I’m realizing it’s been about a year since I’ve shared anything with you all. To say life has been difficult is a bit of an understatement. I have had many ah-ha moments as far as treatment & health discoveries (which I will share with you later), but what we have had to go through the last 7 months has been somewhat traumatic.
August 8th I ended up in the hospital for what was to be an allergic reaction; swollen lips, cheeks, closing throat, hot cheeks and pure anxiety. Doctors put me on the typical allergic reaction protocol (Benadryl, Pepcid & prednisone) and called it a day. It was terrifying as I was alone in the hospital with all this going on at 2 in the morning (Ruben was out of town for work). After another hospital visit, lots of blood work, and much brain power to figure out what the hell it was…a few weeks later we discovered I was basically having an allergic reaction to our new townhouse we purchased April 2016 (those fuckers, previous home owners, never disclosed the previous water damage to the home and we found out after we moved in).
Luckily there was no visible mold left, but I was still reacting to the mold mycotoxins left from the damage. Not only cannot I not process those toxins due to the fact that I don’t have the gene to do so (YES I have mold!!!! One MAJOR discovery this last year), the main part of those toxins were aspergillus penicillium (which is penicillin…which I am fucking allergic too!). Just awesome huh!?
Early October I left Ruben & my fur babies to move in with my mom. This was an incredibly difficult decision for us as Ruben is my rock through crazy shit like this. I was scared as to how I was going to function without him; how I was going to feel safe without his shoulder to cry on; and scared to be “alone” as I had no clue what my body was going to do next. The reaction was still going strong and I honestly had no idea if I was going to stop breathing at any moment. Living with a constant allergic reaction is no joke!
October 12th was my 30th birthday and we had a trip planned to Vegas to celebrate. I told Ruben to cancel as I was nervous to travel and didn’t want to waste a vacation not being able to do anything. Of course he said too bad were going! 🙂 And on my birthday I understood why! Not only did my mom & step dad surprise me by taking the trip there, but we had front row seats to the Cirque du Soleil “O” at the Bellagio, which I have been dieing to see for the last 10 years or so!!! It was truly a day to remember.
Two days later while still in Vegas I started to feel very ill. I had been noticing the last few weeks my face swelling, belly fully extended and I was getting this hump on the back of my neck. Still on prednisone I had no clue these were classic symptoms to a nasty prednisone reaction. By the day we were scheduled to leave I could barely walk as my body was weak, in pain, and my nervous system was going haywire. I remember being at the airport hours early trying to catch an earlier flight and feeling like I couldn’t breathe. My legs were cramping horribly and I thought I was going to pass out at any moment. Luckily I was able to push through and we made it home in one piece. Over the next week I tapered off the prednisone (which is incredibly fast, some can take weeks to taper). It was a sigh of relief to be off that stuff, but I knew I had a long while before my body could catch up from it completely destroying my immune system.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years passed. I was still at my moms and it was looking like we had no shot at selling our home considering we bought it in April; and we didn’t have $17,000 to make up for it. So we hired a property manager and started looking for an apartment ourselves. After one apartment fail due to a horrible mold test, we got lucky and the second attempt was exactly what we needed! And in our desired location. Unfortunately due to cross contamination concerns we had to get rid of all our belongings except some kitchen items….literally EVERYTHING! So many memories and so much $$$ just down the tubes! And Ruben had to pack up the house himself while I was doing everything alone on my end as well. Both exhausted, slightly traumatized, broke, frustrated, sad, and me still so sick from the house of death; we finally moved into the apartment with pretty much only a bed just before Feb 1. Unfortunately our townhome is not rented out yet (crossing our fingers it will soon, and btw it is safe for the average person) but we are happy to be moving on, and most importantly be back together.
The goal now is to get this mold pulled out, start treating again and get my life back! I know it’s going to take many more months, maybe a few more years, but the first step is being in a safe environment to do so. Which we have succeeded in!
Lyme In Seattle 