Scents of the season

Good:

• Fresh pine and balsam, in small amounts
• Cinnamon 
• The beach

We love 'em, but they don't love us:

• Bayberry
• Scented candles
• Wood smoke, especially hickory, oak, apple, and cherry
• New car smell

Bad:

• Artificial fragrance
• Too much fragrance - you know who you are
• Engine exhaust
• Tobacco smoke

Out and about

The last few weeks have been nuts. We go for months with calendars empty except for doctor appointments, but it feels like we've been constantly on the go for more than a month. 

That means lots of coughing, mask wearing, and shoving through people to get to someplace that isn't scented. It's really hard to find one, with the faux holiday odors everywhere, and all the people who feel compelled to empty their fragrance bottles over themselves before heading to holiday celebrations. In the restaurant last night, we smelled a party from 20 feet, and had to move further away.

Between that and the woodsmoke, we're just dosing ourselves on schedule and trying to fit in the occasional down day. The problem with that is that it puts us behind on other things. The laundry, both clean and dirty, is completely out of control, for example, but it will be there when we can get to it. 

So here's my list of good and bad places we've been:

Good - Honda dealer, Wawa, Happy Harry pharmacy (I LOVE their name), Newport Diner, Olive Garden, Social Security Administration hearing office (carpet cleaner).

Bad - Walmart, assorted grocery stores, my brother's house (everybody smokes, although they go outside when they know we're coming and while we're there), any public restroom.


 

Tis the season

We enjoy many of the organic scents of Christmas. Fresh greens and baking goodies are two favorites.


What we don't enjoy are the clouds of faux evergreen and low grade cinnamon that seem to be everywhere. We don't get too much outside time during cold weather because the cold, dry air makes us more likely to cough, and because many of our neighbors heat with wood.


The holiday scent bombs are an inside bonus. It's not just the stuff that gets sprayed, either. It seems that everywhere are small electric things that exist only to make rooms smell different. Then there are scented candles. 


Adding these to the aroma stew makes things interesting. We'll stay home as much as possible, trying to avoid another hacking holiday.

I'm an idiot

We have this huge mound of overgrown shrub in the big flower bed closest to the house. The whole bed needs work, which is on the calendar for warm winter days, but the bush is totally out of control. It's about 10 cubic feet, and most of the year is no problem.


In autumn, it blooms. Flowers are remarkably unspectacular, but the scent is heavenly.


It bothers both of us a lot. The long-term plan is to move the bush further from the front door. In the meantime, it's part of the autumn background, along with dust from harvesting soybeans and late corn, and the odor of chicken manure as it's shifted to winter storage to age for spring application. 


Yesterday, I cleaned up the herb bed, which is in the front yard to take advantage of the maximum amount of sun. The herb bed is less than 25 feet from where I was working. Today, I woke up coughing and had to use the nebulizer first thing. A few minutes ago, I realized why.


As Homer Simpson says, "DOH!"

People of Walmart

We all look at the pictures. Just be glad you can't smell them, too. 


Mandatory shopping trip took far longer than it should her. Mega-skunked 4x (that's where I stop in my tracks and lean over the shopping cart while convulsively coughing), and that's not the same person four times, it's four different people. The identifiable odors were Canoe and something from Avon. Plus three or four minor skunkings. They all got my baby, too, but she doesn't react immediately; she starts coughing 10-30 minutes later.


Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were exhausted and used the last of our energy getting everything in the house, putting the frozen and refrigerated items away, and feeding the pets.

Things I hate

Not necessarily in order:


Febreeze. Axe Body Spray. Canoe. Whatever the commercial cleaning companies use on rugs and carpets around here. The laundry aisle. People who give us a dirty look when we start hacking because their fragrance is overpowering from more than six feet away. 


Prednisone. The nebulizer (well, it's actually kind of cool, but the whole having to use it bit blows). Low pulse-ox. Thrush. Having to close up my house or car because I have the misfortune to be downwind of scented dryer sheets and those ugly, stinking cardboard things people hang from their mirrors. 

Summer

It's August, all ready, and I'll never get used to how summer affects me now. It's always been my favorite season. The heat and humidity have always been welcome to aching joints, and I love being out in the sun, even though I don't tan as well as my sibs.


This summer, though, has been really tough. The air quality has been lousy, and we've had scads of days with temperatures in excess of 100F/38C. Consequently, I've spent most of the summer indoors. The lack of rain has been both good and bad: Bad because we are still going through a drought, but good because I only had to mow the lawn once in July. It needs it again, though, since we got a couple thunderstorms. 


