correct meds.

If I was getting light headed, with trouble breathing and chest pains, I would go to the ER the next time it happened, so that the medical condition could be properly diagnosed and the proper medications could be prescribed.

Regards, and have a pleasant Halloween.