Fresh air at work

For several months, the air pollution problem in my office has been getting progressively worse. I´m not an expert, but what I guess is that the solvent-free materials they supposedly used in renovating the ancient building I´m working in must be hygroscopic, meaning they attract humidity, and when we had the flooding last summer, the sky-high humidity that ensued for weeks afterwards must have started some kind of chemical reaction that set free some as yet unknown pollutant. What I know for certain is that it was after the flooding that my health problems started. Stuffed sinuses, coughing, headaches, and worst of all bouts of triplopia (triple vision in one eye) that left me dizzy and continuously tired. All of which only occurred when I had spent time inside my office, never outside of it. 

After my christmas vacation, during which I had been symptom-free, it took just one day at the office for the symptoms to come back in full force. And as it was winter, I could not leave the window open all the time which rised the concentration of whatever poison there is in that room even worse than in summer. 

For the longest time, my complaints to everyone who might be able to help me had gone unheeded. 

Last Monday, finally, I had enough. When coming to a room in the morning that had the concentrated miasma of a weekend with closed windows, I fetched a colleague to take a whiff of the smell in that room. He didn´t even step all the way in before recoiling, and I guess he must have told the powers that be that there was really something off in my room. In any case, this Monday the official smelling party has been in and they immediately decided to call in an expert to measure and find out what it is that makes that room stink so badly. 

I was also relocated to a different room. I have, by now, moved all of my stuff including books and plants to the new room, hoping that they did not absorb too much of what´s in the other room. The other room is locked up. 

The difference, health-wise, is striking. I haven´t had triple images once, no headaches, and my sinuses are decidedly less stuffed. And the fatigue is diminishing, too. 

It´s just incredible. 

I will probably replace my office plants, too, as soon as the weather allows for transporting plants again, as a measure of caution. But the important part is that I am out of that gas chamber.

Of course, I am still worried about just what it might have been I was exposed to all this time. By the effects, it might have been some kind of toxin that acts on the nervous system, which is pretty scary to think of. 

Which also could be an explanation for my weight gain that coincided with the appearance of the problem. Perhaps my body has been trying to store away some poison and for that purpose it has been growing fat cells. 

The litmus test for that suspicion would be if I stopped gaining now. Or managed to get back to recondensing. Which, of course, would mean that whatever toxins there are in those fat cells would have to be removed from my body. So, I might still face a period of feeling lousy. But, as long as I don´t have to go back in there, I hope I will be able to clear that stuff out of my body again. I´ll have to read up on how to help my body detox. Perhaps I will really get my health back. 

Actually, I had to be out of that room first and see the dramatic difference that made before I really understood how much that stuff had been making me sick. 

Perhaps I should do a Whole 30 to start a proper detoxification process. The only thing that keeps me from starting at once is that I would also have to quit smoking (I know, it is probably mega dumb that I didn´t stop when the problem started, but I am still afraid of gaining even more weight were I to quit) .

At least I am no longer exposed to those toxins. I´ll see how things develop further. 

And hope for my weight to start moving down again.

Julia