The other things that make it hard to breathe can't always be seen: Clouds of scent surrounding people, whether it's from laundry products, soap, hair care stuff, or perfume; Smoke of any kind, though tobacco is most prevalent; whatever's causing the haze I can see a mile away; and commercial cleaning products. The masks help, but not enough. I've been fighting going to the doctor for a month, but may not be able to put it off much longer.

A short break

A break in the weather has allowed us to turn off the air conditioners and open the house. The temperatures were in the 80sF for a couple days, although it's supposed to get back into the 90s tomorrow. There is no rain in sight, and the humidity is surprisingly low. The neighbors are even cooperating so far: No one has burned anything or put smelly laundry in the dryer. 

We're still doing the nebulizer regularly, and hacking up gunk. We aren't surprised, though, since we've made three trips to Wilmington in one week, and the conditions we deal with there aren't the best. We're hoping that our breathing will improve, as we don't have to go back up the road for two weeks. It's not too likely though, since the monthly Walmart trip looms next week, and the lack of rain means that particulates build up in the air. At least it makes the sunrise, sunset, and moonrise beautiful.

Air conditioning

A couple weeks ago, we bought two new air conditioners to replace some that were really old. One came with the house; we brought the other with us when we moved here nine and a half years go. The larger one is really nice: It has an economy setting where it checks the room temperature every 10 minutes, and only runs when the room temperature exceeds a pre-set limit. On the smaller one, the compressor only runs when the room temperature gets above that pre-set level, but the fan runs all the time. I'm hoping our electric bill won't be quite so high this summer.


We had to put them in early because of the crazy high pollen. Then the temperatures shot up, and the air quality went down. We aren't having any kind of regular precipitation to clear the air, so it's full of all kinds of goodies from the U.S. East Coast Megalopolis. Anything we have to do outside gets put off until evening, when the temperatures fall to a more bearable level.


The air filters are running, too, to catch anything the air conditioner filters don't. So far, the house has been comfortable, temperature wise. The air filters catch a lot of dust, and I try to remember to clean them weekly so they continue to work efficiently.

Hair cuts

Over the years getting hair cuts have been a problem for me because I got to a point with my asthma that I could no longer tolerate the odors of a beauty salon. My answer for many years was to grow my hair long and braid it. At various times it was below my butt in length, but it would take time and tire my arms out. I got very good at braiding my hair down my back. Often the braid itself reach my waist.

As I began to have back problems and less time to fiddle with my hair I'd have a friend cut it straight across the middle of my back. Simple enough right? Usually, but sometimes disastrous.

Later I wanted a little style, nothing fancy. Nothing that required curlers or hair gels. A friend was very good at hair cutting. The cuts always turned out nice and would grow out looking nice. Always an added plus. But all good things come to an end and for whatever reason she was no long able to cut our hair. ( By that time I had become half of a couple and we both liked her hair cutting skills.)

I began doing the trimming of our hair. Having watched others for years I had a basic idea of how to get what I wanted, but I was never comfortable doing it for my sweetheart, she was a business woman, and cutting your own hair is a challenge for the best.

Then our salvation came to town. Super Cuts! They don't do the harsh chemical stuff and although you may not walk out of there with a runway style hair cut we don't need that. It doesn't stink in there and the young women are pleasant and give you a serviceable haircut with what you tell them. My sweetheart has a rat tail and they know not to cut it. Often taking great pride in how well they can braid or jockey-ing to do the braiding.

So anyone who can't breathe in a hair salon, use Super Cuts or their equivalent in your area.

Pollen

The pollen count continues to be outrageously high, with the trees being the worse offenders. Yesterday was overcast and quite humid, which made breathing extra difficult. I walked around all day feeling like a fish out of water. Even walking from one room to another made me short of breath.

The heaters have been moved out for the summer, and the air conditioners are nearby, ready to be put in, but we're trying to put it off as long as possible to keep the electric bill down. We also like having the house open. We hear all sorts of birds all day long, and the frogs and toads at night. There isn't a ton of traffic on our street, and the quiet during the day is nice.

We've been using the nebulizers two to four times daily and wearing the masks when we go out. The rest of this week is really busy, but I'm hoping that being diligent about our meds and the masks we won't get too sick, especially since we just finished our antibiotics. My sweetie finished her prednisone taper on Sunday, and I'll finish mine Thursday, and if we're lucky, we'll catch a thunderstorm to wash some of the particulates from the air. 

