2022 Damp Basement

At the end of August, 2022, I moved into a basement. Before the evening was over, I was bothered by a smell I hadn't noticed previously (later I discovered that my sense of smell had become much stronger in general), and began to experience irritation in my eyes, nose, and throat. The basement also turned out to have a humidity problem, with the kitchen tiles never looking fully dry, and my slippers would squeak when sliding on them (so I suspect mold).

I moved out of that basement several days later, but I continue to suffer various symptoms. The symptoms become worse when I'm near my possessions (especially the bedroom where nearly all of my stuff is), leading me to suspect allergens. My doctor also suspects an allergy.

## Symptoms

can be MANY different symptoms, in respiratory system, nervous system, and gastro-intestinal digestive tract etc.

Here i'm listing things that happen very soon after exposure to certain objects. there may be other symptoms that are more delayed, but i'll list them in the other possible symptoms section below.

* nose and eye irritation, sometimes sneezing or feeling of needing to sneeze
* various feelings in nose, throat, and deep in chest. probably from inflammation
* heavy breathing, dyspnea,
* involuntary muscle movements of different varieties and intensities, all over body
* dizziness, light-headedness
* perhaps brain fog
* possibly brief auditory hallucinations when trying to sleep
* brief loss of awareness, without dimming vision
* had a few cases on mental images "ripping" apart, and other strange seeming distortions to thought, such as the interruption of my thinking where it seemed metaphorically like my thoughts (at least, those particular thoughts) were a book in front of my and my head was being forced backwards away from them, unable to reach them for a while
* there might have been a few cases of what seemed like unusually sudden intellectual insight, which might be the only positive thing on this list, and i'm not sure it was caused by this. not sure if insights were actually good, or just seemed that way at the time, i forget.
* itchiness
* becoming winded easily, when my exposure and symptoms are severe enough to cause this
* queasiness
* mouth dryness, at least at night
* pain near fingernails, sometimes quite strong, of various durations
* ear ache, tinnitus

## Other possible symptoms and effects

here i'll list things that seem correlated. but it's difficult to tell if they are coincidence or not.

* i did have low blood iron after my short time in that damp basement
* i had a grid of dents and pitts on my thumbnails, i noticed them in September, after the basement. but they may have been that way for longer and i did not notice them
* one of my large toe nails stopped growing for a period of time. i think i noticed it last October, shortly after moving to a new place that turned out to have black mold on the shower curtains. my other nails had grown and needed to be cut, but not that one.

other effects?

* fridge has been dripping lots of water inside from the vents that lead to the freezer, and the freezer gets lots of little dots of ice on everything. i think those are new since i returned? the flooding fridge definitely wasn't happening when i moved out at the end of august. could these be related to my return? fungal spores have been found to nucleate water droplets, thereby possibly influencing the weather. also perhaps might cause increased static electricity. so maybe not out of the question, but fairly speculative.

## What is the cause?

reasons to think it might be dust (mites) or something, rather than mold:

* the dryer contaminates clothes that i believe were not contaminated previously. so either it isn't mold, or i have two allergies, and the dust (mite) allergy became worse, which is possible.
* i have no seen mold on objects that bather me, and places that do have mold, like that shower curtain, don't seem to give me any obvious immediate symptoms
* high humidity is also good for dust mites

but i don't seem to be allergic to dust in general, and i haven't seen much dust in places that have bothered me. but mites themselves are very small, and probably can live in places without much dust.

## Experience with professionals

AHS. Alberta Health Services inspector told me he didn't find any mold in that basement, or anything else that was actionable or whatever.

Mold cleanup business. not medically trained. they dismiss that i have a mold allergy, saying "people with mold allergies are basically crippled". AHS guy used the same reason for his dismissal, if i recall, but he did admit he's not the right person to talk to about that. I'll have to find the citation, but here's the thing: mold allergies become worse over time, with continuing exposure. So I might end up crippled, and then it's too late, the early warning signs were dismissed.

I have an appointment with someone to test me for allergies...but that's in February. Much too late.

another common refrain while i was asking for help with my concerns about cross-contamination was "well, mold (or at least the spores) is already everywhere. Only the environmental conditions of humidity and temperature determine whether it will grow or not". the implication being that my concern was nonsensical. One problem with this meme is that some objects cause symptoms, and others do not. And i think, in my experience, that the difference can be traced back in the history of the objects. Also, mold might be everywhere, but not always in the same quantities. And possibly not of the same varieties?

## How do these things work?

How do allergens work?

Mold...

Mold vs spores vs toxins vs bad smell vs allergens...

I have also been looking at published research about the effects of mold on people. Maybe I'll link some here if I have time. In particular, other people had claimed psychological impacts, and some had resorted to throwing away their possessions. Also, mold can have health impacts even on people who don't have a mold allergy. And i think one of those health impacts is also that it can cause you to acquire an allergy.

will laundry clean it all off, or just spread it around? my laundry seems to be disastrous, but that may be unrelated. i was developing a possibly separate allergy here before moving away, and i suspected that dusty dryer. now i'm just way way more super sensitive to it.

## Misc writing for now

November 5th, months later. still haven't fully escaped. also busy with school, so not much time to write about it here in any organized way. i do keep a health journal.

[note, some reddit posts here are about mold allergies, i googled "living with mold allergy reddit", so i'm not sure if it's same for other allergies]

this reddit post sounds a lot like me [however, i would note i have never seen mold on the objects that bother me]. can't escape the nightmare. last night i thought i was almost done sealing everything i have left in ziplock bags and a few larger bags. found one last cleaning cloth in the closet. put in a bag, and threw it out. but got lots of symptoms from it, and they seem to have stuck to me. i showered, changed clothes. seemed to work, i was fine for a while. but then later i put the old clothes, which i had bagged once before getting into shower, into one larger bag i thought would seal more completely. the large bag blew the air out at me. was contaminated again. lots of symptoms when trying to sleep, like involuntary muscle movements, maybe a brief auditory hallucination, which has maybe happened a couple times before when i'm highly exposed. tried showering again. didn't work. bedding is contaminated. had no where left to go. stopped using the sheet that was likely most contaminated, but this didn't solve everything, still symptoms. this morning woke up early. often heavy breathing. while making breakfast, some dizziness and queaziness.

couple days ago, on November 3rd i think, Thursday, was much worse. I had tried forcing myself to sleep in the bedroom. Landlord doesn't like me on the couch. Previously i had only ever lasted 2 days sleeping in that bedroom before i had to stop. this time i felt i had no choice but to try a third night. that was Wednesday night. Thursday was bad. I couldn't walk up stairs without being winded (now i see the person on reddit also had this issue). I also felt rather sick when i was eating breakfast at home. Slept in couch again, was getting better. but now this.

Some professional should have been familiar with this danger when i first was talking to them. But their jobs are a bit different than that. Mostly limited to "what specifically is wrong inside the body, and what medicine/treatment might help?". They do not deal with environments. It's kinda not in their job description i think. Same with "how do i live with this?".

another reddit post here, also quite similar. there is black spots on shower curtain here, for over a year probably, but i've never had symptoms in bathroom from it. still. can't ignore that. i also experienced mouth dryness. they also mention dust allergy prior to mold allergy. i'm not sure but i might be the same that way too.

## links

* "long COVID symptoms [...] new allergic reactions", https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/debilitating-puzzle-box-long-covid, the timeline might match up, with mild itchiness possibly beginning after covid last winter. then strong enough to keep me awake in summer, which medication helped as i awaited test. then perhaps extremely amplified after staying in that basement.