Choices Make For Others' Breathing Emergencies

One of the WONDERFUL (tongue firmly in cheek, here - lots of sarcasm) characteristics about me is that I am strongly affected by smells. There isn't a real list that I can make of which smells will affect me, but there are many that I know of. Yesterday, I was introduced to a new version of honeysuckle that nearly did me in.

I'm not exactly sure how it came in - I think it was brought into the music therapy room by an observer (who stood and talked, loudly, throughout the entire session she was supposed to be "observing" along with the other three people who came in), but I am not sure. All I know is that I could breathe fine when the session started, but when the "observers" left, there was a cloud of honeysuckle smell that permeated the air.

I started coughing and couldn't stop.

This was the beginning of a process of coughing, gasping, more coughing, more gasping, eventually vomiting, and then collapsing in exhaustion with a tight feeling in my chest and no energy. I had to leave to get a breathing treatment.

Once I got home, my breathing had regulated a bit, but was not fully better. The breathing treatment helped me and being able to be quiet helped even more. I had to take my last five hours of sick time for the year in order to do this treatment, but it was necessary.

Things I've learned through this situation - 

• Be more firm about my need for a scent-free zone in the music therapy room. Share this with the person who brought the observers into the music therapy room.
• Take medication and a breathing apparatus to work to keep locked up in my new office. My facility has a nebulizer that I should be able to use in future situations, but I didn't have my prescriptions with me, so I had to go home.
• There is no way to air out my new music therapy room. Once a smell is present, it is there.

Breathing is essential for all music therapists, but it is more of a concern for some than for others. I am a bit surrounded by smells these days. Even the nurse practitioner has some sort of Scentsy thing pumping out smells in the hallway near the music therapy room - you would think a medical professional would know better. Everyone around me is touting the magical properties of essential oils, and I am in the corner, gasping for air without enough lung power to actually ask them to take the odor away.

Today, I am going to my office, armed with my nebulizer and with my medications. If there is still an aroma in my room, I will be able to counteract the effect of that aroma through chemistry. The medication will stay in the room for the next event and the machine will travel back to my home. I will probably need it again this weekend - once an emergency happens, it takes a while to get back into appropriate breathing patterns again.

Here is my plea. 

Consider who will be sharing your scent circumference during your day. Are you projecting your scents past your own personal boundaries into the environment of others? If you leave a scent behind you, there is too much smell. Period. Go for subtlety not permeation. 

It's time to get started back to my environment where I may or may not be able to breathe. Let's hope for the former and not the latter in this particular situation.

Happy breathing, all!