Amalthia's recs and fan works

At the end of February soon after I got the first shot of the Covid Vaccine my allergies kicked in, basically runny nose and sneezing. I didn't think much of it just took allergy medicine. However, at a certain point that stopped working.

I went on a massive spring cleaning in my house about a month early. During this cleaning I discovered mold growing on the window in the room where I sleep! I didn't see it earlier because I still had my blackout curtains closed from the summer. I checked the rest of the windows in the house and yep they had mold too, but not early as bad as the growth in the bedroom.

I've already stopped the cause of the mold, which was the humidifiers we run in the winter. This year we got quiet humidifiers so we ran them 24/7 and didn't tell them to stop running once the rooms reached 35% humidity (if you're new to humidifiers, don't let the humidity in winter reach over 50%, or you will get condensation on the windows.)

Wearing a mask I cleaned the windows with soap and water, and used vinegar to loosen up the mold/dust stuck to the groves in the windows. However, I suspect our house is still full of mold spores. I ended up hiring a mold inspector to come to our house and take samples to verify what type of mold is in the air. In hindsight, I'm not sure if cleaning the windows myself was a good idea? Though I had the windows opened while cleaning I suspect mold spores became airborne while cleaning.

In the meantime, I wasn't sleeping, my anxiety levels were through the roof, and I was turning into a basket case thinking that our house was poisoning my husband and I. My husband said he felt fine, however he's not sleeping well and wakes up with headaches often. There is a laundry list of mold exposure symptoms and I have one half the list and he had the other. His case may be mild since his window in the room where he sleeps had just a little mold.

Long story short, I couldn't stay in the house and renting a hotel room for two weeks would have costs hundreds of dollars, so instead I bought a plane ticket with air miles and flew to Texas to stay with my mom and dad. I'm working from home the next weeks from my parents house until the mold samples are tested and we know what we're dealing with. I'm hoping in the meantime the mold spores settle or leave the house now that it's almost warm enough to open windows.

Again, my husband gets all the brownie points for being supportive during this time. I'm hoping being away from the house will help my body/mind to calm down. My husband stayed behind since he couldn't work remotely, plus it's entirely possible I wasn't thinking all that clearly when I felt like I needed to escape the house. Sleep deprivation is the worst.

Now I'm researching if I need to throw all my stuff away or at least my pillows and mattress? I'm not sure if taking my pillows outside on a sunny day is sufficient to kill the mold spores? Or if an allergy cover for the pillow is enough? Right now Anchorage is going through dust season, the snow is melting leaving all the dirt and gravel to blow around with the wind. At this point it may not even be mold that's triggering my allergies but all the dust in the air or dust mites that grew while our house was so humid. There are so many variables to consider.


Public service announcement, if you live in cold climate, and if you don't already do this, check your windows throughout the window for condensation. :) Seriously, this year....