Overpowering the mask

On Monday, we went to the doctor after fighting to breathe for more than a week. We've kept the house closed up and air filters running, and put on masks whenever we go out. Between the sky-high pollen counts and the annual laying of manure on the fields, the air quality has been pretty bad for more than two weeks. Rain is predicted for the next few days, so that should help knock down the pollen some.


So we got steroid injections and big tapers and an antibiotic, and we're taking all that. Then we had to take my sweetie for a bone density test. The place wasn't in the best of shape. The air vents were dusty and dirty, and there were a few water stains on the acoustic tile. On top of that, the "air freshener" was so strong that we were smelling it through the N95 masks. Not nice. 


The next day, we were both sicker, having lots of trouble with coughing and shortness of breath. Today, three days later, we're just getting back to where we were on Monday. 


Marlene gave the tech a polite earful about why we're wearing the masks and all the things in her workplace that can make her ill. I doubt it will change anything, but one can always hope.

Pollen

It's that time of year when everything goes crazy. Pollen is everywhere. The car is covered with it, and where puddles evaporated, there are rings of it. We've had to close up the house and run the air filters constantly, as well as use the nebulizer every day.

I had errands to run, and on the list was to buy another box of N95 face masks. They are more comfortable and last longer than the basic surgical masks, and do as well as the masks with the carbon filters, which are very hot and uncomfortable. Still, wearing one in Walmart wasn't enough to keep out all of the perfume. On the bright side, at least one person smiled and spoke to me, so I didn't feel like a complete freak wearing it.

What happened to spring?

The weather has suddenly flipped to summer. It's clear and hot, and the standing water has begun to evaporate, although the yard is still quite squishy in some places.

The neighbors continue to try to burn sodden wood and leaves, and we lost two days to the smoke. Breathing is so-so now, and we're hoping to hold off the next bout of prednisone for a while longer.

It's kinda sad that even staying home, we can't get away from things that cause problems for us.

The weather and the neighbors

We're having a bout of lovely weather, following too many cool, damp, grey days. It's been gloriously sunny, with temps in the 60sF and little to no breeze. Perfect for beginning to clean out one of the flower beds, which is overrun by honeysuckle.


Except for the neighbors, who insist on trying to burn sodden leaves and wood. The brief bits when letting the animals in or out are bad enough, but it managed to get through the mask, putting a premature end to my project.


For bonus fun, I paid the homeowner's insurance today, and got double-skunked at their office. It was unexpected, as I haven't had a problem there before. The man leaning on the door reeked of cheap aftershave, and the entire place smelled of something that was supposed to be floral, so was probably carpet cleaner. Home to the nebulizer, and to make a mental note to just put on the bleepin' mask no matter where we go.

Walmart again

I had to got to Walmart yesterday to do the monthly shopping. Since I've been coughing a bit, I wore a N95 mask, and got skunked through it three different times. 


It gets really old. I recently finished 34 days of prednisone, and I'm nearly as bad now as I was when I first went to the doctor. I'm putting off going back to the doctor, because he's going to want me to see a pulmonologist and an ENT, get sinus and chest x-rays, etc. All of those things are going to take time, which we have plenty of, and money, which we don't, and aggravate me because they won't find anything. 


So I came home yesterday, put the frozen stuff away, used the nebulizer, and put the rest of our purchases away, and used the nebulizer again later. I also used it first thing this morning, and am going to use it again when I finish this. 

The bleepin' hospital

My sweetie was released from the hospital today. She had hip replacement surgery on Friday, and we had the same problem as last time: Hospital employees wearing strong fragrances.


It's a huge problem when you're immobilized in bed and people come in smelling strongly. We both had masks with us this time, and had to use them a few times. The problem wasn't perfume or cologne. It was primarily scented lotions, laundry products, and hair care products. 


The respiratory therapists who came around regularly were intensely interested in our nebulizers, which are handheld, battery-operated vibrating mesh machines. They are silent and effective. We purchased them because we knew we'd be traveling, and the compressor-type nebulizer is bulky, noisy, and reliant on alternating current, which is completely a North American thing. We can buy AA batteries anywhere, and not draw as much attention when we use them. 

Cold weather

We are about a third of the way through 60mg prednisone tapers, but the cold weather keeps us coughing. The cold air is really dry on top of the temperature, so combining that with shoveling snow is an aggravation. I've been keeping my mouth and nose covered, but still feel the effects.


We both seem to be getting more sensitive to everything, and that worries me. There's no way to avoid many of the regular triggers, and wearing a mask, while more frequently necessary, is socially isolating. Everyone thinks we have some horrible contagion and takes two giant steps back. 

