I've never witnessed the kind of allergy suffering that Diana has, even with her meds, so I almost don't feel right complaining when I have such issues. But today I had a new perspective.
First off, I've found myself wheezing a lot the last few months, mostly at home, but not all of the time. As I mentioned previously, it became painfully obvious what the effect of scented fabric softener was on me. In March I had the problems in Seattle, and then when Diana used it on some of her own clothes, it sent me into a mess of coughing and discomfort.
But with that gone, I still have problems, and I'm not sure why. This morning, Diana started doing some cleaning, and the floor cleaner stuff bothered me a little, but nothing I couldn't manage. I endeavored to vacuum, and then the fun started.
The dirty secret about a Dyson vacuum is that it while it won't lose suction, the brush can get caked and wound with stuff, especially new carpet fibers. So I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to clear that, expelling a fair amount of dust, cat dander and God knows what else. Then when I went to empty the canister, I was tapping the outer can and it came off, crashing into the garbage can and sending out a plume of dust. Not good.
I brought it upstairs to the bath tub to clean it off. When I turned off the water I realized that I was breathing fast but feeling like I wasn't getting enough air. Diana was in the other room wrestling my sink to clear the drain. I went into the bedroom and spread out on the floor.
At this point, realize that just trying to be calm and slow my breathing isn't working, and I start to freak out a little. I tell Diana that I'm freaking. She suggests to get some Benadryl in me immediately, which I do. I also get some fresh air. At this point I start to breath a little slower, but I still feel like I'm not getting enough air.
That was about 40 minutes ago, and I'm still having a hard time breathing. Diana says that what I experienced was like an asthma attack, which is troublesome because I've never had anything like that before. Judging by the weird pain in my arms (does anyone else get that?) and the sneezing now, I think it was definitely allergy related.
We're going to get out for dinner and see if that helps. Between all of the dust and chemicals, the house is probably not a great place right now to breathe right. I'm still a little freaked out.
Well now that I can conclude that it's environmental, I feel like I can get a handle on it. I was out in the hot tub tonight and couldn't believe how well I was breathing, which was surprising given that the air was about 80 degrees colder than the water!
Dust was the obvious trigger, and I think the bleachy stuff for the floors and bathrooms aggregate it further. We'll see how it goes the next few days.
You should look into the Rainbow vacuums. My parents had one and loved it, but they didn't like carrying it up and down stairs really. They gave it to us, and it's the best vacuum I've ever used. It seems to have the sucking power of a Dyson, and there's virtually no dust. All the dust that it sucks up goes into a water basin and you flush that big mess down the toilet. It's sort of disgusting, and the vacuums are very expensive, but it does cut down on the dust.