Things I really need to do but can’t seem to make myself do them:
there are clothes rotting in my washing machine. I had a migraine and couldn’t hang them up, and the migraine lasted about a week, and now there’s fungus growing on them. I’ve read online that this can be fixed by washing them 3-4 times and then hanging them in the sun to dry. Adding vinegar to the washing machine can help. The washing machine is right next to the bathtub, and I can’t bathe properly because the smell is overpowering and makes me dizzy and light headed.
1) I’m still sore and constantly on the verge of a migraine. There’s no guarantee that if I start a load I’ll be able to hang it up.
2) Medicines sometimes help the migraines but not very much. I mostly have to ride them out. It may be a week yet till I can be sure that I can hang it up to dry.
3) There are noise restrictions in my building, so I can’t make lots of noise after 8pm. This means that I’d need to get up early in order to wash the clothes. I got up early for a few days, but it made the headache worse, and it rained anyway, so not much sunlight.
4) I think the real reason is that when I do eventually take them out of the washing machine (having been washed X more times), I will have to touch them with my hands.
5) I can’t really afford to replace them. Some of the items in the washing machine I could get over losing (I do have other shirts), but others are items I don’t own enough of as it is.
6) i am very allergic to bleach and have trouble breathing if i walk through an area where it was used within the last half hour. so i cannot use it on my clothes. but vinegar should do the trick.
7) if i leave it much longer, the fungus will eat holes in my clothes. and leave stains. but some of the articles of clothing may not be too stained any may be wearable around the house, once they are fungus free.
Similarly, the floor in the apartment is filthy. Absolutely filthy. Covered in all sorts of stuff. It’s a really hard carpet to clean (you have to brush it to coax the dirt out before you can vacuum it, or the vacuum doesn’t do anything). But vacuum cleaners are loud and the noise would drive my pain levels up even higher. i can’t vacuum, because i would have to devote an entire day to it (literally. have done so in the past and it still wasn’t fully clean, just cleaner), and i dont have the stamina for a day of it. this is really the same problem as the laundry except that it’s less bad and less urgent.
There are clothes rotting in my washing machine. I had a migraine and couldn’t hang them up, and the migraine lasted about a week, and now there’s fungus growing on them. I’ve read online that this can be fixed by washing them 3-4 times and then hanging them in the sun to dry. Adding vinegar to the washing machine can help. The washing machine is right next to the bathtub, and I can’t bathe properly because the smell is overpowering and makes me dizzy and light headed.
Do not fuck around with possibly-toxic fungus. The fact that the fumes have immediate negative effects strongly suggests that it’s toxic. Do not ignore sudden health problems that coincide with the appearance of mold in your environment, especially not ones as severe as a perpetual migraine. Those clothes are probably not salvageable, but they should be the least of your worries. You need outside help cleaning your apartment, and you need it yesterday. You also need a physical.
This comment was really helpful to me. Thank you. Googling “toxic fungus” was sufficiently scary to get me out of “what is it about laundry that i’m just not understanding that caused this to happen” mode (answer: there is nothing about laundry that i don’t “understand”. i also have long been aware of what fungus is and what conditions foster its growth, but was unable to prevent those conditions from occuring because of health problems, which the fungus exacerbated), and made me realise the flaw in my: “wait till i’m feeling better and then deal with it” strategy.
More information about your situation might be useful here. My first suggestion is to see if you can find someone local to help you with it (friends, family), but that seems like an obvious enough solution that I expect that if it were that simple you’d have done it already. So, what resources do you have available?
Yea. With migraines like that it is unreasonable to expect that you should be able to do anything like this on your own. Please get help before you get sick from the unsanitary conditions.
I will try. I really did think there was some simple answer that I was missing that would enable me to do it on my own, like everyone does, but i wasn’t accounting for the fact that the people who manage to stay on top of their laundry dont have disabling migraines.
I have a mother who lives very far away, who would spend money she didnt have to come help me if she knew, but I’d feel very guilty about the whole thing.
My best friend is currently at a summer camp like training thing for a new job and following that is moving to Budapest (2 hour train ride away) with her boyfriend (my other friend). So they’re very busy right now and currently unavailable, and they’ve helped me out so much with other things in the past, that I dont want to be a burden on them. I’m ashamed of the condition of the apartment, but I know they would be understanding.
i have a religious community, but the last time i was very sick, in 2009, (3 weeks of influenza + 3 weeks of strep throat), I asked for help getting to a doctor (I had a high fever, was sleeping 22 hours a day, could not keep even a small sip of water down, and was terrified that i was going to die of dehydration). They helped me get to a doctor and get antibiotics and medicine to help me keep things down, but while they were here, they took one look at my flat (a mess. i was too busy throwing up to keep things tidy) and wrote my mother a letter saying that i was clearly mentally ill because of disarray I was living in which reflects an inner disarray of mind and emotion and my mother was so worried that she flew out to see me (which she could not afford to do), but by the time she got here I had mostly recovered and I made an effort to show her that I was okay, not having a nervous breakdown, was a little weak after a physical illness which had led to the mess that had been there (all tidied up in a frenzy that i wasn’t really well enough to do before my mother arrived), and that i did not need to be taken back to live with her where she could ensure that i find a good psychiatrist, because the antibiotics had cleared up the “mental illness” just fine, thank you. i succeeded. This experience has made me much less willingly to reach out for help from the people involved (and it’s a small community, so pretty much everyone was involved). (Their reaction has no basis in our scriptures, which say that when you are sick you should seek the best medical advice available to you and obey it. But the pseudoscience is strong in the individuals in question.)
My neighbours are mostly elderly and I would feel improper asking them to clean up my messes for me. My landlady is a dear, knows about my migraines, and if she knew I was in trouble would probably be able to find someone who could help. She’s seen my flat in disarray before (she took care of my pets when I very suddenly had to go help my mother recover from a surgery (she recovered well)). It’s mostly shame that keeps me from reaching out to people I know. And expecting other people (even those who seem trustworthy—after all, I’d known those religious people for a years) to assume I’m mentally ill instead of helping.
