New fire last night and this morning thirty miles away above Santa Fe. Smoke is bothering me so much that I had high blood pressure last week and this morning I had near blindness. I didn't know if this was a stroke, so I went to ER. They found my usual 20/20 vision was 20/70, but found no evidence of stroke. I am to see eye doctor ASAP, and pcp. I was unsure if it was from the
toxic smoke, but it could be. I had a phlebotomy on Friday, so my red cells are not high, but platelets are high in my bloodstream due to Polycythemia Vera.

So here I am developing the same problem, even the eyelid droop (which left since this AM) I had years ago when I had optic neuritis. I mean, the eyelid droop and pressure on the eye was a feature of the ON, but it also had double vision and blind spot in that period over 20 years ago. I have no blind spot or double vision, just had extreme dimness in both eyes for maybe 15 minute before calling 911. I'm glad I didn't have a stoke.

Fires are all over 7 states now, especially attacking NM and Arizona. Some of our fires are not even on the national news, like the one above Santa Fe.

I was also having spatial problems and am still meandering about almost losing my balance. I think it's the toxins in the smoke, even though I now have
two filters, including a charcoal and Hepa one for removing chemicals.

For those who love beautiful tales, there was a cloud shaped like two outstretched angel wings above the smoke billowing in Santa Fe today.
It was pure white, so was not smoke but maybe it was created by rising
heat drafts; I don't know the biology and chemistry of that. I could see both
smoke billowing and cloud angel from where I live. It was very beautiful.

omg Take cover! Can you use an AC or something to purify the air in your home? Can you do anything? Please keep us updated. That sounds so scary!

I'm in Nebraska and we've been smelling the smoke here! (weather guys telling us that it's from the AZ fires and some fires in CO and down on the Kansas/Nebraska border. I think the fires down on our border have been taken care of as of a few weeks ago)

We've been getting some pretty impressive sunsets, but I'm sick of the smoke smell. It's making my allergies go nuts.

At least it's not as bad as it was when Yellowstone was on fire back in the 80s. We had actual white smoke that wasnt high up in the atmosphere floating around here in Omaha. (think the jet stream was pushing it here then) It was bad. My mom's asthma went nuts that year too... We didnt know she had asthma until we had air quality issues from the Yellowstone fires.

We're having flooding here now, and the smell from the river downtown is starting to make it's way further into Omaha. It's stinky!

Dejibo, I have a good air conditioner and have had it on cool today. And the two filters.
But they do not completely eradicate the smoke. Probably the house is not completely
sealed. It helps though.

Tonight I did not go up the hill to see if the Santa Fe smoke was still rising. Just turned on
the sprinklers for the yard and stayed inside. I'm better. Thanks.

We have had people in the hospital with respiratory stuff, Erin. I don't usually get that aspect as much as other reactions.

When we were in Florida in the late 90s for my niece's baptism, there were a bunch of forest fires down there. (we were in the Ft Walton Beach area)

My mom had to go to a doctor down there for her asthma because the smoke was so bad. It was nasty. I seem to remember she had breathing problems the rest of the summer (think it was May or June) Think that fire was started because someone was stupid and had started a campfire where they shouldnt have started a campfire. Not sure if that's what happened in AZ and NM recently tho.

People who dont pay attention to what they're doing and accidentally, or intentionally start massive forest fires like that, should have to help put the thing out. They'll learn quickly to never do whatever it was they did ever again. If people die in the fire, jail time for negligent homicide.

I have a strange fascination with fire...not the arsonist type of fascination, but how it moves with the weather, and how the investigators can figure out what started the fire and where. I'm terrified of forest fires tho. One of the reasons that I like living in Nebraska where we dont have many forests and we only occasionally get big grass fires. When I went to SD for a vacation, it was really weird to look at the hills and mountains up there and see where they'd had a forest fire probably a year before. Like driving thru a nuclear wasteland or something.

Mariel - I hope you start feeling better and am certainly glad it was not a stroke. Let us know how you are doing and what the eye dr. and PCP said.