Sunday, August 7, 2011

A Lesson In Safety & Going Natural

Okay.  So I had a weird night.

Here's the short version of the story.  Bruce has one of these:

A Therma Cell Mosquito Repellant Device thingie.  It works great - it doesn't emit a smell and keeps mosquitoes at bay.

That being said ... Bruce noticed yesterday that there was some liquid on the grate so he wiped it off with his shirt.  A few minutes later, he accidentally wiped his face/mouth with the same part of the shirt that had been in contact with the grate.  It didn't take long for his lips to start tingling and feeling numb, he got very flushed and actually passed out (I'm so thankful I was standing next to him when it happened!).

He was only out for a couple of seconds, but when he came to we immediately wanted to get him looked at.  I was concerned that he had inadvertently ingested something poisonous, so I brought him to Rhode Island Hospital, because it is the closest Level 1 to us.

To make a long story short, the staff at Rhode Island is wonderful and Bruce was actually feeling much better by the time we got to the ER and as we waited to be seen.  We were very lucky that a toxicologist was actually on site when we were brought back and he looked at the ingredients in the repellant.  Apparently the main ingredient can cause an acute reaction like the one he had (as weird as it sounds, I was actually relieved to hear him say that!) and he was and is going to be fine.

***

Sooooo that brings me to the "so what" of this post. 

I honestly have always thought that people who "go natural" are a little bit ridiculous with the extent that they go to (in terms of replacing all of their products for expensive natural products).  But last night's trip to the ER showed me that anything can happen to anyone - and it might not be a bad thing to think about what I am stocking my house with.

But I really have no clue where to start!  The attending that we saw last night was telling us about some other bug repellant options (and we actually have a new contraption to try out that I think is chemical-free), but I am also going to re-think my spray painting projects (maybe start wearing a mask) and some of my cleaners as well.

Does anyone have any tips?!

5 comments:

  1. eep! i'm glad bruce is okay! sadly, i have no naturalistic tips. but good luck!! : )

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  2. For mosquito repellant Mom Morrell swears by Listerine or dryer sheets! For painting, wear a mask with a charcoal filter...doesn't smell too good but it works. I use one when I paint because I'm allergic to latex. For your garden you can use pure cayenne pepper. Make sure it's pure because some with additives can burn the plants. For cleaning products there are many out there including products developed by Deidre Imus which are used in many hospitals including Hackensack University Hospital in NJ. They're expensive but they're non-toxic. You can also clean with white vinegar. That's all the tips I have for now!

    P.S. Glad Bruce is ok!

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  3. Yikes! I'm glad he's alright!!

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  4. Here's a blog you might like. http://agreenmouse.tumblr.com/

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