My girlfriend also lives far away (we’re planning to get gay marriaged and move in together, but there are a lot of logistics to sort out because her country is difficult to move to, and Hungarian is a very hard language to learn (and there are other, valid reasons that mean it would make more sense for me to move there. It will probably be another year yet till I can move. Even though we are engaged, it will take many months for the visa to be processed, and before that there a million and one hoops I have to jump through (health checks, background checks, saving up money, and more) to get the 60+ pages of forms filled out and submitted. she is available daily on skype for moral support, and can tell me when I’m overthinking things. (Until I got all these responses, I really did think that there was just some basic step to laundry washing that everyone but me knew and I was stuck going over the steps in my head trying to figure out how to get into a universe where I do not have frequent, sudden, unpredictable headaches that lead to situations like these. this step by step analysis of all of a problem is great for identifying the racing condition that is causing the bug in the code I’m writing. But it’s not useful for simple things like laundry where I understand the steps of putting clothes in, adding detergent, and taking them out, and can’t think my way into a situation where my clothes aren’t rotting in the washing machine.
I didn’t sleep last night (was too panicked about the washing machine), but today my girlfriend talked me into running it a couple times. I set it to 60°C, added extra detergent and vinegar, extra fabric softener, and ran it twice, napped, and then woke up to my mother calling to tell me to expect a phone call from my sister (who also lives far away), and I had wanted to wash it a couple more times before trying to take anything out. But I couldn’t, because I wouldn’t be able to hear my sister on the phone if the washer was going. She didn’t call till 11pm, so tomorrow I’ll wash them a few more times. I peeked after the second wash, and the fungus is no longer visisble, and the smell has decreased and was no longer dizzying. Tomorrow, I’m going to try to wash them a few more times, and if I can, I will try to take them out. If I can’t, I’m not sure what I’ll do. But I figure that the washing does seem to have killed at least some of the fungus which will make them safer to handle when I get to the point of deciding whether to put them into a trash bag and carry them downstairs to the bins or whether some of them are safe.
It might be possible to wash them daily, and then when I hit a day where my pain levels are lower I can take them out and make a decision. This does seem like a tremendous waste of water, detergent, and fabric softener, and my financial resources are not unlimited . But it’s summer, and hot, and 82% humidity, and I left out a bowl of ramen noodles that I couldnt finish last week and it grew visible fungus within 8 hours. so it’s the season where everything will rot if i’m not on the ball all the time, which i cant be. And comments here have made me realise that my usual strategy of “wait till i’m feeling well and then deal with it” won’t work if the thing that needs dealing with is actively making me sick, which it might well be.
8-hours to grow fungus on cooked food seems far too fast.
I am not an expert on this. You should find an expert on this either here or in your local community to look at conditions in your apartment.
My concern is that you may have fungus/mold elsewhere in your apartment (perhaps behind the dry-wall i.e. in the walls) or elsewhere, and that this fungus is releasing spores that’re growing in your ramen.
As a preliminary measure, I suggest improving the ventilation by keeping the windows open and maybe the front door to create a cross-breeze.
Do you have access to a free medical expert like a doctor or clinic? I would go there as soon as possible and tell them about the fungus growing on your clothes, growing on your ramen after 8 hours, as well as your migraines and any other problems. They may be able to contact the correct authorities if there is a public health hazard.
Once again, I am not an expert and have little direct knowledge about this; however, in all my experience living in very hot and humid climates I’ve never seen fungus grow on cooked food left out over 8 hours. I hope the other LWers here can provide better clarity into whether my concern is valid.
I’m not an expert either, but I think there’s enough evidence to be pretty certain there’s a problem. I don’t know whether the authorities in Hungary are likely to be helpful, or what kinds of cleaning services are available or how much they cost. It might even be worth moving to a different apartment.
Well, it was food left out of refrigeration as well. I’ve never really thought of ramen as cooked food—it was heated in the microwave for the required time, though, so I suppose you’re right.
Humidity has been around 80-90% recently, and the temperature that day was probably no higher than 30. The amount of growth was small—just a few clusters less than a centimetre in diametre, but black and definitely fungus. I put it on the opposite side of the room where it wouldn’t be near me and let it grow a little longer and it was covered within a few days.
The building is made entirely of concrete. If you think of a stereotypical cold war era eastern european apartment building, you’ll get the idea, though ours has been prettied up (insulated, new windows put in, painted cheerfully) by the city. The walls in this room are hard to the touch, but in my bedroom, the wall is slightly spongy, but not visibly damaged in any way. The sponginess is uniform throughout and feels like I’m pressing against styrofoam instead of concrete. I assumed it was some sort of insulation.
I live on the fifth floor with cats and have no fly screens. There are shutters in the bedroom, so I leave the windows open and the shutters closed, so that air can get in, but cats can’t get out. The window in this room leads to a balcony, though, which the cats are scared of because they don’t like the noises from the street, so I can open the window in here as well if I keep an eye on them. They really like sitting on windowsills, though, so I’m careful about that. The cats aren’t allowed in the kitchen (enforced by a closed door), so I can leave windows open there. I can also air out different rooms alternately with closed doors.
This is what the fungus looks like that was on my clothes: http://pics.livejournal.com/pthalogreen/pic/0012sbbx I managed to wash it twice yesterday, which decreased the smell and made the spots go away. I want to wash it a few more times before deciding what to do, and I think washing will kill at least enough of the spores to make it safe for me to throw them out, if I deem them unsalvageable.
There is a doctor I know of who would see me for free that I could go to. I’ve lived here for almost three years, and I really like my landlady. Also, I’m planning to move in with my girlfriend in about a year. It can’t be sooner, because it will take a long time for my visa application to be processed. I am still at the satge where I have to run around and gather things for the application, but health problems makes it difficult. I want to improve my life as much as I can before I can move, but I’m reluctant to do drastic things ilke move out when I know I’ll be moving again so soon.
