My Night by Ms. Clarissa

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 8:23 pm

Long story, but it ends with a helpful message.

Last night I was awaiting the end of Shabbat so I could get some stuff ready for my kid's birthday party today. I had a whole game plan for prep, but was nervous about not being able to start until so late. Right before I got started, I was standing in the kitchen with my husband, and we heard this loud, strange bubbling sound. It was if my entire kitchen had eaten some really bad food and needed a giant Tums. I opened up the safety lock and looked under the sink, and saw bubbles. Not good.

I keep my cleaning supplies in these giant aluminum roasting pans under the sink. I use the pans because we sometimes have leaks, and it's better to catch the water than ruin the cabinet. It took a moment for me to figure out that one of them was filled with foaming liquid that was growing like "The Blob" (image that follows references an old movie, please don't click if you don't watch movies, especially ridiculous old sci-fi movies:

http://home.blarg.net/~dr_z/Mo.....b.jpg

We opened the kitchen window and I shooed my family out of the room, in case the foam was toxic. I started taking bottles and cans out of the huge, wet, foaming mess, trying to figure out the source. Finally I saw a tiny leak in a large refill bottle of Clorox Cleanup. It had leaked into the pan (maybe over several days) and had finally made contact with another chemical, started foaming, and got so frothy that it toppled other cans and bottles, adding all sorts of unknown chemicals to the brew. It took me an hour of mopping to clean it up. It actually ate through the paint and some of the wood in my cabinet. The bucket I used kept foaming up on its own, repeatedly needing to be emptied and rinsed. The stuff was everywhere, and it made me cough.

Later we googled, and discovered that Clorox Cleanup with bleach, or any other bleach product, is toxic in combination with other chemicals, and creates toxic fumes. I'd known this, so I was careful not to mix for general household use. I didn't realize this could happen just by leaving them together in a cabinet. I called Poison Control (because my chest was burning) and the guy told me to talk to a doctor or go to the ER. I called the 24 hour nurse at my insurance company, who told me to call 911. I called a friend's husband (a doctor) who said I should only go to the ER if I was getting on my husband's nerves and he needed a few hours off. I should mention that pulmonology isn't his specialty. He's a plastic surgeon. I think his advice might have been more helpful had my problem involved both a toxic chemical and crows' feet. We finally decided I should go to the ER, even though I knew I was probably fine. So that's what I did. While there they listened to my chest and I had an x-ray. This took until 1:30 am, cutting into my party prep time.

What have we learned from this experience? Obviously, never mix chemicals. If it happens, crack open every window. We did, but I still had to clean up, or it would have taken over our kitchen. I probably should have taken several breaks to breathe outside. Most important lesson was that I should absolutely have stored my bleach products separately. Had the Cleanup leaked while being sequestered alone or with bleach, it wouldn't have done so much harm.

So I'm recommending you separate chemicals and store carefully. Other lessons:

1) Wear gloves to clean up chemical disasters. I didn't. Clear the family out, which I did. Take breaks to breathe, which I didn't. Don't feel obligated, as I did, to finish making the frog cake before you leave for the hospital.

2)If you call National Poison Control and get a guy who's kind of weird and not terribly helpful, say thank you and hang up. Wait a bit and call back, and start again. If you, by some crazy coincidence get the same guy, shake your head at your unbelievable stupid luck as soon as he asks, "Didn't you call me about this earlier?" Don't they have more than one guy working at National Poison Control?

3) While at the hospital, don't sit next to someone with a highly contagious coughing condition who removes her mask to talk on the phone and then coughs loudly every time she laughs (and she's a very jolly woman who loves to laugh) and doesn't cover her germ-filled mouth.

4) Bring a distracting and funny book, like I did.

5) When you get home don't check in at about 2 am with imamother to make one last comment on a thread instead of getting some sleep. Frog cakes? Imamother? Where are your priorities, missy!?

Last edited by Clarissa on Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:34 pm; edited 2 times in total

Tehilla

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 8:46 pm

I am certainly glad that you are ok, B"H!

ps sorry I don't have any witty comments to add.

yo'ma

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 8:55 pm

I don't understand why you didn't come here right away to ask what to do. Rolling Eyes

I also made a b-day party today, my daughter is 10. Very Happy

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:18 pm

yo'ma wrote:

I don't understand why you didn't come here right away to ask what to do. Rolling Eyes

And be told to contact my LOR? Wink

yo'ma wrote:

I also made a b-day party today, my daughter is 10. Very Happy

Happy birthday to her!

yo'ma

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:20 pm

thank you and happy birthday to him or her.

Dayzmom

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:22 pm

What a night! I'm glad you and the family are o.k. How scary to have a toxic volcano under your kitchen sink.

