u/ld1a

hi, at my workplace i was exposed to toxic chemicals/fumes repeatedly. our site is entirely enclosed with no windows or ventilation. firstly - lacquer was applied on this day to a door in one of the rooms and it could be smelt from the second i entered the main building downstairs. i was there for hours and started feeling dizzy and nauseous from the fumes. i was informed later on that the lacquer was water based but i’ve read that if you can still smell it, it’s toxic and if i started feeling unwell from it at that moment (and lasted the entire rest of the day even when i’d left and been home for hours) then i think that says enough. secondly, a petrol fuelled chainsaw being used in a completely enclosed and unventilated space causing me to breathe in the toxic fumes created but it. this happened multiple times and on a few occasions it started to make me feel a little funny. never was i provided with any sort of mask or ppe when faced with these fumes.

now what i’m wondering is since sunday even when i was at work on site, i had an attack of the worst vertigo i’d ever experienced. it started at around 4pm and lasted until the following morning. i went to check my blood pressure and it kept reading as error even though the machine was working fine and my watch detected my heart rate to be 49bpm at one point. heart rate and blood pressure consistently read normal since then. since then the dizziness started the fade and i started to develop a headache. followed by nausea. this was yesterday. today i feel absolutely dreadful, so much pain in my arms and from the shoulders up, my head hurts, i feel weak and absolutely exhausted. the only time i get any relief from my symptoms is when i’m laying in bed. went to doctor and requested testing for poisoning from those mentioned toxins and was informed they cannot do it and that i need to go to the ER for the test. the thing is the exposure happened weeks ago now and i’m not entirely confident that it’s definitely due to that but my partner is concerned and wants me to go and check. but i don’t want to sit around in the ER for hours nor take up attention from seriously ill people if it’s not even possible that i could be ill from these toxins.

so is it actually possible that this could be a delayed reaction from the exposure to those chemicals or is it not worth going to the ER. i’m 21F, non-smoker. thank you!