Note to self: Stripping wallpaper aggravates allergic asthma breathing
Please tell me you do this too–that you have certain behaviors that you know before you even do them that they’re definitely going to bother your allergic asthma and yet you do them anyway. Time and time again. Arg!
It makes me so mad at myself (though I’m working on being gentler about it) when I do something like I did over Memorial Day weekend and strip an entire room of its wallpaper, knowing full well that it’s going to make me sick. Sure, the room looks great now, but was it really worth the asthma attack it triggered?
That’s why my posts have been a bit sporadic, I felt like such a big failure because it had been over a year since my last asthma attack until I went and riled up my allergic asthma with the wallpaper. Now, I know that healing is a process, and that each time I go longer between asthma attacks, I’m letting my body feel better and better. And I also know that it’s okay that sometimes I let the itch to tackle a big home improvement project *right this very minute* push aside any thoughts of protecting my breathing. And besides, the guest room now looks amazing, painted in a light gray, and all furnished for company.
But I also know that it’s not okay to put my health on the back burner, even for a day or two. Without your health, you don’t have anything, after all (name that movie ;-).) And so that’s why I kick myself a bit over this sort of thing–because I ignored what my body needed to prevent an asthma attack and dove right into a home improvement project that I probably should have paid someone to do for me.
So, tell me, do you do home improvement projects that trigger allergic asthma? Or is your breathing not bothered by them? (Or are you not the home improvement type?) And, if you’ve found a way to still make your home prettier, without triggering an asthma attack, please, please, please share how!!