My Beautiful Home Made Me Ill
In 2017 I moved into a newly refurbished period conversion near a park in North London. I was a hard-working, sociable, gym-obsessed individual, always on the go. I’d be up first thing in the morning to go to the gym before work, work a long day and then go out and meet friends. I’d get tired from doing a lot but energy was never an issue. I ate what I wanted as I knew I’d burn it off in the gym and I was in good shape (though I did always struggle to shift some of my tummy weight…the reasons why becoming clear later on). I had a lovely flatmate whom I sometimes didn’t see for a few days as I was always out!
In the flat, where the roof joined the wall, there was a clear damp and mould issue. To be honest, I wasn’t too worried about it as the developers that had refurbished the flat said they would fix it (and it didn’t really look too bad). However, it took them a year to do this and unbeknownst to me, I was slowly being poisoned with toxins.
At the end of July 2017, I went on holiday with girlfriends. There was a problem with the air conditioning in the room…we thought nothing of it, they brought us a big fan and all seemed fine. I had a great holiday, felt pretty tired but it had been a busy year so far and that didn’t seem strange. I got home, away from the sunshine and relaxing and things changed. It started with a very bad cough – I thought it was a bit of flu (unusual in the summer but still) but when I started having breathing problems too, I became more worried. I went to see my local GP who put me on antibiotics (the cheapest, most basic ones which just seem to be a quick fix most of the time) and when they made no difference, steroids….which were even worse. Meanwhile, I had stopped going to the gym and was struggling to get through work and then go out. Externally there was nothing wrong – I looked absolutely fine but internally my body was in turmoil. I saw a chest specialist who totally missed what was going on despite me mentioning the broken air con and started to think it was all in my head. My parent’s friends thought I was depressed because I was single, my friends just thought I was working hard and my boss was unaware as I was somehow able to get through the working day. My parents were amazing – they knew something was wrong but didn’t know what to do.
It reached a head when I was working for a film festival and that meant working, days, nights and weekends too for a few weeks. I got home at 10.30pm on the penultimate night of the Festival. I felt so ill that I called the non-emergency number and described my symptoms and they were obliged to send an ambulance as it sounded like I was having a heart attack. I passed out in the ambulance and they rushed me to hospital to be monitored. Thankfully it wasn’t a heart attack but it was terrifying. It turns out that it was my body saying enough is enough, you need to stop. I was discharged from the hospital when they were confident that my symptoms had passed. Yet they still had no idea what was wrong. I had to move in with my parents as I wasn’t allowed to be on my own and decided that I had to start taking things in my own hands. I had almost every blood test that Doctors recommended…except for Legionnaire’s Disease as despite my suspicions, I kept being told there was no way I had it. (I even remember mentioning it to the paramedics and they said ‘No way, you’d KNOW if you had Legionnaire’s!’. Eventually, I begged to be tested for Legionnaire’s (having spent a lot of time on Google) and the test came back with high positive markers for Legionnaire’s Disease. My initial feeling was absolute relief as it meant that it wasn’t in my head. I can’t describe the emotion that came over me knowing that. The problem was that whilst very rare, Legionnaire’s can be treated with certain types of antibiotics…if it’s caught early on. We were now 6 months on. To this day, I marvel at how my body managed to fight off the Legionnaire’s with no medical intervention. It really is a miracle as untreated Legionnaires’ disease can be fatal. I was signed off from work, looked after by my parents and started a new healthy eating regime (following advice from a nutritionist). However, the damage to my body left me with post-viral fatigue which has gone on long enough that it is now classed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (more here).
In February 2018, I moved back into my flat….where the leak still wasn’t fixed. I was still signed off of work and therefore spent most of my time in the flat (I was too fatigued to go out much) with no idea that it was making me worse. The roof and the leak were finally fixed around April but the damage to my body had already been done. Around this point, my brother stepped in. He had founded a successful business and had been reading and practicing biohacking methods – ways to make the body healthier and more efficient. He suggested that I cut out gluten (as it’s not good for anyone but it seems that he is intolerant and it can be genetic) and refined sugar (as none of us really need this). It made a difference and I had some better energy levels. I then started on Keto which really made a difference. However, I was still resigned to the idea that I would have CFS for the rest of my life. I still couldn’t work and hated being dependent on my parents. Almost a year after going to hospital, I started working part-time. I was managing 3 days a week and a few months later, I was offered a great opportunity to go full time. I couldn’t turn it down and thought enough now, let’s get back to it. I didn’t want my illness to define me. I managed a month of full time but I’d get home and wouldn’t even be able to use my phone to order a takeaway, let alone cook a healthy meal. My bosses were very understanding and I reduced my days back down to 3.
So life carried on with me ‘managing’ my fatigue. My best friend (purely coincidentally) also had CFS and so we would discuss what methods we were trying and just try and support and help each other out. I was able to date and was lucky to finally meet my soulmate. In December 2019 he proposed and I started planning my dream wedding. In 2020, my bro with his suspicions about toxic mould poisoning had had enough and he introduced me to Ryan from Live Vitae – a Health Optimisation Coach who has changed my world.
Ryan did a number of tests – ones that the Doctors would never have even thought to order and unsurprisingly to both him and my bro, it was extremely evident that I had toxic mould poisoning (more details here). So now, I am on a long and slow journey to get rid of the mould and hopefully to allow my body to repair itself. The bottom line is that had there not been mould in my flat that weakened my immune system, therefore enabling me to be more susceptible to the legionella and leading to chronic fatigue…my life would be very different now.