Chesty cough after metal & paint work

[caelite]

Hey folks

So, for the last 48 hours I have had a fairly bad chesty cough, today it has been joined by a stabbing pain in what feels like the base of my right shoulder blade when I cough (definitely in that kind of area and not the upper stomach 'diaphram' pain which often accompanies a heavy cough). Have full movement of my shoulder and can lift things without much bother, pain is only present when I breath in to cough. Also getting a lot of muscle aches all over, which after 2 days of lazing about feeling sorry for myself I doubt are strain related.

Normally I leave coughs a week or so before I visit the docs, however over the long weekend I've spent a lot of time reconditioning a set of wheels and rust proofing the underside of my car, basically using a flap disc to remove surface rust, brush on kurust on surface rust, then hammerite straight to rust paint aerosole over the kurust. I have been using a face mask, but I will admit only most of the time, had it off a fair bit doing some of the work as it was a cheap mask & was letting my breath steam up my eyepro & glasses.

Just wondering if someone medically clued up can advise me if I need to visit a doctor asap and if the above activity is the potential cause of my predicament, it seems to coincidental to get chest issues so close to doing such work especially at this time of year.

Thanks
CAE

[davhill]

Hi, I'm not a quack but I know some medical stuff.

I think you've answered your own question already. Rust dust, tiny metal shavings, whatever finish was in the area, Kurust, and Hammerite and and a duff mask? A challenging mixture.

Your pipework will be protecting itself and in trying the clear all that st out, it'll turn you into Phlegmy Hamster.
You need to worry if you have yellow or green crap coming up 'cos that indicates an infection. Don't be surprised
if you see brown, silvery phlegm or phlegm that's Hammerite coloured. Obviously, blood means it's medic time.
If you've no sign of a fever, it's likely that your system doing a decoke is making you bark. If your body temp soars,
see the quacks ASAP.

Re the pains, aches and pains all over aren't surprsing, especially if you've been govelling on a cold floor
while working. The 'lung' pain is probably as easy to pin down and I'm guessing you're right-handed. Your ribs
are flexible and must move in relation to one another so inbetween them are your intercostal muscles
and these can ache like a pig.

Assuming high temp and bloody phlegm don't kick in, the usual suspects - Ibu, Paracetamol etc., will suffice.
There's no harm in a hot bath (the steam will help) and a heavy cough syrup wpuldn't go amiss.

And get a respirator - you know why now.
Usual disclaimer about being an enthusiastic amateur medically.

HTH, DH

[peterperkins]

Those of us of an older persuasion have all done this and suffered restoring or working on piles of rusty crap called cars!
If you did it every day for ten years then you might end up with a lung problem.

As stated an intermittent dose of crud will clear itself normally. Better wear a proper mask and goggles next time..

Years ago before H&S in the late 1970's as a lithe agile willing 15 year old schoolboy weekend worker, being paid a fortune making £20 a day by a neighbour, I cleaned out the huge industrial oil fired boilers at Rowntree Mackintosh in Norwich from the inside using a wire brush and scraper. I think he gave them a very cheap quote, and he sat on a chair outside and shouted encouragement through the hatch as I passed him out bags of soot,rust and crud. I do remember he had a new datsun 260Z probably bought on the profit for this job..

Talk about carbon dust city, access was via a tiny door at the front of the boiler and the heat from the adjoining still working ones was incredible. They could only shut down one at a time or production of Caramac would grind to a halt.

I drank over a gallon of water a day and had to provide my own mask and goggles, which in my case was an old WW2 gas mask I bought at an auction for 25p. It seemed to work but i had to come out every 15 minutes to cool down it was so hot. I looked like the proverbial coal miner after a shift and my mother made me strip at the back door when i got home and ushered me directly into the shower via some newspaper strategically positioned on the kitchen floor..

I never washed my hands for lunch, and my white sunblest spam sandwiches had black finger/hand marks/outlines on them like some prehistoric cave painting.

But they were the good old days and the money was great!!



Boiler was something like this but about 5/6 in a row IIRC..

Edited by peterperkins on Thursday 31st May 07:39

[caelite]

Cheers for the posts lads.

Kind of put my mind at ease, typical WebMD inspired hypochondria was making me question whether or not I had actually done myself some damage. Will need to mind and pick myself up a respirator at some point, I thought I was being dead good with the wee dust mask, normally when I'm painting I tend to suffice with a T-shirt tied over my mouth/nose... or no PPE, that being said I don't tend to grind off the volume of rust I've done recently in one go. Being 24 I am really not used to work related aches lasting more than a full day or so, maybe I'm just getting old.

[davhill]

caelite said:

Cheers for the posts lads.

Kind of put my mind at ease, typical WebMD inspired hypochondria was making me question whether or not I had actually done myself some damage. Will need to mind and pick myself up a respirator at some point, I thought I was being dead good with the wee dust mask, normally when I'm painting I tend to suffice with a T-shirt tied over my mouth/nose... or no PPE, that being said I don't tend to grind off the volume of rust I've done recently in one go. Being 24 I am really not used to work related aches lasting more than a full day or so, maybe I'm just getting old.

I learned a lot of med stuff from being a photographer/illustrator in a medical school for three years. I had to illustrate the results for tests involving ordinary DIY dust masks and as regards particulate matter, they were scary. I knew a bloke who sprayed cellulose for years maskless - got serious emphysema in the end. And 'Toothless Jimmy' got that name from grit blasting without a proper respirator.

I got a Devilbiss twin cartridge respirator and when applying etch, cellulose primer or topcoat, I couldn't even smell the paint.

Re. aches ,anyone can get them. It isn't so much age as the position adopted, for how long and on what surface.

In any event, they're your airbags but do get a resp.