If your health deteriorates further then you will not be able to complete your planned move, much less do something drastic like move now.
If your environment has toxic fungus, you cannot live for a year there and expect to be in any condition to move, to apply for a visa, or perhaps to be out of the hospital. I am trying not to be alarmist, and would very much like the opinion of better informed readers on the relative danger/safety of your situation, but you need to examine how much you weigh the inconvenience of moving or doing something about the problem versus your health or existential risks.
I’ve moved four times in the last three years across three continents. I’ve been lucky enough to not be coping with migraines and to have enough cashflow to make it work. I only mention it to point out that it is eminently feasible.
Is there anyone you can stay with for say a week to see if your condition improves vis-a-vie the migraines?
Humidity has been around 80-90% recently, and the temperature that day was probably no higher than 30.
I don’t know whether you can afford it, but it may help to buy a dehumidifier to lower the humidity in & near your kitchen. That should make it harder for mould to grow successfully.
A new one costs £100-200 here (which Google’s currency converter says is about 30k-60k HUF), but they should last for 3-10 years, so the cost is amortized over quite a long time. The only maintenance they should need is being emptied daily (maybe twice a day in a very humid environment), which only takes a couple of minutes.
Edit: of course, before you buy one, it’s probably a good idea to borrow one from a friend or hire one so you can test it for a few weeks and see if there’s an improvement first.
It sounds like you’re living in a toxic environment which is making you sick. Does that fit your experience (is your history of illness—migraines, etc. - concentrated in the time when you’ve been living in your current apartment)? So find a new place to live. And be careful what you bring—you don’t want to bring the toxic stuff with you.
As a trial run, you could try staying someplace else for a week or so to see if you feel better. Bring as little with you as possible (even the clothes you wear should be new/borrowed), and don’t go back to your apartment at all during that time.
I am planning to move in about a year’s time, to live with my girlfriend who I’m engaged to and live together. I cannot move sooner because to move in with her, I need to apply for a partner visa, and then wait for it to be processed. It is theoretically possible to move somewhere else, in the interim, but it’s only a year, and I don’t think I have the energy to move right now. Also, I really like my landlady. She’s the kindest person I know. My previous apartments were much worse. At the last one, I was attacked and then stalked by a neighbour and the landlady talked to me about the commandment not to commit adultery (neither of I nor the neighbour are married.) Before that things were kinda okay for five months, then the landlady had “new ideas for the apartment” and I had to move into the first place I found. Before that I was living with an aunt would say to me without warning “we’re going somewhere in an hour. wash [explicit list of body parts including private ones] but dont wash your hair or [random list of body parts].” and never mind if I already had plans (like a class to go to or something). There was more insanity that that, this is just an example. And before that there was a mother who was worse than the aunt. And before that there were two parents, which was the worst of all.
Here, the neighbours say hello in the stairwell and that’s it. No one bothers me. I’m not afraid to leave the apartment. My landlady is understanding. So, fungus is a step up. and there will be another step up in a year when I get to live with the girl of my dreams.
I have two cats that can’t be abandoned for a week, and im not sure where i’d go anyway.
To summarize your situation, it sounds like your apartment has a serious mold/fungus problem which is causing your health issues.
If you’re not confident that this is true you could test it to be sure (e.g., by living someplace else for a week), but if you accept that it’s true then you can plan the next step. You have a few options:
Option 1 is for you to move. It will take some work, but it’s something that you know how to do (you’ve done it before) and it’s the surest way to get away from the fungus. You could get other people to help you.
Option 2 is to try to rid your apartment of the fungus. That is also going to be a lot of work, and it involves technical knowledge/skills which you don’t have (it’s not just a matter of some vacuuming and dusting). There is probably information about it online, or you could try to find an expert to help or at least advise you. You also don’t know if it will succeed—you might just reduce the amount of fungus, only to have it grow right back. If you go for this option you should get help, probably including the help of the landlady, since it is her apartment (and it sounds like she’ll want to help).
Option 3 is to do nothing and stay in your apartment for the next year. If you do that, your health probably won’t get any better. Migraines, lack of energy, difficulty doing things—those problems will all continue. They might even get worse with continued exposure, or cause more permanent problems (I don’t know what the exact risks are—that’s something else to look up online or check with experts on). (Unless your health problems have been seasonal—then they might become somewhat less bad in the winter and then blossom again in the spring.) You’d be choosing another year of more of the same, and it will continue to be hard to do the things that you’re planning—the visa application, moving, getting married. If you try option 2 and don’t do a good enough job of it, it could easily collapse into option 3.
As others have mentioned get help. If you have no friends who can do it look on Craigslist for someone who cleans houses. Explain the situation to them and have them bring their steam cleaner.
While the clothes are washing have them steam clean your carpets at least twice.
Then when you get done paying this off, go get a good vacuum cleaner, and if you are the sort of person who’s always tracking in dirt (I am) get a cheap carpet shampooer.
Also—have to comment—the migraine thing really should be your focus. My wife gets these and absolutely refuses to do the food/activity diary thing, is horrible about exercise and the rest. Fortunately for her she only has them for a day or two about once a month.
We don’t have Craigslist in Hungary, but we have a newspaper for classified ads that posts the ads online as well. I could search that to see if anyone’s advertising something. My landlady has a steam cleaner and has said I can borrow it sometime.
I always take off my shoes at the door, but the cats get hairballs (I give them special treats to cut down on hairballs, which seems to help, but not 100%), and accidents happen, so some sort of shampoo might work.
