What caused rattlin’ cough?
Lately I’ve had cause to wonder if my misspent youth was starting to catch up with me…
I’ve just had a spell of ill health, not Covid but a three-month cough(!). I ended up having chest X-rays, followed by a call from the hospital to get in ‘soonest’ for CT scans. I’m sure I would not have been alone in fearing all sorts could be wrong; I’d been coughing to the point of being sick and at times coughing up blood. But in my positive thinking manner I just carried on. I was sure I’d be all right, but I must admit in weaker moments I started to think, ‘what if?’
The ‘what if’ I kept coming back to was: what if I have damaged my chest with all those years spraying scooters in the garage? I used to do a lot, and very rarely would I use any mask – when I was 20 I’d never even heard of ‘PPE’.
I used to get a fair spray mist at times, initially cellulose or whatever was in the Holts spray cans! I’d be blowing my nose in colour for days after spraying the latest piece of scooter, and of course there would be my hands and arms that somehow I regularly also painted. For weeks I’d be brushing the coloured paint dust off everything in my garage so undoubtedly would be breathing in lots of dust for sure. As time moved on I graduated to a compressor to spray my race scooters, and that was probably far worse. Most race paint jobs only lasted a couple of years before the next spray adventure loomed. Then I started to move across to two-pack paints.
Carcinogenic was a phrase I kept reading, so after some nagging I begrudgingly started to use a face mask, but being honest I still maintained a fairly cavalier attitude.
I saw a Facebook post recently asking what you didn’t do any more because they’re now deemed ‘dangerous’. The two things that instantly sprang to mind were drinking water from public water fountains – who else has had their mouths around them? – and racing home-made, pram-wheel go-karts.
(On the subject of home-made go-karts I had a scar on my nose for many years after sliding down the path on my face when the trolley chucked me off, but dangerous as it was, the go-kart never came close to killing me.)
Health & Safety is both a blessing and a curse these days. I’m a natural rule breaker and doing some things that are dangerous keeps me ‘alive’. Of course those things are riding bikes, skateboards, snowboards or fast scooters, not ingesting chemicals for days, weeks or months on end. Spraying chemicals that are highly toxic in order to get shiny smooth, brightly coloured paint on my Lambretta didn’t really come into the exciting, life affirming but dangerous category that riding a scooter stupidly fast does. Those dodgy chemicals could be a much slower-acting thing, and like smoking, drinking, eating or other substances, they may actually take some time to kill you.
So I was secretly starting to think I must have something wrong. I’d been coughing for months, and blood coming out is never a good thing, but to cut a long story short, literally, within a few days of the CT scan my coughing suddenly (almost) stopped. A few days later a letter arrived from the hospital and I opened it (with a slight feeling of dread) to find that it stated that my ‘CT scan is normal and there is no evidence of lung cancer’, adding that my cough will ‘settle down by itself’.
I don’t mind saying I felt mighty relieved. Googling medical symptoms is never a good thing and I’d slightly convinced myself that all sorts could be wrong.
So now we are all older we probably are a tad more conscious of our days on Earth. Funnily enough just a couple of weeks ago I was respraying some handlebars on a bike I’m restoring for my grandson and found myself wearing a full 3M mask while doing so; those paint particles are dangerous, you know!
I’d not dream of riding now in shorts and T-shirt like I did as a teenager; decent jackets, body armour, gloves and full face helmets were long since added to my list of sensible options. Also added to that list are face masks for painting.
I doubt very much I’ll ever be totally ‘sensible’ and I hope none of you are either, but sometimes a little risk management may be a very sensible option!
Carcinogenic was a phrase I kept reading, so after some nagging I begrudgingly started to use a face mask