Brand new me… hehe!!! Learning some scientific
theories the hard way can actually cause your life… I learnt it by risking my
own life. When people knew, all gasped, ARE YOU MAD? But, in real, very few
knew that such thing could happen.
Ok, so the story goes on like this. My aunt who was
on a visit returned back home town two weeks back. Since then, I was planning
to do my type of house cleaning. Now, my type cleaning meant a complete
makeover of the room, literally moving around the furniture and cleaning every
bit of the room atleast three times. My recently developed OCD for this
cleanliness was already killing me. But this time, it sure missed by luck….
So on D-day, I wasted the whole morning lazying around
and mentally putting the cleaning task for next week. By, 4pm, some energy struck
me and I started the cleaning spree. Dusting, sweeping, mopping – one after
another, I cleaned every nook and corner. With Dettol, I mopped the whole floors
one last time. Now was the time for the two bathrooms.
The OCD in me started acting. In anticipation for
the perfect shining floors, I splashed a can of harpic all around the bathrooms
followed by a shower of Clorox. Happily ever after…. I cleaned the guest toilet
and proceeded to clean the master bathroom.
By then, my son was back from his Karate class. I
instructed him to sit on the sofa without walking around or getting into the
toilet to avoid mess. With my cleaning weapons, I got into the bathroom,
closing the bedroom door behind me. Intention was to clean the bathroom and
then take a shower to finish off the cleaning process.
As I started scrubbing the floors with all my
enthusiasm, I slowly started choking and coughing. “Ha, it’s the Clorox.” I
left the bathroom door open as the bedroom door was anyways closed. As time
passed by, the coughing got severe. I felt dizziness. Its all just fragments of
my imagination. Its all in the mind. I am fine.
Thus, I continued my cleaning. In 20minutes, I was
almost falling off. Not able to withstand the pressure anymore, I quickly
washed off the bathroom and took a quick shower. I felt like I was a fast-forwarding
scene from a movie. But, I couldn’t take it anymore. I rushed out of the
bathroom in the bathrobe and screamed for my son and thud….
When I opened my eyes, my son was right beside me.
Crying out, “Mamma, don’t die…” I felt weird. What the hell. I asked him to
quickly check on google for home remedies for Harpic and Clorox smell. He brought the
phone and the search result shocked me. Without wasting time, with my son's help, I put
on a gown and rushed out.
Choking for breath and coughing and screaming, I
drove to the hospital which was 2 minutes away from home. My son kept
saying, “Mamma, we will take a taxi”. I knew, I didn’t have time enuf for that.
It was stupid of me, I know. I was risking my son’s life too by driving in that
state. But, that moment, nothing was working within and by god's grace, I reached the emergency
entrance of the hospital.
Out of the car, I fainted right in front of the
emergency.
By the time, I was brought back to senses, I was
covered with tubes and pipes and oxygen mask. I could see my brother and my crying son. 2 days in the ICU. It was news to me as the doctor explained how dangerous it was to mix Clorox with anything; forget Harpic. And, how
much of a fighter I was that I reached the hospital alive, inspite of the intake
of the poisonous gas for such long time.
Nurses kept visiting me at the ICU just to see the “Harpic-Clorox
case”. They all said, they are also shocked, because many of them also do the
same thing to clean their commodes. I became a victim because I used it for the
whole toilet and stayed inside for more than 30 minutes. ☹ Any more reason to be embarrassed.
Now, I am back home, under bed rest for a week. A
little bit of walking makes me exhausted and breathless. As I sit here, I am
trying to be thankful to many things…
-
The moment that made me
forget to unlock the bedroom door, so my son could come in.
-
My son who was trying to do
every single bit he could do in the absence of an adult at home.
-
The doctors and nurses who
did their bit to revive me (I knew later that I was very dramatic; though I remember
nothing much).
-
My inner strength that took
me till the hospital.
-
The Almighty who stood by
me and blessed me to safety.
Once I was back to pick up the phone, I send
messages to all the groups about the hazards of mixing harpic and Clorox.
Anyways, this incident gave me a new name. Ofcourse
I was given a choice… To choose from “Harpy or Clory”…
Clory... ☹