I wrote a small program in PHP/MYSQL for keeping track of my migraines. You list what you ate that day, what (and how much) you drank, how much you slept and between what hours, pain levels, other complaints, and a few other things. It keeps track of your menstrual cycle as well (if you’re doing it every day, there’s a checkbox to check on the first day of the cycle). It then lets you sort by any of those criteria so that you can look back over the data and try to make sense of it. It’s not hosted online anywhere (i was never done tinkering with it, and i never added anything like a login form or support for multiple users, so you have to have a server with php and mysql set up on your computer to run it. I kept track of it for a while, but then started forgetting more and more and I had no idea how to analyse the data I’d amassed (and probably would’ve needed more data anyway). Also, I wasn’t sure if I was asking the right questions (or enough of the right questions). A big source of my migraines was the bad mattress I was sleeping on, which wasn’t even in that data. Getting a new mattress earlier this year helped a lot, but things have started to get bad again (though now at least, I know I’m sleeping well on a good mattress).
A big source of my migraines was the bad mattress I was sleeping on, which wasn’t even in that data. Getting a new mattress earlier this year helped a lot, but things have started to get bad again (though now at least, I know I’m sleeping well on a good mattress).
Maybe the problem was the stuff living on the mattress, rather than the mattress itself. And now it’s grown back.
Well, here’s one solution that may solve a couple of your problems. Redo your migraine log such that you can have individual logins/tracking, then wrap a social community around it. Crowd source (to use a buzzword) your migraine issue and figure out a way to both help others and have others help you.
There will be no simple way to analyze your data other than to sit down and look for patterns. Play with different ways of looking it it.
Heck, it COULD be related to your not eating enough. Low blood sugar is one headache trigger (for me), and chronic low blood sugar plus smoking could EASILY be a problem.
Looking down thread it very well could ALSO be a mold or other environmental issues.
If you’re planning on moving out of the country in a year or two, what is the possibility of you just going to live with your mom or sister until your visa/travel arrangements are fixed? This may alleviate your financial problems (you can always pay your mom/sister “rent” but it will be less than you are paying now), get you into a cleaner place (which might clear up some of your health issues) and get you to a point where you focus on quitting the smokes (which is about the toughest thing I’ve ever done, to include US Marine Corps boot camp and a year in Baghdad).
You could use hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine bleach. It’s not as effective as a disinfectant but it’s odorless, cheap, and probably a lot more effective than vinegar. If you get 3% concentration (the most common) you’ll probably need to pour a whole bottle over the clothes, then wait an hour or two.
Depending on what’s underneath the carpet, you could consider just removing it.
That’s an idea. I’ll look for some hydrogen peroxide next time I’m at a store.
I would love nothing better than to rip out this carpet. Even if there was nothing but concrete underneath it, I would gladly consider that infinitely better than this mess of crumbs, kitty litter that the cat kicked out of the box, cat hair, human hair, cat vomit, cigarette ash, dust, the microscopic creatures that feed on all of that, and their poo. It’s an ugly orange colour that was fashionable when it was installed over 30 years ago. In some places, it’s threadbare. It’s a nylon carpet, which means it holds onto hair and dust and won’t let it go.
I’m a renter, though, so it’s not my decision. I’m not sure if getting rid of the carpet (and replacing it with nothing but the bare concrete underneath it) would devalue the property (“carpeted” sounds so nice and soft under your feet—though this the carpet is neither) or increase its value (it really is a terrible carpet). I might bring it up with the landlady, but I’m tempted to just put up with it for the year or so longer that i’ll be here before i can move in with my girlfriend.
I’ve sent an overview of your situation to all my friends who are doctors or training to be doctors. I will let you know their opinion. (I’ve also included information from your meat and vegetables post).
I strongly suggest you do not wait for them to get back to me and consult with local experts as soon as possible.
Also, if anyone in the LW community has medical training or knows someone who does who would be willing to offer an opinion on this, I encourage them to do so.
So far have gotten back responses from two doctors / doctors-in-training. They both strongly suggest seeing a social worker to find out what resources are available vis-a-vie cleaning your apartment, improving your living situation, etc.
They also suggest you might take vitamin B and folate supplements, but you should check with your doctor to see if you have any deficiencies that may be contributing to your chronic pain and tiredness (as you mentioned in the eating vegetables and meat post).
Finally, there are a number of follow-up questions. You don’t need to answer all of these, and ultimately what matters is that you see your doctor, but if you want here they are. Feel free to respond by PM.
Is the chronic pain a recent or long-term problem?
Are the migraines a recent or long-term problem?
Are you depressed? Do you have a history of depression?
For the unnumbered reason of potentially getting another migraine by having to do the laundry, and just in general to get past this rut/problem: Ask a friend or family member for assistance with the task. Alternately, offer someone money to do your laundry (an amount less than the cost of replacing the clothes).
For 4 specifically, maybe try wearing gloves (dishwashing gloves or latex gloves) to avoid touching the mold/fungus directly.
I think I could hold some clean cotton underwear to my face as well, which helps when the kitty litter is stinky, though that would leave me one handed, so if i can find some, your solution will probably help.
These are good suggestions. I will try. I’ve made some progress (girlfriend talked me into running it a few times without opening the drum to touch the scary stuff, and the smell has gone down and the fungus has decreased) since the taking it out is the risky part (it can be fairly loud, but i mostly cant hear it if i close the door to the bathroom and also the one to the hallway), killing some of the fungus, even though i couldnt take it out today, was a useful activity that may buy me more time and will make it safer to handle the clothes when I am feeling well enough to either hang them out or put them in a large trash bag.
I strongly recommend an iRobot vacuum cleaner (roomba). It will vacuum for you.
By the sound of it, your carpet is badly ingrained with dirt, so the vacuum will not get it all out in one day—but if you set it to vacuum every day (which few humans would normally do voluntarily, but the roomba doesn’t mind) it is highly likely that over time it will improve until “clean” it a normal state for it.
Another benefit: Having a robo-vacuum on a schedule forces you to get in the habit of picking objects (papers, clothing) up off the floor.
Yes—though I’ll admit that I discovered the “floor mess” easily becomes “chair and table mess” without having to actually put the things away… Still—it’s a step in the right direction. :)
Looks pretty awesome, actually. Quite a sensible progression, and looks like it would indeed be a good way of keeping up with the most important bits.
