powered by SignMyGuestbook.com

Get your own
 diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries

- - 2006-12-05
Ugh - 2006-11-07
Competely random... - 2006-10-19
When Mold Attacks... - 2006-09-18
In lieu of a real post... - 2006-08-22

When Mold Attacks...

2006-09-18 - 4:29 p.m.

Since the advent of The Mold(tm) at work, I have decided to start keeping a diary of my self-experimentation and corresponding symptoms. Lucky you, you all get to read it (if you haven't already tuned out from boredom).

Background
At the age of 5, I was tested for allergies. Results came back as allergic to dogs, cats, feathers, dust, mold, and the general pollen most people with seasonal allergies have issues with. I had issues on and off all through my life. To my knowledge, I have never had an issue with fall season pollens.

In the old building (work-wise) we had some serious mold issues. My problems were generally limited to red, itchy eyes and sinus headaches that were generally turning to migraines by the end of the day. Nothing more. Last spring, I started on Allegra, cause my allergies were getting bad. Things cleared up a bit.

One of my co-workers (several years before I started there) has such a severe mold allergy that she could not even visit the outside of the building. She worked off site, and her allergy is border-line anaphylatic. She has been tested for allergies, and is only allergic to mold.

In March we moved to a new building. No mold. No more headaches.

Cut to June/July. In this lovely new building, they decided that to save on energy costs, it would be a grand idea to turn the A/C off at nights and over the weekend. This included in the warehouse, where the cold room is located. (For those of you who may not know, the cold room is a large metal box, where the inside is kept at a lovely 4 degrees C.) This caused the metal box to sweat, and we were coming in on Monday's to find an inch of water all over the warehouse floor. This issue was solved.

In July, we had an issue with a broken sprinkler pipe, that went undetected for an unknown period of time. It was supposedly fixed, and all parties involved have denied water damage.

It was about this time that people working in the areas near the warehouse started exhibiting allergy symptoms, but most people chalked it up to outside sources. I was having headaches again, and I started feeling like my chest was getting tight by the end of the day. I started taking my Allegra daily.

In the last month...
...one of the guys who works in teh warehouse has been having serious issues, like itchy, red eyes, bad sinus issues, and trouble breathing. Every time he would come out to talk to the woman who has a serious mold allergy, she would start ahving trouble breathing and such. Things have gotten steadily worse. Meanwhile, the only issues I've been having are headaches, but I wasn't attributing them to mold.

Cut to last week
Last Tuesday, we had a training meeting in the conference room. I sat behind the guy who works in the warehouse and has been having issues. My eyes started itching, and I started coughing. I realized I started having trouble breathing. By the time we got to lunch, I was nearly in a full-blown asthma attack. Someone gave me some loratadine and a hit of their albuterol inhaler, and I felt a bit better. By the end of hte day, I was having trouble breathing again. By the time I got home, things were much better. I had forgotten to take my Allegra that morning. Wednesday, I took my meds, and had a slight issue with a tight chest by the end of the day, but after I got out of work, I felt better. Thursday I purposefully didn't take my meds, and stayed out of my lab and the warehouse as much as possible. Some trouble by the end of hte day, but nothign too bad, but when I went to practice, I coudln't fight because I felt like I was out of breath. When I went to bed that night, I felt like I was suffocating. Friday, I also didn't take my meds, and stayed in the lab all day. By the end of the day, I had lost my voice, and felt like my throat was closing.

Still, with my list of allergies, I couldn't be sure it wasn't a new seasonal allergy that cropped up. So I didn't take my Allegra over the weekend (except for one Saturday night since I would be sleeping on a couch wehre a cat like to lay). Saturday I was fine, even after being outside near a lot of trees with a breeze blowing. Sunday, I spent hte day in the basement with the cats, watching football for 9 hours. By the time I went to bed, I had a stuffy nose, had sneezed a couple times, and had itchy eyes. No trouble breathing, no tight chest.

Today I did not take my meds. I spent about and hour in the lab this morning, and by the time I went to lunch, I could have made a killing with 1-900 numbers. I sounded like Lauren Bacall. Deep sinus pressure (the kind that makes it hard to breath but you can't get rid of), but no coughing. Lunch fixed things, but I've been back here all day, and I'm starting to get that choking feeling, like my shirt is too tight on my throat. I'm also starting to feel like I can't get a deep breath in, even if I yawn.

So I've ruled out cats and pollen. I know for a fact there are no feathers around here. The only culprits left are dust and mold. My area is pretty clean, so I'm assuming it's not dust.

And to make matters worse, I exploded a bottle of protein gel loading buffer all over me today. I now have purple spatter all over the top of my shirt, wehre my lab coat doesn't cover. Bloody hell.

Histeria - Futurama

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!