Four years

Four years ago today, I retired from the State of Maryland on accidental disability. That means that the State agrees with my physicians and their own that I cannot work, and that the reason I cannot work stems from something that happened on the job. 

The incident in question occurred the day after Memorial Day 2001. I struggled to work for nearly five years. During that time, I was absent because of medical issues for huge chunks of time. My physicians - my personal doctor and a multitude of specialists - and the State's doctors - especially an occupational medicine specialist at Johns Hopkins - have a variety of names for what's wrong, but the bottom line is that I have mild memory impairment and chronic breathing problems.Today, I feel lousy, despite finishing an extended course of antibiotics and prednisone five days ago, and I see yet another visit to the doctor in my immediate future. 

Four years ago today, I took my State of Maryland retirement papers to the local Social Security Administration office and applied for Social Security disability payments. This process has demonstrated the worst aspects of bureaucracy and the extraordinarily poor caliber of the SSA employees I've dealt with. They've lied, didn't apologize when caught in it, dragged their feet and accused me of fostering delays, and gave ridiculous reasons for denying my claim. The administrative law judge's decision after the last hearing cited as a reason for denial that she could not read the doctor's signature on the Certificate of Disability from the State of Maryland, although that same doctor's signature was on the letter to the State Pension Board explaining how she reached her conclusions.

The most recent appeal has been sitting in a queue somewhere for 13 months. No one can tell me when it will be addressed. My attorney sent a status request to SSA in December, but the agency hasn't bothered to answer it yet.

Am I angry? You bet. I went to work literally on my 18th birthday, and with a few exceptions, made more money each year than the year before. I put myself through college, kept improving my skills, worked hard, and was good at every job I worked. Every paycheck, 7.5% of my gross wages were taken for Social Security. The government tells you that money will be there when you retire or if you become unable to work. 

That's a crock, especially if you're young and well-educated. 

The only reason we're not in the streets is that my partner has a pension, and I have my pension from the State. They cover the bills, but there's nothing extra, no money for fuel oil or a new roof or repairing the driveway. Our friends and family help us out when they can, but as hard as they work, they're in the same financial position. 

Four years of whining (we're understaffed, we're overworked) and lies leave me disgusted. Those actions weren't acceptable when I was a bureaucrat. Why are they acceptable from the Social Security Administration?

Stinking Doctors Office

Again with the doctors' office and pleasant smelling poison. I usually don't start coughing immediately, years of practice, but not yesterday. Standing in line to sign in, I was already coughing. I tried to phone Mary Fran before she left the car to bring in masks, but she was too quick, and she started coughing right away. The examining room had had someone in there that had left a scent trail. I went in first and backed out right away coughing. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough again and Mary Fran got a big lung full. She coughed so hard her knees nearly buckled under her. I said we could not stay in there and to find us another examining room.

My doctor, who I love because his work is the best, ordered x-rays and the tech doing the x-ray was wearing perfume. She admitted it and asked if another person should do the x-rays. At that point I knew it was too late to matter and I said, "Let's just get this done."

I find that being skunked in stores is one thing, but when it's a doctor's office I am really pissed off. Understand this is a large practice of orthopods. My doctor is just one of them. When I first saw him to rebuild my elbow he was in his own office and we had no problems there. I'm sure that this practice is nicer for him and I'd sit in a lion's den to see him for orthopedic surgery if I must. But this being 'skunked' is getting old.

AAAAARGHHHH!

We're in the middle of a freezing spell, and the cold, dry air is miserable. It's so cold that our big dog, who doesn't usually care about the weather, hurries to come back in the house within minutes.


Saturday, we had to head up the road to Wilmington. The wind was roaring, which made the drive less fun than usual, and even a few seconds outside the car were enough to start the teeth chattering. 


We had to go out again today to run some errands - dump, bank, post office. The dump wasn't fun, but it was quick. The bank was a different story. The drive-up ATM was being serviced, so I had to go inside. The woman all ready in the vestibule where ATM is located did me in. I was in there less than two minutes, but I'm still coughing, my chest and back still ache, and my voice is gone. 


I'm turning into a regular hermit. Every time we leave the house to enter a public place, someone or something triggers a coughing fit in one or both of us. And with the cold weather, there's the added bonus of wood smoke in the air, so even opening the door makes things more uncomfortable. 


When I was able to work, my friends teased that I should be put into a bubble. I'm starting to think it might be a good idea.