Though I must say, I have much more than just one laundry-basket of “stuff” to put away—and nowhere to put it away (only one cupboard in my little flat right now).
When I get back to Australia and normal-sized apartments, I’ll be able to keep up with that part, and will simply adapt it for now.
I wonder how frequently she goes through this progression, and how long it takes her. It sounds like it’s her weekend schedule. Part of what puts me off housework is that there are so many other things I’d rather be doing… I know that’s the same for everybody, but still.
woah, that is so totally cool. Expensive—more than a month’s rent and utilities combined, but seriously cool.
Also, they sell them in my country—even in my city, and the webpage says they have a promotion thing where you can borrow it for a night and then take it back the next day for free—under the idea that a person would be sold on the idea and wouldnt want to go back to their old vacuum cleaner. So, basically, I could get my carpet cleaned for free, and then give it back. If the thing would clean it thoroughly (and I’d be willing to babysit it for a night if it needed to be emptied frequently), it’s possible that it could get enough of the ingrained dirt out that i could make reasonable progress with regular vacuuming.
I like that idea. Yes you could do it in a night. It’ll seem frustrating if you watch it (because it ha a random walk algorithm)- so don’t. Just let it do its thing and empty it every so often. It will clean your floor so thoroughly that you’ll be surprised.
1) anything over the counter (aspirin, ibuprofin, acetomenicin (sp?), etc.) do not touch my pain levels.
2) coffee can lower my pain levels by a small amount, but i am sensitive to caffeine and use it sparingly.
3) i have some (expired) tramadol, which gave me rebound headaches, so i stopped taking it.
4) promethazine used to help a lot, but i think my body got used to it, and now it does nothing.
5) Quarelin (metamizol-sodium, caffeine, drotaverin-hidrochlorid), which is available here, but was taken off the market in most western countries because of a few deaths, does help, but i’m wary of taking it too often or too much. it won’t make it all better, but it can take me down from a 7-8 to a 3-4 on my pain scale. i can function at a 4, but stlil have to be careful. I’m useless at an 8.
6) i think they tried some antidepressants as well as a teenager, since i was depressed in addition to the migraines back then, and some antidepressants have been found to help with migraine. (I am no longer depressed), but they didn’t help (neither with the depression nor with the migraines). 14 different psychiatric medications were tried, most of them were not approved for use in children, all of them caused bad side effects, and i still have facial twitches which started when I was a 12 year old on zoloft. (i am 27 now). this has made me wary of medication, since most meds cause harm even when they do good, but i am willing to try medications with a patient doctor who understands that if there is a rare side effect (lactation, aphasia, sleeping 18 hours a day, extreme paranoia), I will probably get it and deem it worse than the condition it was meant to treat.
i’ve never taken the preventative meds for migraines, just the PRN ones.
My access to medical care is somewhat limited by not having insurance (€25 a month), but I know a doctor who is willing to see me even though I don’t have a health card and who might be willing to help me access medication at health card rates. Deciding whether to see her and take advantage of this is a moral quandary. On the one hand, I believe this to be stealing and I believe stealing to be absolutely wrong by standards I hold myself to. (It is a black and white issue with regard to my own conduct. I admit to grey areas for other people by assuming they are doing the best they can and making their own choices based on their own moral reasoning.) On the other hand, the citizens, of which I am one, who cannot afford to pay €25 a month for healthcare are the ones who need it the most, the ones for whom preventative healthcare would have vast and far reaching effects beyond their (our) class. And perhaps I would be able to pay the €25 a month for healthcare if I were healthier. The doctor would be at risk for helping me and others like me if they were found out, but the chances of their being found out are small, especially since I have no intention of telling someone who it is that is helping me, and it is their decision to help.
I have accepted help in getting Quarelin in this fashion (it is prescription only, but I prefer the other method of accessing it: going to the pharmacies where the employees won’t ask the prescription). But for experimenting with new medications, I would need to make the decision to see a doctor regularly who can evaluate my progress and make adjustments as needed.
Things I really need to do but can’t seem to make myself do them:
there are clothes rotting in my washing machine. I had a migraine and couldn’t hang them up, and the migraine lasted about a week, and now there’s fungus growing on them. I’ve read online that this can be fixed by washing them 3-4 times and then hanging them in the sun to dry. Adding vinegar to the washing machine can help. The washing machine is right next to the bathtub, and I can’t bathe properly because the smell is overpowering and makes me dizzy and light headed.
1) I’m still sore and constantly on the verge of a migraine. There’s no guarantee that if I start a load I’ll be able to hang it up.
2) Medicines sometimes help the migraines but not very much. I mostly have to ride them out. It may be a week yet till I can be sure that I can hang it up to dry.
3) There are noise restrictions in my building, so I can’t make lots of noise after 8pm. This means that I’d need to get up early in order to wash the clothes. I got up early for a few days, but it made the headache worse, and it rained anyway, so not much sunlight.
4) I think the real reason is that when I do eventually take them out of the washing machine (having been washed X more times), I will have to touch them with my hands.
5) I can’t really afford to replace them. Some of the items in the washing machine I could get over losing (I do have other shirts), but others are items I don’t own enough of as it is.
6) i am very allergic to bleach and have trouble breathing if i walk through an area where it was used within the last half hour. so i cannot use it on my clothes. but vinegar should do the trick.
7) if i leave it much longer, the fungus will eat holes in my clothes. and leave stains. but some of the articles of clothing may not be too stained any may be wearable around the house, once they are fungus free.
Similarly, the floor in the apartment is filthy. Absolutely filthy. Covered in all sorts of stuff. It’s a really hard carpet to clean (you have to brush it to coax the dirt out before you can vacuum it, or the vacuum doesn’t do anything). But vacuum cleaners are loud and the noise would drive my pain levels up even higher. i can’t vacuum, because i would have to devote an entire day to it (literally. have done so in the past and it still wasn’t fully clean, just cleaner), and i dont have the stamina for a day of it. this is really the same problem as the laundry except that it’s less bad and less urgent.
