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Hello! This is my first post here. 
*waves*
So, I'm pretty sure that I have biotoxin illness. I began having MCS a year and a half ago, then proceeded to move into not one, but TWO water-damaged buildings. (D'oh.)
I'd be very grateful for advice from those who are more experienced with practicing vigilant mold avoidance.
----
I've just gotten the finances, my mental/emotional state, and life in order enough to move out of the water-damaged building I was living in.
I'm very new to mold avoidance and having a good amount of trouble with it.
I'm making my way through Lisa Petrison and Erik Johnson's book, although EMF sensitivities and brain fog, combined with sensitivities to paper products, really prevent me from educating myself as quickly or thoroughly as I'd like. :-(
I moved a couple of weeks ago to a house in an environmental-sensitivity-safe housing community and brought no possessions with me.
It seemed fine in terms of acute reactions when I got here, but...
I have been finding that when I shower here, or come into contact with clothing, towels, etc., I feel like the toxins from my body are cross-contaminating my living space.
I can smelly moldiness in the air strongly, particularly in the bathroom, and even with open window and bathroom vent, it's still gotten gradually worse -- itchiness on skin on contact with the air around the room, breathing sensitivities....
The indoor air quality in general got significantly worse when I (foolishly) ran the in-house washing machine in an odd circumstance.
(Perhaps the items I was washing had been left damp for too long prior to the wash, since I'm sure the washer/dryer here have been used inside here before, and the air seemed fine when I moved in? -- I'd mistakenly thrown some hand-washed items into the washer rather than the dryer in a late-night head fog, only to find them in the wrong unit--and still wet--in the morning.
So, decided to try giving them a spin in the washing machine, and that's when the major issues with indoor air quality here began, in my perceptions.
If my perceptions are accurate, it seems I would've been better off (a) not doing laundry or potentially cross-contaminatey things while very tired or head-fogged and (b) just tossing the towels out and replacing them.
And probably better off using a hand-washing/-drying system, so I don't have a laundry machine to potentially cross contaminate?).
After just a few days here, the sheets, new towels/pillowcases, etc. that had been fine began feeling significantly mycotoxin-/toxin-laden.
Am I cross-contaminating from my body? My head especially seems to feel very itchy/burny and give me horrid neurological symptoms which showering alleviates (albeit only for a few hours).
Shaving the hair off in a close shave is what helps the most - more than washing even a very short length of hair (less than 1 cm all over) 7 times has, by far. Shaving the hair off actually feels like it gets rid of whatever the problem was, for the most part.
(The stubble left still gives me a hellish itch and symptoms, but it's far better than letting it grow out for even a few days, and just trying to wash it.)
Anyplace on my body with noticeable hair growth gives me similar feelings of illness and nausea. And of late, I've been very diligent in simply keeping it all shaved pretty closely.
But, I still feel like I'm accumulating mycotoxins on my body, and each shower isn't removing enough. I've tried activated charcoal soap, but it feels like my body just isn't fully decontaminated, even after scrubbing to the point of drying the skin out a bit too much. And often just becomes quickly either recontaminated, or re-symptomatic from the existing, incompletely removed toxins I still feel on me.
I've only moved this once from my previous, severely moisture-/water-damaged building thusfar, but I had gone out on short, half-day excursions prior to this.
I found that when I'd, say, gone to a friend's house for the day (where I borrowed clean clothing to wea, and my reactivity disappeared - this was the first of many clues that it was my house and possessions that had spent time around it making me ill), the mycotoxins on my body seemed to contaminate items I was in contact with - particularly cloth-based items. Sheets, sofa, pillows...
(I determine this by the insanely itchy sensations that don't go away unless I'm in clean air, away from clothes, sheets, or other fibrous materials that provoke me, skin crawling sensations, sharp tingling sensations all over the skin that are a cross between static electricity and a limb "falling asleep," all sorts of raised, rash-like bumps appearing... These reactions all start up within seconds or milliseconds of touching something I believe to be contaminated.)
...so, I'm considering moving -again-, to one of the other available units here.
I think this housing community is my best option short-term, what with severe MCS and issues with travelling.
(I hope to find an option out in the desert, or someplace naturally low in humidity or mold growth, in the next couple of months, and arrange to move there. Right now, I'm in a very humid part of the country and suspect that contributes strongly to mold growth/mycotoxin problems.
And, I'm somewhat aware of others reporting issues in "environmentally safe housing," because previous residents tend to have a high likelihood of having brought mycotoxins along, given that MCS is often co-morbid with living in a moldy/water-damaged home.
