Maybe she cleaned with chemicals before everyone arrived?? You might not smell an order with some of them but you would react just the same?? Hope you feel better today
Love ya
Ramona

The symptoms use list make me think inhalant. Off the top of my head, here are a few possibilities that come to mind: perfume or other scented personal products, pesticides (house recently treated), air freshner/cleaners (VOCs), off-gassing of new flooring/adhesives/particle board (formaldehyde), dirty HVAC/filters, flowers or houseplants (molds, pollens, allergens), pet dander.

Did you notice any odors?

Deb Mc

No latex balloons... wood floors (not new)... I didn't smell anything, but then I have a terrible sense of smell!  Ever since my son was born, something has to be really STINKY before I can tell.  My husband is constantly asking, "What smells in here... can you smell that?"  Um... no.  No I can't.  It's kind of nice when I'm changing a stinky diaper  Not so nice when a child is stinky for a while because I can't tell they're stinky.

The good thing about friends with small children is that they don't usually have time to clean before I come over

Heather

Wood floors - not new......WAX!  The wax for wood floors now adays not only have the wax itself, if it is indeed wax, but also perfumes to help make it smell better.   Yet, although you may not sense it, it's there.   Granted, the cleaning products may be the thing, but if you don't trigger on your own cleaning products, and you seem like me Heather in that you're not overly sensitive to these things, then I'd say that the one thing that you may find in that house that you don't do in your own would be that.  

Brazilian's use a lot of wax on their floors for our floors are made of slate and it needs about a weekly go over to keep it nice.  Yet, I grew up with hard wood floors in my parents home in Virginia and we'd use paste on the floors then - now there's liquid waxes which are more convenient, but I can remember that after we'd hand wax those hard wood floors, the wax smell would last for some time.  It never bothered me and still doesn't, but I've heard of pregnant women here in Brazil having a hard time with the smalls of the floor waxes   And so this is what makes me think that perhaps this was it - something that lingers, something you might rarely encounter.

It's a shot anyway

Lisa

I'm glad it didn't progress any further!

I don't really mind taking the extra Benadryl.  When I get that "spacey" feeling it's like everything is running in slow motion.  I know what I'm supposed to do... actually doing it is another story.  Thank goodness I'm not usually this sensitive to chemicals!  It must have been some kind of cleaning product or insecticide.  Being a professor I spend a LOT of time around other people.  The normal smells like perfume, dryer sheets, deodorant, etc... don't bother me.

Thank goodness we've been really careful about cleaning products... and so were the people who owned our house before us.  There's no way I could live with that kind of reaction every day!

Heather

yep yep and yep....... could be soooooo many things! My first thought was mold or chemicals. As Chaco said there are plenty you can't smell! Pretty instant trigger means it was pretty potent. Since your sense of smell isn't great, it's probably a little harder for you to pinpoint. As Joan said, (boy Joan we seem to have a lot of similar issues) Just peoples laundry detergent sets me off. I really really hate GAIN, your laundry really does NOT need to still smell 14 days later! Sheesh    even people "not allergic" should get that for it to smell that long they are wearing some nasty stuff on their skin all day! My husband said he can barely stand to be on a construction site anymore, all the guys reek like gain, and he's not sensitive! Ok got on a soapbox there! Here's a special needs Sandi trigger, sometimes when one window or two is open a draft will occur that somehow sends the bathroom sink vents( those two little holes in the sink) air back into the house and I start to get sick. So stupid, it's a moldy, no one but I can smell/feel. But crazy, as soon as I shut the windows it stops, I'm constantly running boiling water down the vents, dumping beneficial natural enzymes, oil of spearmint, tea tree oil, arggh anything. Just tonight I did a mix of water and mint oil......  So even with "hardwood" floors the shower curtain could be moldy, under rugs, drains.  Not to mention the "unscented goodies" that can trigger you! I can be outside doing yardwork and start many of the symptoms you describe and If I'm smart I go inside, I know although I can't smell it, someone is spraying their yard, and I am acres and acres away! Hey! If there was someone at the party that you don't really care to be around you could decide that they are the trigger and will need to avoid contact due to your health!  

Sandi wrote on 03/01/11 at 16:09:08:



It certainly could have been mold... I'm just really glad it was something specific to that house.  Imagine if I had that kind of reaction every time I was out in public?  I couldn't function like that.