Do not fuck around with possibly-toxic fungus. The fact that the fumes have immediate negative effects strongly suggests that it’s toxic. Do not ignore sudden health problems that coincide with the appearance of mold in your environment, especially not ones as severe as a perpetual migraine. Those clothes are probably not salvageable, but they should be the least of your worries. You need outside help cleaning your apartment, and you need it yesterday. You also need a physical.
This comment was really helpful to me. Thank you. Googling “toxic fungus” was sufficiently scary to get me out of “what is it about laundry that i’m just not understanding that caused this to happen” mode (answer: there is nothing about laundry that i don’t “understand”. i also have long been aware of what fungus is and what conditions foster its growth, but was unable to prevent those conditions from occuring because of health problems, which the fungus exacerbated), and made me realise the flaw in my: “wait till i’m feeling better and then deal with it” strategy.
More information about your situation might be useful here. My first suggestion is to see if you can find someone local to help you with it (friends, family), but that seems like an obvious enough solution that I expect that if it were that simple you’d have done it already. So, what resources do you have available?
Seconded. This looks like a job for another human. Where are you staying at, pthalo?
southern Hungary. A bit of a swim from the location listed in your profile, it seems. :)
Yea. With migraines like that it is unreasonable to expect that you should be able to do anything like this on your own. Please get help before you get sick from the unsanitary conditions.
I will try. I really did think there was some simple answer that I was missing that would enable me to do it on my own, like everyone does, but i wasn’t accounting for the fact that the people who manage to stay on top of their laundry dont have disabling migraines.
I have a mother who lives very far away, who would spend money she didnt have to come help me if she knew, but I’d feel very guilty about the whole thing.
My best friend is currently at a summer camp like training thing for a new job and following that is moving to Budapest (2 hour train ride away) with her boyfriend (my other friend). So they’re very busy right now and currently unavailable, and they’ve helped me out so much with other things in the past, that I dont want to be a burden on them. I’m ashamed of the condition of the apartment, but I know they would be understanding.
i have a religious community, but the last time i was very sick, in 2009, (3 weeks of influenza + 3 weeks of strep throat), I asked for help getting to a doctor (I had a high fever, was sleeping 22 hours a day, could not keep even a small sip of water down, and was terrified that i was going to die of dehydration). They helped me get to a doctor and get antibiotics and medicine to help me keep things down, but while they were here, they took one look at my flat (a mess. i was too busy throwing up to keep things tidy) and wrote my mother a letter saying that i was clearly mentally ill because of disarray I was living in which reflects an inner disarray of mind and emotion and my mother was so worried that she flew out to see me (which she could not afford to do), but by the time she got here I had mostly recovered and I made an effort to show her that I was okay, not having a nervous breakdown, was a little weak after a physical illness which had led to the mess that had been there (all tidied up in a frenzy that i wasn’t really well enough to do before my mother arrived), and that i did not need to be taken back to live with her where she could ensure that i find a good psychiatrist, because the antibiotics had cleared up the “mental illness” just fine, thank you. i succeeded. This experience has made me much less willingly to reach out for help from the people involved (and it’s a small community, so pretty much everyone was involved). (Their reaction has no basis in our scriptures, which say that when you are sick you should seek the best medical advice available to you and obey it. But the pseudoscience is strong in the individuals in question.)
My neighbours are mostly elderly and I would feel improper asking them to clean up my messes for me. My landlady is a dear, knows about my migraines, and if she knew I was in trouble would probably be able to find someone who could help. She’s seen my flat in disarray before (she took care of my pets when I very suddenly had to go help my mother recover from a surgery (she recovered well)). It’s mostly shame that keeps me from reaching out to people I know. And expecting other people (even those who seem trustworthy—after all, I’d known those religious people for a years) to assume I’m mentally ill instead of helping.
My girlfriend also lives far away (we’re planning to get gay marriaged and move in together, but there are a lot of logistics to sort out because her country is difficult to move to, and Hungarian is a very hard language to learn (and there are other, valid reasons that mean it would make more sense for me to move there. It will probably be another year yet till I can move. Even though we are engaged, it will take many months for the visa to be processed, and before that there a million and one hoops I have to jump through (health checks, background checks, saving up money, and more) to get the 60+ pages of forms filled out and submitted. she is available daily on skype for moral support, and can tell me when I’m overthinking things. (Until I got all these responses, I really did think that there was just some basic step to laundry washing that everyone but me knew and I was stuck going over the steps in my head trying to figure out how to get into a universe where I do not have frequent, sudden, unpredictable headaches that lead to situations like these. this step by step analysis of all of a problem is great for identifying the racing condition that is causing the bug in the code I’m writing. But it’s not useful for simple things like laundry where I understand the steps of putting clothes in, adding detergent, and taking them out, and can’t think my way into a situation where my clothes aren’t rotting in the washing machine.
I didn’t sleep last night (was too panicked about the washing machine), but today my girlfriend talked me into running it a couple times. I set it to 60°C, added extra detergent and vinegar, extra fabric softener, and ran it twice, napped, and then woke up to my mother calling to tell me to expect a phone call from my sister (who also lives far away), and I had wanted to wash it a couple more times before trying to take anything out. But I couldn’t, because I wouldn’t be able to hear my sister on the phone if the washer was going. She didn’t call till 11pm, so tomorrow I’ll wash them a few more times. I peeked after the second wash, and the fungus is no longer visisble, and the smell has decreased and was no longer dizzying. Tomorrow, I’m going to try to wash them a few more times, and if I can, I will try to take them out. If I can’t, I’m not sure what I’ll do. But I figure that the washing does seem to have killed at least some of the fungus which will make them safer to handle when I get to the point of deciding whether to put them into a trash bag and carry them downstairs to the bins or whether some of them are safe.
