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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 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... Cut to last week 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. � �
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