Sorry, but after this story I don't know if you can still be a member here - like the poster before me wrote, why didn't you start a post asking the mothers if bubbling bleach with other chemical are dangerous? If you went about your business and contacted a real life doctor you might not be a bonifide "Mother." Smile

Again, glad to hear everyone's B"H fine.

RedRuby

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:25 pm

Well, Ms. Clarissa!

That does take the (frog) cake.

Sorry to hear about a really weird chemical 'monster'.... glad you are alright.

Now you can answer the thread, "What is the first thing you do after Shabbos is out?" with ...
clean up the hazmats in your cabinet.
Shaking

Thanks for telling the tale ~ the humor, the drama and the practical.

Hope the party was fun!!

peach

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:28 pm

Wow, what a story. Glad everything's OK now.

Clarissa wrote:

We opened the kitchen window and I shooed my family out, in case it was toxic.

You could have had them go out the door, you didn't have to shoo them out the kitchen window, you know. (Just kidding, Wink

)

The way you worded that line also makes it sound like its your family that's toxic! Was that somehow intentional?

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:32 pm

peach wrote:

Wow, what a story. Glad everything's OK now.

Clarissa wrote:

We opened the kitchen window and I shooed my family out, in case it was toxic.

You could have had them go out the door, you didn't have to shoo them out the kitchen window, you know. (Just kidding, Wink

)

The way you worded that line also makes it sound like its your family that's toxic! Was that somehow intentional?

Right on both counts. Some very sloppy writing there, but we can figure that the bubbling demon has probably done some damage to a bunch of my brain cells. Any doctors on to tell me whether they'll regenerate or reanimate or whatever?

Funny thing is, that's exactly the kind of sloppy writing I would have noticed. Before.

RedRuby

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 9:38 pm

Oh, now we can look forward to some REALLY GOOD posts from you now!!

We aint seen nothin' yet....

flowerpower

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:22 pm

What a fun nice day. Now what was it that you edited? Anything exciting that you changed your mind about missy?

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:23 pm

flowerpower wrote:

What a fun nice day. Now what was it that you edited? Anything exciting that you changed your mind about missy?

Okay, I'll tell you, but you'll think I'm crazy. I reread it and noticed I spelled breathe, breath. That drives me crazy, so I corrected it. Then I found another error but left it alone, because I feared someone would notice two edits. I see my fears were warranted!

eta: HELP! I just noticed some more mistakes.

Last edited by Clarissa on Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

flowerpower

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:25 pm

You out of all people had a spelling mistake?!? Was it from the toxic fumes that you inhaled? Or the frog cake did it?

greenfire

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:36 pm

what an exotic title for a toxic thread ...

I think I felt your pain ... cough cough ... I've heard of houses making noises but this was a twilight zone ...

you know they have these masks that you an buy at home depot with filters to breath - including but not limited to - such situations (I use one when I work with chemicals - if I can tolerate it - sometimes being slowly poisoned seems easier)

so how was that birthday party ... l'chaim Drunken Smile

hope you all had FUN !!!

raizy

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:37 pm

who cares how many spelling mistakes u make in a thread.!!! I thrive on spelling mistakes.

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:39 pm

(tv reference in this post, and not just any tv show, but really bad tv)

flowerpower wrote:

You out of all people had a spelling mistake?!? Was it from the toxic fumes that you inhaled? Or the frog cake did it?

Just corrected two others, and fixed the defective sentence that Peach noticed. I can't control my desire to edit. I post on this other site that used to post a bright red notice of editing every time you edited. My posts would be one or two sentences, and there would be a log of seven embarrassing edits.

Yes, I'm going to be making a lot of mistakes from now on, gals. But who knows -- maybe my brain will be reborn as an entirely new organ and I'll start quoting sources? Nah, it's unlikely that I'll get smarter or more learned. I'll probably start quoting Peanuts cartoons that I read in the second grade, or will start watching the Maury Show because I simply must know who her baby daddy is.

cookielady

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:42 pm

Clarissa wrote:

(tv reference in this post, and not just any tv show, but really bad tv)

... watching the Maury Show because I simply must know who her baby daddy is.

Takeh, who is her daddy??

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 01 2008, 10:47 pm

I'll respond to the last three posts:

Greenie, somewhere here I have those masks, but I've cleverly put them where I can never find them in an actual toxic situation.

raizy, it's just not my thing, but to each her own. Also, I have mild OCD.

cookielady, It don't matter no more who her baby daddy is, since taping the show she's had another baby and another baby daddy.

red sea

Mon, Jun 02 2008, 12:27 pm

Ms Clarissa, that is definitly a night for the books!

RedRuby

Mon, Jun 02 2008, 12:31 pm

Clarissa, maybe you should change your screen name to Ms. Clarissa.

It's got such a great ring to it!

(then again, people would panic if they thought you'd changed somehow)