At times I became disoriented and feared that my mental stability had gone on “Vacation” using a one way ticket.  My doctor assured me that there was nothing wrong with my head and that I had become “Hypersensitive” and unfortunately, there was no known cure.   And, that I would have to live with that condition for the rest of my life. Of course I was not willing to accept that and told him so.

   But, the doctor was right. We spent a small fortune trying to find alternative cures but abstinence seemed to be the only thing that worked.  During the summer months it was not so bad, but I needed to wear charcoal filtered masks when we were in traffic.

   A new 125 single home development was to spring up across the street from us and to our delight those homes were equipped with gas burning fireplaces. For us that meant that we would be able to remain living at our home; especially since during the summer our city had adopted a new bylaw.  A ban of ‘backyard’ burning! But not on slash burning, because the (then mayor) said that, if a developer pays several hundred thousand dollars for property, he would have the right to dispose of the clearing debris by burning it.

   Fall  1990, I attended the municipal election forum and raised awareness of the slash burning.  I told them that Port Coquitlam taxpayers’ air was no longer for sale.   I had assurance from the Mayor that the ‘ban of slash burning’ would be brought before Council and that he would vote for a ban.

   The following New Year, early January at 11.00 PM, I had to call the Mayor at his home to inform him that I was chocking on his special consideration.  Because across from us, in the new development, the trees had been felled and there were several huge, very smoky, fires burning! We had to seal all the windows and doors with plastic tape to keep the smoke out and shut our air-forced gas furnace off, because it was drawing the smoke into our home. The next day mid-morning smoke was billowing up again and penetrating our premises. I became really ill and called 911. The fire department’s rescue team arrived, and later the Ambulance.

   I was supposed to give answers to all their questions between being on Oxygen and being nauseated.  It was a real nightmare! Then a neighbour, a few houses up, interrupted her luncheon and came to my rescue. She called my husband’s office in Vancouver and he got on the telephone and raised a storm with our city and then he came home.  In the meantime, our daughter (a hairdresser in Port Coquitlam) was made aware of the situation at hand. She cancelled the rest of her appointments for the day and arrived just in time to give all the details to the ambulance people and persuaded them to leave me in her care.

Rescue had to be recalled because I had difficulties breathing again. The city did some fast work, pulled out all the stops and revoked the developer’s burning permit, so I was told.  And that is how Port Coquitlam became another municipality on the Lower Mainland to make slash burning illegal!

   For me there was not such easy remedy! I had become more sensitive to wood smoke and the emissions from neighbouring fireplaces became more threatening.  We equipped our home with an air intake and exchange system to make it safe for me to live indoors, away from toxic emissions. Unfortunately, the unit did ‘NOT’ filter out the strong smoke from neighbouring chimneys. We installed a scrub box, which has several filters but still does not prevent Wood smoke from entering our premises. 

   I was becoming more asthmatic and, during the winter seasons the coughing spells became more intense. My husband thought that I was not to survive.  My family doctor was concerned that I may catch pneumonia. So I had a flu shot the next season (1997) and, 7 hours after the shot, my entire body was wrenched with spasmodic pains. Eight months later I was 90% disabled. And two months after that, my family doctor became very concerned when my blood test sedimentation rate read (92) and 24hrs after that discovery I found myself in Eagleridge Hospital.

   In the hospital, I was given the drug “Prednisone” intravenously.  I do not remember how many hours it took, (for I had fallen asleep) but I do recall clearly, how ecstatic I felt awakening and finding out that I was able to move again.

I have never prayed as intensely in my entire life as at that moment! Next step was a biopsy performed in the left temple area, removing a section of artery. The biopsy showed a dangerous inflammatory disease called Polymyalgia Rheumatica, with formation of Giant Cell that had affects joints, muscles and blood, and also can lead to blindness.  Giant cell also is known as temporal arteritis. Often I feel that it also inflamed my entire nervous system because I was experiencing such horrendous spasmodic pains in many parts of my body. The Rheumatologist, (six months prior to my hospitalization) could not come to a diagnosis of whether it is Polymyalgia Rheumatica or Fibromyalgia, or both.

   I was put on very strong drugs and chemotherapy. While in Hospital I noticed on many evenings a strong wood burning smell. This occurred quite often I was told by nurses and had something to do with the air conditioning being reversed or something like that. My speculation now is, that those smells came from a nearby community which had not adopted a ‘no burning Bylaw.

Before I was allowed to leave the hospital I had to regain some weight and had to learn to walk again. After being home for five months and still in a much weakened state, I broke out in shingles which left me with neuralgia pain. That pain was worse than the pain from the shingles outbreak!

   My doctor tried different prescription medicines, including Demerol, but to no avail. Being in such aggravating pain, I would sometimes scream out like a wounded animal when something touched that nerve area.

One afternoon it was so bad that we went to the Hospital Emergency Ward.  There, a doctor tried pain killing injections, including morphine.  Nothing helped and when the good doctor decided to give me a ‘Tranquilizer’ that was the last straw! I told him that I needed something for the pain and not for my head. The doctor assured me that the particular tranquilizer was for pain. Sure enough, within 20 minutes, I felt the pain easing off to the point where it was tolerable. The doctor suggested that I spend the night at the hospital and give them a chance to try other drugs but I declined. For, chemotherapy, Prednisone and now ‘Ativan,’ that was enough!

   Shortly after that fiasco, my husband read that a doctor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada was using injection methods to treat shingle and related pains. We had lengthy telephone conversations with that doctor and he was only guaranteeing a 10% pain-relief because I was on such potent medications. To me, a 10% reduction sounded heavenly and with our family doctor’s blessing, my husband and I took off for an expensive three-week trip to Toronto, where we went for daily injections. There were about 50 needle pokes per session. The adventure was worth every dollar we spent, at least so we thought, for we had achieved a 60/70% pain reduction.

It did not last very long, for I had a few more outbreaks of shingles after that which left behind more horrendous nerve pain.  I have been living with them ever since.

   During the interval I had to undergo extensive eye surgery. I also had severe skin rashes that affected my legs, arms and hands, my forehead and half of my upper back. The skin was raw, expelling clear fluid. It still remains a mystery why that happened. Also, I had to have a tumor removed from the brain stem. Only God knows for sure, how that got there. Sometimes I do speculate that if all that suffering and expense could have been avoided had I not become sensitive to wood smoke. And since anyone can be become sensitized to it, I decided to disclose my experience in hope that it may do some good.

Giving this public attention will raise people’s awareness to the fact that exposure to wood smoke can have the domino effect of serious illnesses.

It can actually ruin your life!