Trick or Treat, Mercury Levels, and a Fire

Finally heard back from the Dr's.  Actually I called them.  Both of the girls mercury levels were with in normal range!  Praise God!  Thank you for the prayers!

We decided for the first time to hand out candy for Halloween this year.  The kids were still able to dress up and since the weather was FRIGID( 40mph winds with wind chills in the 20's and snow), they were very ok with not going door to door.  Actually we have a policy at our house that once you become a teenager you can no longer go door to door.

We also don't buy costumes, we always make them.  But we did buy one on sale for Little Miss because it cracked us up so much!  And I bought one for like $2 after Halloween a few years ago that Princess wore.

So here are some of their costumes.  See if you can guess them all:

Ice Cream Cone 

Did you guess it?

Quarterback

The most natural Cleopatra ever.

How about this one??

Lineman!

We have a football theme going with most of our costumes.

How are you doing guessing? 

Her shirt says Ceiling at the top if you can't see it.

And that is a pom pom she is holding.

So that makes her a...

CEILING FAN!

And just what every 34 weeks pregnant women needs-

A bright orange shirt to call attention to her belly.

My shirt says:

Go To Your Room!!

So what am I?

30 points to you if you know it.

Anyone??

Ok fine.  I am "Intentional Grounding".

There's the football theme again.

We were all loving the witty costumes this year.  And so easy and cheap to make. Bubba taped a dollar to each ear last year and was a Buccaneer( get it?  Buck an Ear) which is what got all of us on this kick. 

That brings us to our fire

You know, because our lives aren't exciting enough.

The really bad part is that this happened at night after an entire day of cleaning the house to get it ready for a showing this morning.  Talk about a Halloween horror.

Our fireplace isn't operable but we wanted to try out those great gel fuel can things.  So we put a small one in and it worked great!  We thought it would be perfect for our showing.

It worked a  little too great for our set up as the flame was higher than we wanted.

So we tried to put a lid on it to smoother it( per instructions), but as we were doing so the can tipped.

This presented 2 problems:

1. Our fireplace goes all the way down into the basement where they had a place for all the ashes to go and they could clean them out( back in 1900).  So when it tipped it went down into the grating.  Into our basement.
2. Way up in the chimney there were some old newspapers someone had stuffed up there many a moon ago( to stop drafts??).  When the can tipped there was a big flare up.  And all those old, dry papers caught on fire up in the chimney.  And the chimney no longer vents to the outside.  It was cut off at the roof line and ends in the attic now.

Oddly enough, I just told the kids on Weds. where our fire extinguisher was and went through a tutorial and how to use it.  So when we put the fuel can into the fireplace, Bubba got the extinguisher right away, just in case.

He was the one that spotted the flaming newspapers way up in the chimney.

So Bubba sprayed the extinguisher and then Hubby sprayed again a few seconds later when we could still see some flames.

It wasn't until we started seeing something billowing out of  near the ceiling where our pocket doors are in the adjoining room that we started to worry that the fire may not be contained after all.

We also noticed that our room which is directly above the foyer/fireplace was also smoky.

We immediately called the fire department and got everyone out of the house.  I had to wake Little Miss up, a couple of kids just had socks on.  I did have them grab blankets as they ran from the house because as I have already stated up in the Halloween portion of this blog, it was frigid outside.

We had a couple of kids crying and we all went into the trailer to be warmer and then eventually into a neighbors house.

The fire dept. checked the walls for hot spots and found nothing.

It was likely just all the fire extinguisher powder billowing out of the crack and crevices everywhere in the other rooms.

We were so relieved!!  

And then we had the mess in the pictures above to deal with.  

BUT...

Fire extinguisher powder is much simpler to clean up then a broken light bulb! Sissy pointed this out.

The powder is just gets everywhere.  And the picture just capture a small frame of the mess.  The powder found it's way around the entire main level and up into the 2nd floor via the stairwell.Not to mention our house smelled like, well, it caught on fire.  Odd right??  

At 2:30 we finally hit the hay and had to be up at 7:30 to get ready for a church event. I was so sore from all the cleaning yesterday though and didn't go.  I still got up and gave the floors another mopping and wiped everything down again.

I really can't complain too much though.  Our house could have burned down or we could be dealing with water and smoke damage.  I will take fire extinguisher powder any day! 

And our showing went fine this morning.  The potential buyer looked at a few houses this morning so don't know what she thought of the rest.  Her fiance had something come up and couldn't come along today so we are simply hoping for a 2nd showing.  

Maybe by then I can get all the powder cleaned up and the house will smell better!

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Little Miss: Flu or Poisoning?

mercury poisoning,

a toxic condition caused by the ingestion or inhalation of mercury or a mercury compound. The chronic form, resulting from inhalation ofthe vapors or dust of mercurial compounds or from repeated ingestion of very small amounts, is characterized by irritability, thirst,excessive saliva, loosened teeth, gum disorders, slurred speech, tremors, and staggering. Symptoms of acute mercury poisoning  include a metallic taste in the mouth, thirst, nausea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea,and renal failure that may result in death. Also called hydrargyrism, mercurialism. See also Minamatadisease.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mercury+poisoning

Little Miss has been complaining of her stomach hurting ever since Tuesday.  I didn't know if it was just a coincidence that it happened right after she was exposed to the mercury Monday night.

This morning I went in to get her up and she said right away that her tummy hurt and just laid there.  I picked her up and she was rag doll-ish. She would just fold over when I had her on my hip.  I sat down with her in the rocker and she just sprawled there and wouldn't even talk( which anyone who knows Little Miss knows how significant that is).

