this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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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.

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[–] Chana@hexbear.net 15 points 6 months ago

One possibility is that you're having a self-sustaining inflammatory cycle of some kind (like the joint pain) and the CS was just the initial trigger. Obviously it's better to talk to a doctor about treatments, but you may want to look into some generally anti-inflammatory options in the meantime. Drinking lots of water, taking NSAIDs, an anti-histamine in case it's allergy-related, (very) light exercise to keep lymph moving, eating some safe and boring foods for a few days (veggies, pulses). On a doctor's advice/prescription, possibly a steroid.

I will also second the recommendation to remove any possibility that you're still being exposed in some way. Clothes, shoes, and things you touched that day. CS is not very water soluble so for clothes I would consider hand washing (with gloves), maybe starting with oil to dissolve volatile compounds and then detergent to wash away the oil and whatevet is now bound in it.