It Came From the Vents!!

So, I mentioned in yesterday’s entry that I think I may have discovered what triggered my bout with flares. Normally, short-term it’s a low-pressure system moving in, but that evens out in a few hours and does not cause the weeks and months-long flares I’ve been having. Longer term triggers seem to always involve my immune system going haywire. Any illness will give me a flare FIRST. Like, once my immune system thinks there’s a threat, I go down even before the illness “hits”. Allergies, which are the immune system misidentifying non-threats as threats, are also triggers.

Well, obviously with the masking and mostly being home I haven’t had much exposure to germs, so THAT’S not it. But allergies…? I’ve taken to keeping my cat out of my room almost all the time now (poor thing!) and yet… I’ve taken allergy meds and still had flares. But from WHAT!?

Things changed this month when Mike started doing fires in the wood stove and air stopped coming up through my heating/cooling vent in my room. I realized about 3 weeks in that this shift matched my improved health.

Meanwhile, what happened in July that changed at the same time I went down with flares–?

Mice got into our ductwork.

Yes– we’re not sure how they got into that system, though we know they can get into our garage because of the cheap-ass partial seal at the bottom of the garage door, and the chicken feed draws them to that area. We have some ungrilled ducts in the kitchen and bathrooms, so maybe that way? In July, I heard scratching sounds in my AC/heat vent, and the cats kept catching them coming out of my bathroom duct to get leftover cat food, so…

… and then I got sick and couldn’t get better.

Mice, even house mice and field mice, carry diseases, so it could be that, but it seems more likely that I’m allergic to mice, or mice poop or something. It vaporizes in the air and gets carried through the house…

Yeah, we need to clean the ductwork, and Cat knows it– and I’ve told her my theory, but we’re about out of money after all the work done over the spring and summer. It’s next on the list, though.

Meanwhile–! I’ve blocked the duct to my room and only use the space heater for heat for the last few weeks and the results speak for themselves. The rest of the house isn’t too bad. We have air cleaners running a lot more aggressively now too, and that’s helping as well.

But yeah– MICE. Breathing in mouse “stuff” whatever it may be– hair bits, vaporized poop, their grain breath– seems the only culprit left to explain my going down like a canary in a coal mine. Heating with wood and fans blowing warm air around, by contrast, takes their wee contribution out of the equation, and I’m feeling better as a result.

I swear, if real researchers could only live my life and see what CFIDS really is, they’d know it’s not even REMOTELY ”psychological.”