People with compromised immune systems struggle as wildfire smoke and heat exacerbate symptoms
CBC
Marlene Ferguson is tired of being stuck inside.
"It's a beautiful summer day, and I'm sitting and looking out the window," she told CBC News over Zoom from Kelowna on Tuesday.
On that day, smoke blanketed the mountains across Okanagan Lake from her home, and she didn't dare venture outside to tend to her vegetable garden.
After dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, lung disease and asthma for more than 28 years, she's figured out when she can and can't go outside. So far this summer, she estimates she's been stuck inside for about two weeks. And when she does venture outside, she has a variety of face masks to help her manage.
British Columbians, like Ferguson, with autoimmune diseases experience a variety of symptoms specifically during wildfire season. However, there hasn't been much research into how the smoke affects their conditions and medications, according to a couple of medical experts.
As the frequency and intensity of wildfires continues to increase, so do concerns about how they'll manage during summer months.
Sometimes the smoke affects her so much she can't even get out of bed and her husband has to lift her into a wheelchair.
And she's not the only one.
Angel Seto, from North Vancouver, has rheumatoid arthritis and she said the heat and smoke affect her long after they occur.
"For people like myself, the heat and wildfire smoke ... has a cascading effect," she said. "To actually recover from that takes days to weeks."
Seto has been trying different medications for months in an attempt to manage her rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
"The weather makes it more difficult to tell if the drugs are working," she said. "It's been two years now since I was diagnosed, and now I'm on drug number 14."
Brenda Bergen in New Westminster also has difficulties with the intense heat and smoke that B.C. summers bring.
She has had lupus, a disease that affects organs, breathing and energy levels, for 36 years.
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