I haven't ERMI tested here, and waiting on the ERMI test we managed to finagle getting done at the previous water-damaged residence, but ERMI or not, this MCS community is the best immediate housing option I've found so far, and better than actually being in the water-damaged house. )
But, I'm a bit bewildered by this chain of feeling fine when I get someplace, then feeling like I'm slowly cross-contaminating things.
I've wondered if this is why those practicing extreme mold avoidance often have to move multiple times -- simply repeated cross-contamination?
Vitamins and supplements and antioxidants (liposomal C, liposomal B vitamins, aloe, CoQ10, lion's mane, various others that've worked for me) all make me feel noticeably better briefly -- often clearing up my brain fog, migraines, joint pain, stomach pains, etc., ...and then skin contact or breathing in questionable-quality air begins to make me feel a lot worse within an hour or less, and I begin itching all over.
The horrible itchiness and rash all over my body begins to fade and disappear within minutes when I'm not in contact with any clothing, and clothing is one of the worst things for me to try to maneuver, what with having severe MCS too.
Any suggestions regarding clothing, laundry techniques, or laundry additives for severe mycotoxin sensitivities are welcomed, too!
I'm trying to wrap my foggy mind around how one would manage to shower or wash off upon arrival at a new living space (or when needing to de-contaminate) without releasing noticeable amounts of mycotoxins and the like into the air of the bathroom area, where they'll aggregate. Or disperse into the other parts of the house.
Even if one showers carefully at the previous living space, it seems like there's going to be _some_ transfer while one transitions from one place to another.
What am I missing? Should this be simpler, or going better? Is this going to simply take a lot of failures and re-contaminations?
Am I just super hypersensitive and in need of much more extreme avoidance?
How do I clean off properly from past environments or re-exposures, and avoid cross-contaminations in a furnished place that I'm renting?
Was it the laundry / head-fog issue? Am I not being careful enough in my mold avoidance?
Is my body somehow being a very effective mycotoxin-storage sponge?
Are there things that I can do to mitigate the problem, or ensure that I nip a mycotoxin contamination issue in the bud before it gets going, hops on me/into the air, and contaminates everything I own yet again?
Thanks for your time and effort in any answers or repsonses!
DuguXin
*waves*So, I'm pretty sure that I have biotoxin illness. I began having MCS a year and a half ago, then proceeded to move into not one, but TWO water-damaged buildings. (D'oh.)
I'd be very grateful for advice from those who are more experienced with practicing vigilant mold avoidance.
----
I've just gotten the finances, my mental/emotional state, and life in order enough to move out of the water-damaged building I was living in.
I'm very new to mold avoidance and having a good amount of trouble with it.
I'm making my way through Lisa Petrison and Erik Johnson's book, although EMF sensitivities and brain fog, combined with sensitivities to paper products, really prevent me from educating myself as quickly or thoroughly as I'd like. :-(
I moved a couple of weeks ago to a house in an environmental-sensitivity-safe housing community and brought no possessions with me.
It seemed fine in terms of acute reactions when I got here, but...
I have been finding that when I shower here, or come into contact with clothing, towels, etc., I feel like the toxins from my body are cross-contaminating my living space.
I can smelly moldiness in the air strongly, particularly in the bathroom, and even with open window and bathroom vent, it's still gotten gradually worse -- itchiness on skin on contact with the air around the room, breathing sensitivities....
The indoor air quality in general got significantly worse when I (foolishly) ran the in-house washing machine in an odd circumstance.
(Perhaps the items I was washing had been left damp for too long prior to the wash, since I'm sure the washer/dryer here have been used inside here before, and the air seemed fine when I moved in? -- I'd mistakenly thrown some hand-washed items into the washer rather than the dryer in a late-night head fog, only to find them in the wrong unit--and still wet--in the morning.
So, decided to try giving them a spin in the washing machine, and that's when the major issues with indoor air quality here began, in my perceptions.
If my perceptions are accurate, it seems I would've been better off (a) not doing laundry or potentially cross-contaminatey things while very tired or head-fogged and (b) just tossing the towels out and replacing them.
And probably better off using a hand-washing/-drying system, so I don't have a laundry machine to potentially cross contaminate?).
After just a few days here, the sheets, new towels/pillowcases, etc. that had been fine began feeling significantly mycotoxin-/toxin-laden.
Am I cross-contaminating from my body? My head especially seems to feel very itchy/burny and give me horrid neurological symptoms which showering alleviates (albeit only for a few hours).
