Today I had the privilege of going to two different offices in town to do paperwork that requires I go in person and prove my identity. Each place had notices that no scented products were to be worn in them. And, in each place, I ended up waiting for almost an hour outside the building, in the brisk January air, because of the overwhelming perfume smells. Both meetings had to be cut short because of my reaction to the smell in the buildings. The final meeting ended with me stumbling out to the car and sitting there with my head between my knees in an attempt to restore the flow of blood to my brain.
I faint from petro-chemicals but it's usually a slow process and I get confused and loose my vision first. Good thing I wasn't driving. I have no idea how I got home and my stomach is still turned off from the experience and probably will be for a day or two.
It's a fight or flight reaction to what the body perceives as danger. Like when you fall into ice water and the body shuts down the non-essential processes like digesting and blood flow to hands and brains and stuff. Some people have this with the sight of blood and they faint. I have this with the exposure to fumes and perfumes. It sucks. I thought I was getting better at handling it but it turns out I was just getting less exposure and forgot how badly it effects me.
Maybe I'm just feeling grumpy from my ordeal but it is my humble opinion that it should not be the poor persons with allergies that are excluded from the waiting room. Rather all those scented people sitting beneath the "due to allergies, the wearing of scented products is prohibited" sign should stand outside in the cold, north wind while the rest of us well behaved and unscented individuals get to sit inside in the warmth.
1 comments:
Ugh! That must have been a horrible day. So sorry you had to go through this. I hope you're now feeling better, and you won't have to go to these places again anytime soon.
{unscented hug}
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