Postpartum Attempt Turned Paranoia

Word of advice: Please closely examine everything you put into the microwave.

The funny thing is, I know better than to microwave aluminum foil, but I didn't realize that athletic shoe laces could be equally scary. You're probably wondering what the heck I was doing microwaving athletic shoe laces to begin with. To make a long story short, it's been 4 months since Saya has been born, and I still can't seem to get rid of the big flab on my tummy that makes me look like I'm still 5 months pregnant. After a serious of minor lifestyle and dietary changes with no significant results, I googled in "breastfeeding losing weight" and discovered a blogger who reported that microwaving a cloth filled with rock salt and placing it on her belly helped tone down the belly. My mother had prepared a similar device like this for me and had been nagging me (from day 1 postpartum) to use the method to make my tummy smaller. Even though I've tried this three times before, I felt motivated to try the method again, so I microwaved the bag Mom gave me.

My dumbass, however, was too hasty to microwave that bag that i forgot to realize the string tying the bag together was really a shoe lace. Apparently, the plastic that coated the ends didn't fare too well. When I opened the microwave door, an extremely noxious smell permeated the air. My eyes and tongue burnt from the smoke. I thought it was temporary, so I jammed the bag into another cloth bag to contain the smell and aired this contraption by a window in the apartment. Next thing I knew, the whole place smelled terrible. I was so embarrased because db's (darling boyfriend) parents woke up to the smell. I guess my sense of smell is terrible because his dad couldn't stand the smell and started investigating the source.

Thank god for that because I then realized how hazardous the bag can be. I threw the whole thing out the window because I couldn't bare to walk with it down 3 flights of stairs. When I looked down, I could see some red lights flickering from the bag. I suddenly grabbed a bottle of water, raced down the stairs, and put out the fire starter (forgot what that's called).

Did I just dodge a bullet there??! Should I tell db (who happened to be out with his friends) that I nearly burnt down our building? (Unfortunately, we don't have both a fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector, which I told db to ask the landlord about). I've tried to air out the apartment, but then I started to worry about whether I could go blind or lose my sense of taste due to the burnt plastic (or put db's family and Saya at risk). The Poison Control Center representative reassured me that airing out the apartment would suffice, but I have such a terrible headache (and taste that I can't get rid of) from this fiasco that I can't sleep. I went online to research this and found an interesting article entitled "Burning plastics could alter human sexual behaviour" in babies (link:http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/04/08/63819.html). Mind you, this is not a reputable scientific source (can't even imagine how they came up with the idea to study this topic). It just disturbs me that my baby could have such significant effects from inhaling the fumes (if she did at all, hopefully not). Now I'm paranoid and restless.