Monday, September 19, 2011

Who Knew Clean Carpets Could Make You Sick?

I'm sure you all know what a rough year Texas has had weather-wise. I just heard that Wichita Falls, Texas had the record as the worst weather city this year. I can believe it!

We were there in May working on the guest guides for Coyote Ranch Resort and Burkburnett/Wichita Falls KOA. As early as May it was in the 100s. It was miserable. Of course the fact that Bob had pneumonia while we were there (courtesy of being with his sick 97-year-old mother in the nursing home just before we departed Teague and the extreme allergy season) and I had a back spasm that put me on bed rest for 2 weeks had nothing to do with it.

Poor Bob, he had to go out and make the sales calls because I was on pain meds and in bed sleeping for almost 2 weeks. I'll give him credit, he did well for an accountant! :-)  (He'll get me for that one!)

Part of Bob's treatment for his pneumonia was to go out and get a nebulizer and use an inhaled medication to sooth his airways. Between the pneumonia and his allergies he came down with a terrible, lingering cough.

Over the next few months his cough finally got much better. Until...

...we had the carpets cleaned. I'll explain...

After we left Wichita Falls, we spent a good amount of time in Houston getting some things fixed on the rig. With the extreme heat, our air-conditioners were tripping breakers. While they were trouble-shooting the A/C issues, they were tracking in a lot of grease & grime into our carpets.

Oh yes, we also had one of our inverters turn to toast and took out the microwave/convection oven with it. And of course, the new mic/conv oven did not fit into the space correctly so we also had sawdust everywhere, including embedded into the carpet, as they worked to make it all fit and look good.

After all was said & done, the dealership graciously agreed to pay for the carpet cleaning. Once we returned to Teague, I found Stanley Steemer. I've seen their commercials and they looked competent plus they were about our only choice in this rural area.

Two young men came out right away and cleaned not only the carpets, but all of the throw rugs too. Way cool! Then they said for a few $$ they could put down a deodorizer since we have two little doggies and scotchgard to help keep it cleaner. I said, "Why not!" Sounded good to me... Silly me!

It looked great when they were done. Now all we had to do was relax for a week before heading out to Moab, Utah and points west.

Then, Bob started coughing. We wrote it off to the severe allergy season going on with the drought in Texas. We figured that once we got out of Texas he'd start to clear up. By the time we left a week later, he was starting to use his breathing treatments again and sucking down cough drops.

We took our time getting to Moab and still he continued to get worse. He planned his breathing treatments so that he could drive most of the day without coughing. (We only go about 250-300 miles a day.) Then he had to start sleeping on the couch so I could get some sleep since he was having coughing fits at night.

Three weeks after we had the carpets cleaned we couldn't even have a conversation together. He was continuously having coughing fits. I thought we were going to have to go to the ER!

Then I started thinking, okay, we're out of Texas and he's getting worse. What has changed?

The only thing that changed was we cleaned the carpets.

So once we got all set up in Moab we tried an experiment. We opened up the windows. His cough got better. We went into town... his cough got better. When we closed the rig up and turned on the A/C, he went into coughing fits again.

I got a phone book and called a local carpet cleaner. It is a family owned business, Arrow Carpet Cleaning, and the two sons came out to survey the situation. It seems that the chemical used for the deodorizer causes many people problems and the scotchgard turns into airborne dust particles shortly after you begin walking on it.

Who knew?!?!?

And, we found out, many carpet cleaners use steam which is not a very good thing to do and they frequently don't get all the gunk & water out of the carpet... I mean really out of the carpet. So all of this gets into the air and we breath it in.

These guys suggested a cold water rinse and they had a machine with a 5hp motor so it would suck all the water & gunk out that was left behind. And yes, they would be happy to do all the throw rugs for one flat rate.

It took them over two hours! Each of them had to take turns going outside for fresh air with the fumes they were stirring up. When they finished, we looked at the container of goo they sucked out. There was a 4-inch head of foam sitting on top of pure black, thick goo. It was disgusting (that's our 5-year-old granddaughter Katelyn's favorite word).

When they finished, the carpets looked and felt like brand new.

What about Bob's cough? It started going away within days and by two weeks it was a thing of the past.

I'm reminded of something I've heard over the years. They say the air inside your home can be much more polluted than the air outside. Well, here was proof!

So now we will keep it simple. Cold water rinses when we need the carpets freshened up. NO MORE CHEMICALS.

You want to know what scares us the most? If I'd have taken Bob to the doctor, they could have run all kinds of tests and they would never have discovered what the problem was. I'm sure they could have tried to get him on a half-dozen medications too.

Thank goodness I tumbled to the "clean carpets" making him sick. Oh yes, my eyes are not burning anymore and the doggies are not sneezing their little noses off either.

And Bob no longer needs breathing treatments. All is well!

Till next time...

Happy Trails!

Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)
How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!