"scent'sitivity" 101

our centre is becoming very crowded, what with B Brand agents coming over and setting up on our side. i can deal with that. i cannot, however, deal with the selfishness to which some agents will go to prove a point.

*a little background: our center is supposed to be a designated scent reduced environment. i have had numerous run ins on this very policy. i have suffered asthma attacks, anxiety attacks, and yes migraine headaches due to some nimrods' refusal to leave his 'pretty smell' home. i have had more than my share of time in one office or another trying to prove to the higherups that i do get very sick, that it is not a ploy or an act. *

so today began as any other day would. i got my chair and all was well. k had moved over to our side over the weekend, and was sitting behind my buddy,y, who by the way, has seen me in a scent induced attack. so enter mr.nimrod. off goes his coat, and out of his bag, a shiny new bottle of that *Febreeze air freshener stuff. (alarm bells go off in my head). i whirl around and stand up and ask him to please not spray that material near us, i am highly allergic and it will make me sick. he says , "so what, people don't like the way i smell" and sprays 5 large pumps of the lung poison.
i get off a call, already feeling the shortness of breath looming ever nearer. i move quickly away from the odor, and go to a managers, office, but she has someone in her office. so i stumble and pant to our RPM department in search of a supervisor from the floor, rpm guy tells me to call for one, and tells me the number. i try 4 times, by now i am getting to the i really can't get a breath stage, and getting really scared. J the supe, comes hurrying and i am on the floor beside our mail boxes (filing cabinets used for inter staff communications for agents). my buddy, y bring me my puffer, and gets k off the phone. meanwhile, it was decided that medical help should be called, and about 10 minutes later, i am breathing rapidly pure oxygen, and trying not to cry or hyperventilate. then the ambulance people come and check me over more. it has passed, i wanna go home,and so i have lost a days pay because of nimrod's basis disregard for a coworkers health.

i heard he went in to the office with 5 higher ups. i would have liked to know what was going to happen with him. it is not his first offence, but because of hi, medical help had to be summoned.

**side note** it isn't what i smell that triggers these attacks,it is the chemical reaction i feel in my upper respiratory tract and lungs, the tightly closing off of air. the pure hell that is chest pain accompanying anxiety attack.

i can home and slept from 2-5, and then back to bed until like 930. i am still beat right out, and i was supposed to go out to mom's tonight. k called her and told her that happened, i will go out tomorrow and we'll get done all we were going to do.

time for cereal and back to bed, i think, after i sit in the bathroom with the shower heating up the room like a sauna. foggy, warm bathroom air usually soothes my linings.

take note....if you know of someone who suffers from scent related health problems, learn what you can do to help. what you can do for everyone, not just those you know. because you never really know who has what for health issues. i don't look like i have this disease, but i do, and it is real and scary and very painful. in fact, i went to elementary school with a girl, who, in her senior year of high school, died from an asthma attack at a football game. it isn't something to joke about or laugh about. poet