I've been deteriorating for about 7 months now. Unfortunately I waited till September to even start considering that it might be due to the apartment I was living in, and have just realized the extent to how gross the building really is.
The apartment has lead paint (it's the base paint, they simply covered it up with Styrofoam and painted on top of that)
Air is extremely dusty all of the time, regardless of how clean/dirty
Is most likely full of mold (under the carpets and behind the walls) I don't have a sense of smell but I'm told it always smells musty in there
The building (and now my apartment) is infested with cockroaches. I've never seen them in my room till this last month
The building has mice (short, little, grey guys). Again, I've never seen one in there until last night, found where he chewed through. A couple of the neighbors mentioned it when I first moved in but never saw or heard anything suspicious.
Symptoms (in chronological order)
Red swollen throat
Trouble breathing
(physically can not inhale, wheezing, coughing, etc)
Headache
Fatigue
Digestive issues (reflux)
Chest pain
pain in lower left side of abdomen
Brain fog
Visible heartbeat (the best theory I've heard on this so far is that I tore tissue in that area and now i can see my heart still not proven) (http://www.dailymotion.com/TiredofNJ#video=x167vdn)
Bouts of shaky vision / internal tremor
Gas/Bloating/Abdominal Pain when waking up and going to sleep
Joint pain (mainly just the knees, sometimes shoulders. although i think this is from change in lifestyle (very active to sedentary)
All of these have stacked on top of each other, nothing has gone away and for the most part, many of them have gotten worse as time has gone on
***Randoms*** the occasional short lived rash. a couple of incidences in May and a couple last month nothing in between. an area will get itchy, i'll scratch, and red/purple blotchy flat spots will stick around for a couple of hours.
I also woke up with night sweats once and only once, way back when this all began*
I have had many tests/procedures performed and so far all they have found is
Elevated Eosinophils in blood back in May (now back to normal), Elevated IgE (still high. 566 on a 114 or <)
Eosinophilic Esophagitis, cause of EoE still undetermined. Sleep study and allergist both see my nose as a mess, nasal steroids and nasal dilator recommended.
Had a skin test performed no reaction to mold cockroach or dust mites, was kinda surprised.
Just finally considered this might be lead poisoning last week and am waiting for the results of BLL.
If you've read this far, thank you. Now.... to anyone out there who knows what's up, I want to know ALL disease/infections/conditions I should be looking for. What can you get from mold, what type of household molds cause it? Are there any diseases that mice or cockroaches in southern california can carry or transmit? any other lead tests? Anything at all would be appreciated, these last few months have been a nightmare. I begin packing this week and should be out soon. have been sleeping in my car because of the mice/roaches, too gross.