It might be possible to wash them daily, and then when I hit a day where my pain levels are lower I can take them out and make a decision. This does seem like a tremendous waste of water, detergent, and fabric softener, and my financial resources are not unlimited . But it’s summer, and hot, and 82% humidity, and I left out a bowl of ramen noodles that I couldnt finish last week and it grew visible fungus within 8 hours. so it’s the season where everything will rot if i’m not on the ball all the time, which i cant be. And comments here have made me realise that my usual strategy of “wait till i’m feeling well and then deal with it” won’t work if the thing that needs dealing with is actively making me sick, which it might well be.
8-hours to grow fungus on cooked food seems far too fast.
I am not an expert on this. You should find an expert on this either here or in your local community to look at conditions in your apartment.
My concern is that you may have fungus/mold elsewhere in your apartment (perhaps behind the dry-wall i.e. in the walls) or elsewhere, and that this fungus is releasing spores that’re growing in your ramen.
As a preliminary measure, I suggest improving the ventilation by keeping the windows open and maybe the front door to create a cross-breeze.
Do you have access to a free medical expert like a doctor or clinic? I would go there as soon as possible and tell them about the fungus growing on your clothes, growing on your ramen after 8 hours, as well as your migraines and any other problems. They may be able to contact the correct authorities if there is a public health hazard.
Once again, I am not an expert and have little direct knowledge about this; however, in all my experience living in very hot and humid climates I’ve never seen fungus grow on cooked food left out over 8 hours. I hope the other LWers here can provide better clarity into whether my concern is valid.
I’m not an expert either, but I think there’s enough evidence to be pretty certain there’s a problem. I don’t know whether the authorities in Hungary are likely to be helpful, or what kinds of cleaning services are available or how much they cost. It might even be worth moving to a different apartment.
Well, it was food left out of refrigeration as well. I’ve never really thought of ramen as cooked food—it was heated in the microwave for the required time, though, so I suppose you’re right.
Humidity has been around 80-90% recently, and the temperature that day was probably no higher than 30. The amount of growth was small—just a few clusters less than a centimetre in diametre, but black and definitely fungus. I put it on the opposite side of the room where it wouldn’t be near me and let it grow a little longer and it was covered within a few days.
The building is made entirely of concrete. If you think of a stereotypical cold war era eastern european apartment building, you’ll get the idea, though ours has been prettied up (insulated, new windows put in, painted cheerfully) by the city. The walls in this room are hard to the touch, but in my bedroom, the wall is slightly spongy, but not visibly damaged in any way. The sponginess is uniform throughout and feels like I’m pressing against styrofoam instead of concrete. I assumed it was some sort of insulation.
I live on the fifth floor with cats and have no fly screens. There are shutters in the bedroom, so I leave the windows open and the shutters closed, so that air can get in, but cats can’t get out. The window in this room leads to a balcony, though, which the cats are scared of because they don’t like the noises from the street, so I can open the window in here as well if I keep an eye on them. They really like sitting on windowsills, though, so I’m careful about that. The cats aren’t allowed in the kitchen (enforced by a closed door), so I can leave windows open there. I can also air out different rooms alternately with closed doors.
This is what the fungus looks like that was on my clothes: http://pics.livejournal.com/pthalogreen/pic/0012sbbx I managed to wash it twice yesterday, which decreased the smell and made the spots go away. I want to wash it a few more times before deciding what to do, and I think washing will kill at least enough of the spores to make it safe for me to throw them out, if I deem them unsalvageable.
There is a doctor I know of who would see me for free that I could go to. I’ve lived here for almost three years, and I really like my landlady. Also, I’m planning to move in with my girlfriend in about a year. It can’t be sooner, because it will take a long time for my visa application to be processed. I am still at the satge where I have to run around and gather things for the application, but health problems makes it difficult. I want to improve my life as much as I can before I can move, but I’m reluctant to do drastic things ilke move out when I know I’ll be moving again so soon.
If your health deteriorates further then you will not be able to complete your planned move, much less do something drastic like move now.
If your environment has toxic fungus, you cannot live for a year there and expect to be in any condition to move, to apply for a visa, or perhaps to be out of the hospital. I am trying not to be alarmist, and would very much like the opinion of better informed readers on the relative danger/safety of your situation, but you need to examine how much you weigh the inconvenience of moving or doing something about the problem versus your health or existential risks.
I’ve moved four times in the last three years across three continents. I’ve been lucky enough to not be coping with migraines and to have enough cashflow to make it work. I only mention it to point out that it is eminently feasible.
Is there anyone you can stay with for say a week to see if your condition improves vis-a-vie the migraines?
I don’t know whether you can afford it, but it may help to buy a dehumidifier to lower the humidity in & near your kitchen. That should make it harder for mould to grow successfully.
A new one costs £100-200 here (which Google’s currency converter says is about 30k-60k HUF), but they should last for 3-10 years, so the cost is amortized over quite a long time. The only maintenance they should need is being emptied daily (maybe twice a day in a very humid environment), which only takes a couple of minutes.
Edit: of course, before you buy one, it’s probably a good idea to borrow one from a friend or hire one so you can test it for a few weeks and see if there’s an improvement first.
Move.
It sounds like you’re living in a toxic environment which is making you sick. Does that fit your experience (is your history of illness—migraines, etc. - concentrated in the time when you’ve been living in your current apartment)? So find a new place to live. And be careful what you bring—you don’t want to bring the toxic stuff with you.
As a trial run, you could try staying someplace else for a week or so to see if you feel better. Bring as little with you as possible (even the clothes you wear should be new/borrowed), and don’t go back to your apartment at all during that time.
