Dust exposure caused lung irritation

[Bob Seeker]

I had been working construction with concrete for 2 months, lungs got progressively irritated due to dust exposure (regular and concrete dust + other random shit, probably) over period of about 2 weeks so I quit.

 It has been a week and my lungs have gotten a bit better, but still irritated and no noticeable difference over past 4 days.

Does anyone have experience with dust irritation?

 Is it supposed to take this long to go away?

 If I go to doctor I have $3,700 potential deductible and I’m unemployed now.

[undeather]

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 If I go to doctor I have $3,700 potential deductible and I’m unemployed now.

Lol. US health care is such a joke.

 

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I had been working construction with concrete for 2 months, lungs got progressively irritated due to dust exposure (regular and concrete dust + other random shit, probably) over period of about 2 weeks so I quit.

 It has been a week and my lungs have gotten a bit better, but still irritated and no noticeable difference over past 4 days.

Does anyone have experience with dust irritation?

 Is it supposed to take this long to go away?

 

Did you expereince any episodes of fever, chills, malaise, cough, chest tightness, dyspnea, rash, swelling or headache lately?

Reversible lung irritation is quite common in people who are exposed to differend kinds of airborne particles in a certain amount of time. 
A more "severe" form of this is called hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is a quite rare immune system disorder that affects the lungs. Silicosis is the end stage and usually caused by continuous inhalation of crystalline silica dust. Its irreversible, but dont worry - that only occurs after years of exposure. Then, there are also dozens of mild inflammation processes described in the literature that are also corrlated with the working conditions you described. 

In the majority of cases, this will get better and heal up over time. 2 weeks of exposure isnt actually that long and maybe you even got some kind of allergy to some stuff used at the construction side (maybe certain particles of the dust). The lungs have an awesome mechanism called "mucociliary clearance" which is a evolutionary self cleaning mechanism that helps the organ getting rid of unwanted stuff. It usually takes a quite a long a time (weeks to months) but it works. To really damage the lungs in an irreversible way usually takes a very high amount of inflammation/very long exposure time or extremely toxic gases. 

Look I dont know you and your medical history. The only smart advice I can give you with good conscience is to get it checked. Thats what everyone should be able to do, regardless of employment status or financial background - like in the rest of the developed world. But if you really cant do that at the moment then its okay to play the wait and watch game in my opinion. Just observe - it already got better and it should go further into that direction. If you dont see any progress in weeks from now or if its gets worse, immediatly contact your local medical provider. 

You can try to cautiously inhale with steam or suitable additives. High humidity enhances mucociliary clearance.

 

Take care

[Human Mint]

Doesn't a special mask solve this problem?