I went to a small protest during the start of the No Kings stuff a few months ago.

I didn’t do much; other people were getting up to stuff, and i was just there as a warm body/support/whatever i guess. I happened to be near somebody the police shot a crowd control weapon at. The gas only got me a little bit - initially it was maybe a minute or two of eye/face irritation and then it was fine.

but in the following days, my tear ducts swelled up, my hands and feet swelled up such that i had massive skin dieoff, and i thought i was fucking dying with how sick i felt

Now it seems to be cyclical. Right now my eyes are swolen and red again. My hands are swolen again. My joints hurt. This is the third time since being exposed that this has happened, and I had never experienced anything like that before going to this protest

I genuinely don’t know what to do to deal with this, it’s hugely disruptive. Does it go away? I t hought people on hexbear might have some insight, because right now i mostly have to just suck it up - take anti-inflammatories, tylenol, etc. and dabbing pain relieving ointments around the outside of my eye

these motherfuckers will poison you just for protesting.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    12 days ago

    Yeah they are using some real nasty new shit since 2020.

    Back in my day around the Iraq War protests in the early 2000s it was only the regular cs gas. I was exposed to a whole lot of that and while I do have some lasting respiratory issues it was nothing like what you describe.