Spring has sprung - Six month update
Still not home yet, its all i think about but very basically theres no way to test whether or not the house is OK without potentially poisoning myself, and after i do that a few times i get pretty sick of being poisoned and i quit doing that for awhile.
Where im at now, because I can't even remember all the things I've tried. I guess i should check where i left off but instead im just going to write a quick history going back to the part where I went to the doctor who basicaclly had me try all the anti-histamines until i found a combo i can exist on, because they all give me side effects..
and once i found that I put a shirt i was wearing fine in the apartment, in the house for a few days and sure enough it poisoned me terribly inside of a few hours, the effects of which did not wear off my body for four days.
So umm maybe its not an allergic reaction?
Meanwhile my back still feels like its on fire and i tried various things on it to soothe it... most of which made it feel worse including but not limited to... a hydrocortizone spray which was all suffering, and even aquaphor if you can believe that... pretty much anything i put on it made it hurt.. kind of like when you put lotion on your chapped hands and it hurts... so I kept up with the lotion awhile and that did seem to help somewhat, but i hated being greasy all the time.
Also we had a really weird high humidity week and that i swear was healing my back but as soon as it got dry again I started suffering again.... somewhere in there I started going to this spa and doing sauna sessions twice a week for 20-30 min and i think that helps, but even if it doesnt it feels great. My back likes the heat. and not just my back its my whole body really but my back is the worst.
So I did some more googling and found an article about toxic gas in your house and how it can sink into the soft surfaces and then it just keeps rereleasing and getting reabsorbed and i was like .. this is what i have going on. no question.
The answer is ventillation.
So I bought some big exhaust fans and turned on all the fans in my little house and opened all the windows because it finally got warm enough and just let it all blow around and hopefully out for a full week... and i put a new tshirt in the living room and ive closed the windows and turned on the heat to see what happens to the shirt. if it collects this stuff or if its finally gone.
I'm trying to heal my skin ... im gonna start w the lotion again now its dry out... but I really hate being all lotioned up all the time even if it does help...
and i read something about "baking off" the toxic stuff by turning up the heat and then once a day letting the air out, so we're gonna try this route...
I have been able to wear some of the clothes from the house that had never been washed in the machine. I still dont know the state of the machines or what to do about them but that can wait. I really really really just want to go home.
So the plan.. and it feels good to have a plan... is to do this bake off thing and once I can leave a shirt in there for a few days and wear it, I'll turn the internet back on over there, maybe see if i can start working from home from there.... and if that goes well i can start moving furniture and cats back in and living in there.
For now i've been able to use the basement to dye my hair, which takes 30-45 min, and ive worn clothes from the house to do it... and ive been able to take a bath in my bathtub which took about an hour and I've worn some jackets from the house on walks for an hour or so.
It's unclear if this stuff is toxic to just me or toxic to everyone and theres no way to know without experimenting on other people. and since it didnt really effect me badly till i was stuck in it for almost a week, im not sure how im gonna get anyone to live in my house with no furniture for a week to see if it makes their heart race and their skin burn etc etc etc
So im not sure if i can donate stuff thats been in the house or not, but ill try and figure that out later.
Probably overly ambitious for me to have closed the windows and turned up the heat today but its cold and i'm going to want a bath tomorrow so may as well give it a real world test. and also i think the heat will kill it faster. bring it out and if the tshirt is infected then we know we need to go back to the fans.
So its sort of a pathway home. Just no clue how long it'll take.
I think the heat of summer will kill it if nothing else has.
and if that still doesnt work its probably smart to pull out the carpet. I'm trying to save the carpet because its new but its probably just prolonging all this. But that carpet is nice and i want to keep it and im already moved out so whats the harm in trying to save it? Its going to cost me to tear it out and its going to cost me to try to keep it so its all sort of whatever.
I'm in for so much money at this point im not sure it matters anymore.
I really just want to go home.
Its all ive wanted the whole time. It's been six months and i can't understand how this problem isn't self-limiting but it makes sense that this winter it was cold and the windows were closed and the carpet probably just kept it all hanging around in the house. Might take more than a week to blow it out.
I hope not because I really want to go home now
Comments
Post a Comment