Shaving the hair off in a close shave is what helps the most - more than washing even a very short length of hair (less than 1 cm all over) 7 times has, by far. Shaving the hair off actually feels like it gets rid of whatever the problem was, for the most part.
(The stubble left still gives me a hellish itch and symptoms, but it's far better than letting it grow out for even a few days, and just trying to wash it.)
Anyplace on my body with noticeable hair growth gives me similar feelings of illness and nausea. And of late, I've been very diligent in simply keeping it all shaved pretty closely.
But, I still feel like I'm accumulating mycotoxins on my body, and each shower isn't removing enough. I've tried activated charcoal soap, but it feels like my body just isn't fully decontaminated, even after scrubbing to the point of drying the skin out a bit too much. And often just becomes quickly either recontaminated, or re-symptomatic from the existing, incompletely removed toxins I still feel on me.
I've only moved this once from my previous, severely moisture-/water-damaged building thusfar, but I had gone out on short, half-day excursions prior to this.
I found that when I'd, say, gone to a friend's house for the day (where I borrowed clean clothing to wea, and my reactivity disappeared - this was the first of many clues that it was my house and possessions that had spent time around it making me ill), the mycotoxins on my body seemed to contaminate items I was in contact with - particularly cloth-based items. Sheets, sofa, pillows...
(I determine this by the insanely itchy sensations that don't go away unless I'm in clean air, away from clothes, sheets, or other fibrous materials that provoke me, skin crawling sensations, sharp tingling sensations all over the skin that are a cross between static electricity and a limb "falling asleep," all sorts of raised, rash-like bumps appearing... These reactions all start up within seconds or milliseconds of touching something I believe to be contaminated.)
...so, I'm considering moving -again-, to one of the other available units here.
I think this housing community is my best option short-term, what with severe MCS and issues with travelling.
(I hope to find an option out in the desert, or someplace naturally low in humidity or mold growth, in the next couple of months, and arrange to move there. Right now, I'm in a very humid part of the country and suspect that contributes strongly to mold growth/mycotoxin problems.
And, I'm somewhat aware of others reporting issues in "environmentally safe housing," because previous residents tend to have a high likelihood of having brought mycotoxins along, given that MCS is often co-morbid with living in a moldy/water-damaged home.
I haven't ERMI tested here, and waiting on the ERMI test we managed to finagle getting done at the previous water-damaged residence, but ERMI or not, this MCS community is the best immediate housing option I've found so far, and better than actually being in the water-damaged house.
)But, I'm a bit bewildered by this chain of feeling fine when I get someplace, then feeling like I'm slowly cross-contaminating things.
I've wondered if this is why those practicing extreme mold avoidance often have to move multiple times -- simply repeated cross-contamination?
Vitamins and supplements and antioxidants (liposomal C, liposomal B vitamins, aloe, CoQ10, lion's mane, various others that've worked for me) all make me feel noticeably better briefly -- often clearing up my brain fog, migraines, joint pain, stomach pains, etc., ...and then skin contact or breathing in questionable-quality air begins to make me feel a lot worse within an hour or less, and I begin itching all over.
The horrible itchiness and rash all over my body begins to fade and disappear within minutes when I'm not in contact with any clothing, and clothing is one of the worst things for me to try to maneuver, what with having severe MCS too.
Any suggestions regarding clothing, laundry techniques, or laundry additives for severe mycotoxin sensitivities are welcomed, too!
I'm trying to wrap my foggy mind around how one would manage to shower or wash off upon arrival at a new living space (or when needing to de-contaminate) without releasing noticeable amounts of mycotoxins and the like into the air of the bathroom area, where they'll aggregate. Or disperse into the other parts of the house.
Even if one showers carefully at the previous living space, it seems like there's going to be _some_ transfer while one transitions from one place to another.
What am I missing? Should this be simpler, or going better? Is this going to simply take a lot of failures and re-contaminations?
Am I just super hypersensitive and in need of much more extreme avoidance?
How do I clean off properly from past environments or re-exposures, and avoid cross-contaminations in a furnished place that I'm renting?
Was it the laundry / head-fog issue? Am I not being careful enough in my mold avoidance?
Is my body somehow being a very effective mycotoxin-storage sponge?
Are there things that I can do to mitigate the problem, or ensure that I nip a mycotoxin contamination issue in the bud before it gets going, hops on me/into the air, and contaminates everything I own yet again?
Thanks for your time and effort in any answers or repsonses!
DuguXin
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