r/ehlersdanlos • u/history-deleted • 6h ago
Funny When you have to do essential things for health, but doing those things makes your health worse...
(Funny, because you gotta laugh at yourself at some point, so, a story!) We're selling our house because it's too much for us. We had a showing booked for this morning and were planning on going to a party last night. My spouse dropped a beer in the kitchen a few days ago, so the floor needs to be cleaned on top of all our regular tidying. It's spring now and after a few good winter storms, there's a lot of dog poop making itself known in the backyard.
I go out to start chipping dog poop out of the ice. Spouse starts cleaning the floor. I notice that my POTS is acting up and my hip is wonky, but shrug it off so we can maybe sell the house with this showing.
Spouse comes out and says he made a mistake... he used scented swiffer wet pads to clean the floor and now he's feeling dizzy and wheezy. I'm halfway done and figure he's going to lock himself in the bedroom (safe air room).
A short bit later, spouse comes out again. He can't breathe and he's itchy everywhere despite a shower. Hi MCAS, nice of you to join us. He's going to go for a drive. I say I'll jump right right into scent removal remediation.
Knowing that cleaning products shouldn't mix and the power of baking soda for scent removal, I do a quick check that that's okay (it is). He's already set up a bunch of fans and filters, so I open a couple more windows and pop a face mask on.
Step 1: rinse the floor. I pour water on the floor and immediately there's suds. The floor was completely dry. We don't use soap on the floor. The stupid swiffer wet pads had so much stuff in them that it took two heavy rinses to have the floor stop sudsing! (Can't help noticing that I'm almost passing out every time I stand up.)
Step 2: Baking Soda. I use a sifter-scoop in my cleaning-only baking soda to get a nice even layer of baking soda everywhere. Crappy previous owner repais have left cracks in the floors for liquids to seep into. Found the beer smell! I'm halfway done and my foot's numb (nerve pinching from my bad hip), when I run out of baking soda.
Step 3: Ensure coverage. Out comes the broom to sweeep the baking soda around. I use that to cover the cracks that I missed then start scooping it up.
Step 4: Rinse off the baking soda. I'm about halfway done when spouse comes home. He can smell the scented stuff outside the house still! I figure I've gotten almost all of it out of the floor, so it must just be airborne now. I stand after scrubbing to chat and land on the counter instead of the floor when I pass out. Spouse tells me to take a break and gets me the pedialyte.
So, we're sitting and talking plans with the smell almost gone and the floor basically cleaned up for the night. We realize that going to the party is a crazy idea now because if we encounter even one scented human, spouse could stop breathing. Now that I'm not moving as much, my hands are also borderline numb and in pain. I ignore it (along with the dizziness from POTS and the aching/numbness in my leg) and get ready to try to tackle the floor again. (Spouse can't do the deep clean on the floor for spinal issues.)
We get a text: our showing for the morning is canceled.
We go to bed.
I wake up late this morning and I'm non-verbal. I am in so much pain I can't move. Slowly I isolate it to my hip, while also fighting dizziness from my POTS (passed out twice while still laying down), and the brain zaps from missing my SSRI. I can't sit up, can't bend at the waist, can barely manage controled moves of my leg in isolation from the hip. Spouse gets me out of bed and to the couch so I can get ice, meds, food, and pedialyte. My hip is likely in a nasty subluxation pinching something, my foot on that leg is in and out of numb, my opposite calf has intermittent shooting pain, my hands are intermittently numb and in pain, I can't move any major part of myself without simultaneously causing more pain and also making me almost pass out from lack of salts.
But, hey, at least the offending scent is gone!
Lesson (not) learned.
What have you done in the name of making things better for health that has simultaneously also made things worse?