I have asthma.

Today my friends and myself organized a workday to get work done in my house.

We polyurethaned a floor last night, hoping it would be dry in time for this event today. With the windows open and the door shut off from the rest of the house, the smell still lingered.

I awoke this morning with a burning throat and short of breath. I couldn't shake the feeling for quite a while, even after using my rescue inhaler.

So I decided to work to distract myself the best I could.

We tore up an olde rug and installed a new oone, and did some other stuff. I had an asthma attack.

I feel okay now, but cannot get the polyurethane smell out, and it keeps aggravating my condition.

Duh.

What do you do when flovent and albuterol don't always cut it?

Wow .. you really know how to push the limits http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif Actually it sounds a little dangerous. I know odors like that would send my lungs packing for a week. When the puffers don't work for me I swtich to a nebulizer. I know the researchers say that puffers and a spacer work just as well, but I find a nebulizer seems to get the meds where they need to be when things get nasty. Do you use one? The 'rule' I have with my dr is that if I don't get relief from three nebulizer treatments, its time to visit the good folks in emergency.
Hope your feeling better
Barb

I go to the hospital.

Doing what you were doing sounds like your house was not adequately ventilated. I know after having my house painted, everything was fine, even though we had the entire house (all walls and ceilings) painted, it didn't smell like paint. We had the windows open and everything.

Best time to paint is in the summer, when it's dry, because you can leave your house open all night.

As far as the tearing up the carpet thing goes, and even the painting thing, I feel like I should yell and say THOU SHALT WEAR A RESPIRATOR WHEN THOU ART EXPOSED TO TOXIC AIRBORNE PARTICLES.

And by "respirator" I don't mean the american word for ventilator, I mean a protective breathing apparatus.

Well, you are both right.

I SHOULD have a nebulizer, but I do not, and DEFINATELY think I should get one.

Regarding the respirator, I actually did wear it, it is what I use at work, an OSHA toxic chemical protective respirator.

But the fumes lingered so long that I had to take it off and go to bed. The toxins were in the air for a long time, and still are....

You are right the ventilation in my house stinks.

Actually, an interesting point about painting in the summer,

technically, tradespeople are not supposed to paint when the weather is below 50. But I had to get this work all done since we are expecting a child to arrive in less than a month....

so... I wanted the house to be dust and fume free by then.

CAn I get my doc to precribe a nebulizer, or do I just buy one somewhere?

Blue

I don't think you can buy the equipment without a prescription...

Like, the hoses and mask and neb cups.

Besides, you have to get the medication somehow, may as well ask your dr. at the same time.

I also react to strong odors. When I'm cooking using garlic, I have to turn the a/c on for a while. Or when I roast peanuts. It's crazy. But it's worth getting the odor out of the kitchen.
I've been thinking of getting our house painted. I think I would have to move out for a few days.

Yes, you would probably have to do that.

See, I work for a company doing church and government restorations.

I am the artist, so my job is pretty exclusive to restoring or re-doing the olde paintings and artwork. But the crews who work around me use some pretty lethal chemicals, so I wear my respirator more than I don't each day.

I had never had any breathing problems until having been in this business for a few years, and am convinced that I developed asthma as a result of my line of work.... as, the last company I worked for was not very safe, and I was a rookie and didn't do my safety homework.

Paint has a lot of bad stuff in is, as does plaster and even joint compound.... these dusts often cause Sarcoidosis at continued exposures, and many men retire
with at least COPD.

What I do to kill the odor of the paint I use is drop some pure vanilla in it.

When you do your house, I would try it. It should work depending on what paint you use.

Blue

Blue, I'm glad to hear you're intelligent enough to wear a respirator. I know people who've no idea what a filtered breathing apparatus even LOOKS like, I mean, aside from the ones you see on X-Files and Outbreak, like, the huge suit-type guys.

jjaksic, try to pick out a paint that's water-based, quicker-drying, and for hell's sakes paint in the SUMMER when you can keep your house aired out really well. Oh, and pay someone else to paint your house -- really, they can have the whole works done in like 2-3 days, ceilings and all, and done while you're at work. Just not being around the wet paint 24 hours a day will help a bit, and if you DO find you can't stand it, yeah, sure, take a weekend camping trip. (Yay summer, no shortage of outdoorsy things to do that'll get you away from paint!)

Blue, that sounds entirely plausible. You can develop hypersensitivities at any age -- a common misconception is that if you didn't start with asthma and allergies, you won't end up with them -- but that's simply not true. It's good that you're with a company that's safer now, since your health is something you only get a crack at once.

Sarcoidosis, pulmonary fibrosis, other scarring, possible lung tumors, emphysema, decreased (or increased) compliance, airway hyperreactivity, developed environmental sensitivities, even reaching out so far as atelectasis and bronchiectasis -- there's probably fifty things you could attribute to building materials alone.

Most pure vanilla is made from a vanilla bean soaked in good vodka. (In case you were wondering.)