She mumbled milk so Sissy got her some milk.  I took Little Miss's( I have no idea if that is the right use of the apostrophe there) temp but it was normal. Kind of was hoping she was running a temp because that isn't a sign of mercury poisoning.

We silently rocked in the chair for quite sometime.

She perked up some and we went down stairs.  She played some with her blocks and was talking and then she started throwing up.

Blech.

I still haven't heard the results of her blood work Tuesday so given that she is sick today I called to check.  They said the results still hadn't come in yet but would call as soon as they did.

Pray that is just a bug going around and that she gets over it soon!  We are suppose to go to a wedding reception tonight and we are all looking forward to it so I am hoping she is fine the rest of the day.

I will update everyone on the test results for both Little Miss and Princess as soon as they come in, which is hopefully soon.

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Our Mercury Light Bulb Ordeal

Monday night Little Miss broke one of those new light bulbs the gov't mandated this year.  

You know, the spirally ones that are so 'green'?  

The ones that contain enough mercury to contaminate 6,000 gallons of water? 

The ones where when you break them the mercury vapor comes pouring out and if you come in contact with the broken bulb you can't simply wash the clothes because it will contaminate your washer but instead you must THROW AWAY your clothes?  

The ones where you have to evacuate everyone( especially children and pregnant women and also pets) from the area right away and air out the room for 15 minutes before even attempting to clean up the broken bulb?

The ones where you have to also shut off your A/C or furnace so it doesn't blow the toxic mercury vapor throughout your house?

The ones were no one is suppose to go in the area for several days after the clean up of the broken bulb?

The ones where you can't vacuum or sweep up the the broken bulb because it sends that mercury powder/vapor in the air?

The ones where you are suppose to throw the rug away if a bulb breaks on it or CUT OUT the part of your carpet where it landed and broke?

The ones that require gloves to remove a broken bulb and then it isn't enough to put it in a plastic bag, but you need to put it into a glass container with a lid and totally remove it from your house?

Wow, I am so glad we have these new earth friendly bulbs right??

So after breaking the bulb, Little Miss and Princess decide to be very helpful and clean it up.  Lovely.

Thankfully, I was not on the same level of the house that this broken bulb occurred on. So the unborn baby was/is fairly safe.  

But we did have to take Little Miss and Princess to be tested for mercury poisoning(via a blood test). We will know the results  in a day or two.

When I called the Dr, the nurse was shocked at what all you had to do when a CFL(Compact Fluorescent Light) bulb broke.  I told her that I shared her disbelief.

I have come across some articles that say there is more mercury in a can of tuna.  But all I know is that when tuna juice squirts on my shirt I don't have to throw it in the trash or evacuate the room for several days, ya know?

I suspect it's the mercury POWDER/VAPOR in the new light bulbs that is the real bad guy (compared to liquid mercury in old thermometers).  Mercury Vapor/Powder is very easily inhaled and quickly absorbed into your body and brain.

So needless to say, I am throwing everyone of these wonderful new bulbs and getting the old school black market bulbs that might cost a bit more in electricity but doesn't put the health of my family at risk.  Not to mention the money it would cost a person to go to the Dr.'s and get blood tests. You can also get halogens which have no mercury in them.

Here are some sources of info about clean up of bulbs and issues with the mercury in them:

• Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb or Compact Toxic Bomb

• B Barnes says:

May 19, 2014 at 6:25 am

The scenario I would like to have input with regards to is as follows:
The cfl bulb is in a fixture which refines a person to climb a ladder and reach over his or her head to change the bulb. while doing so the bulb breaks causing the powder in the bulb to shower down in the face of the person changing the bulb. It gets in the person’s open eyes, open mouth and is breathed into the person’s lungs. Thus the exposure is a) absorption into the system via direct contact with the eyes, b) ingestion by mouth, c) absorption via lungs both at initial breath as the powder was in the air while the person looked upwards toward the light fixture as the bulb broke and subsequent breaths as the powder is on the person’s skin of the face, lips, hair, hands, arms, clothing and d) absorption through the skin of the person’s face, neck, hands and arms.

What level of exposure could a person receive in this scenario?

I experienced this specific scenario and had a number of symptoms that followed. Bad taste in my mouth like I was constantly sucking on pennies. An intense wave of nausea about to minutes after the exposure that lessened only slightly but never went away for days for which I ultimately required prescription nausea medicine, A nearly immediate loss of motility lasting 4-6 weeks. The only way I could eliminate stool was by ingesting the OTC liquid used to cleanse in preparation for a colonoscopy plus miralax plus a prescription medication for constipation plus high fiber content foods plus a fiber supplement AND regular use of FIeet’s anemas.

Eventually the bad taste went away and normal motility returned. I continue to have waves of intense nausea or more mild nausea that lasts for several days.

The exposure happened on Feb 13 and today is May 18.

-http://ashartus.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/mercury-exposure-from-compact-fluorescent-lights/

• Department of Public Health Fact Sheet
• How to Clean Up Broken CFL's ( this one addresses clothing/bedding/fabric that comes in contact with the broken bulb.  Also note the very last line about your shoes)
• A child exposed to a broken CFL bulb will receive 8,000 times the recommended amount of mercury vapor
• Mercury Exposure ( pay attention to the 4th bullet down under 'Mercury Poisoning Facts' in this medical article as it pertains to the mercury powder/vapor found in CFL's)

The issue too is that often mercury poisoning doesn't show symptoms for days or weeks and most of them can be hard for a child to communicate to you.  Our pediatrician reconfirmed this with me today.  

I hope this has shed some light on what you need to do if one of these new, wonderful light bulbs breaks.  We had broken several rules right off the bat before I thought to ask my husband what kind of light bulb it was.  

Never a dull moment...

Many Blessings,

The Mama