I am planning to move in about a year’s time, to live with my girlfriend who I’m engaged to and live together. I cannot move sooner because to move in with her, I need to apply for a partner visa, and then wait for it to be processed. It is theoretically possible to move somewhere else, in the interim, but it’s only a year, and I don’t think I have the energy to move right now. Also, I really like my landlady. She’s the kindest person I know. My previous apartments were much worse. At the last one, I was attacked and then stalked by a neighbour and the landlady talked to me about the commandment not to commit adultery (neither of I nor the neighbour are married.) Before that things were kinda okay for five months, then the landlady had “new ideas for the apartment” and I had to move into the first place I found. Before that I was living with an aunt would say to me without warning “we’re going somewhere in an hour. wash [explicit list of body parts including private ones] but dont wash your hair or [random list of body parts].” and never mind if I already had plans (like a class to go to or something). There was more insanity that that, this is just an example. And before that there was a mother who was worse than the aunt. And before that there were two parents, which was the worst of all.
Here, the neighbours say hello in the stairwell and that’s it. No one bothers me. I’m not afraid to leave the apartment. My landlady is understanding. So, fungus is a step up. and there will be another step up in a year when I get to live with the girl of my dreams.
I have two cats that can’t be abandoned for a week, and im not sure where i’d go anyway.
To summarize your situation, it sounds like your apartment has a serious mold/fungus problem which is causing your health issues.
If you’re not confident that this is true you could test it to be sure (e.g., by living someplace else for a week), but if you accept that it’s true then you can plan the next step. You have a few options:
Option 1 is for you to move. It will take some work, but it’s something that you know how to do (you’ve done it before) and it’s the surest way to get away from the fungus. You could get other people to help you.
Option 2 is to try to rid your apartment of the fungus. That is also going to be a lot of work, and it involves technical knowledge/skills which you don’t have (it’s not just a matter of some vacuuming and dusting). There is probably information about it online, or you could try to find an expert to help or at least advise you. You also don’t know if it will succeed—you might just reduce the amount of fungus, only to have it grow right back. If you go for this option you should get help, probably including the help of the landlady, since it is her apartment (and it sounds like she’ll want to help).
Option 3 is to do nothing and stay in your apartment for the next year. If you do that, your health probably won’t get any better. Migraines, lack of energy, difficulty doing things—those problems will all continue. They might even get worse with continued exposure, or cause more permanent problems (I don’t know what the exact risks are—that’s something else to look up online or check with experts on). (Unless your health problems have been seasonal—then they might become somewhat less bad in the winter and then blossom again in the spring.) You’d be choosing another year of more of the same, and it will continue to be hard to do the things that you’re planning—the visa application, moving, getting married. If you try option 2 and don’t do a good enough job of it, it could easily collapse into option 3.
As others have mentioned get help. If you have no friends who can do it look on Craigslist for someone who cleans houses. Explain the situation to them and have them bring their steam cleaner.
While the clothes are washing have them steam clean your carpets at least twice.
Then when you get done paying this off, go get a good vacuum cleaner, and if you are the sort of person who’s always tracking in dirt (I am) get a cheap carpet shampooer.
Also—have to comment—the migraine thing really should be your focus. My wife gets these and absolutely refuses to do the food/activity diary thing, is horrible about exercise and the rest. Fortunately for her she only has them for a day or two about once a month.
We don’t have Craigslist in Hungary, but we have a newspaper for classified ads that posts the ads online as well. I could search that to see if anyone’s advertising something. My landlady has a steam cleaner and has said I can borrow it sometime.
I always take off my shoes at the door, but the cats get hairballs (I give them special treats to cut down on hairballs, which seems to help, but not 100%), and accidents happen, so some sort of shampoo might work.
I wrote a small program in PHP/MYSQL for keeping track of my migraines. You list what you ate that day, what (and how much) you drank, how much you slept and between what hours, pain levels, other complaints, and a few other things. It keeps track of your menstrual cycle as well (if you’re doing it every day, there’s a checkbox to check on the first day of the cycle). It then lets you sort by any of those criteria so that you can look back over the data and try to make sense of it. It’s not hosted online anywhere (i was never done tinkering with it, and i never added anything like a login form or support for multiple users, so you have to have a server with php and mysql set up on your computer to run it. I kept track of it for a while, but then started forgetting more and more and I had no idea how to analyse the data I’d amassed (and probably would’ve needed more data anyway). Also, I wasn’t sure if I was asking the right questions (or enough of the right questions). A big source of my migraines was the bad mattress I was sleeping on, which wasn’t even in that data. Getting a new mattress earlier this year helped a lot, but things have started to get bad again (though now at least, I know I’m sleeping well on a good mattress).
Maybe the problem was the stuff living on the mattress, rather than the mattress itself. And now it’s grown back.
Well, here’s one solution that may solve a couple of your problems. Redo your migraine log such that you can have individual logins/tracking, then wrap a social community around it. Crowd source (to use a buzzword) your migraine issue and figure out a way to both help others and have others help you.
There will be no simple way to analyze your data other than to sit down and look for patterns. Play with different ways of looking it it.
Heck, it COULD be related to your not eating enough. Low blood sugar is one headache trigger (for me), and chronic low blood sugar plus smoking could EASILY be a problem.
Looking down thread it very well could ALSO be a mold or other environmental issues.
If you’re planning on moving out of the country in a year or two, what is the possibility of you just going to live with your mom or sister until your visa/travel arrangements are fixed? This may alleviate your financial problems (you can always pay your mom/sister “rent” but it will be less than you are paying now), get you into a cleaner place (which might clear up some of your health issues) and get you to a point where you focus on quitting the smokes (which is about the toughest thing I’ve ever done, to include US Marine Corps boot camp and a year in Baghdad).
You could use hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine bleach. It’s not as effective as a disinfectant but it’s odorless, cheap, and probably a lot more effective than vinegar. If you get 3% concentration (the most common) you’ll probably need to pour a whole bottle over the clothes, then wait an hour or two.
Depending on what’s underneath the carpet, you could consider just removing it.
That’s an idea. I’ll look for some hydrogen peroxide next time I’m at a store.
I would love nothing better than to rip out this carpet. Even if there was nothing but concrete underneath it, I would gladly consider that infinitely better than this mess of crumbs, kitty litter that the cat kicked out of the box, cat hair, human hair, cat vomit, cigarette ash, dust, the microscopic creatures that feed on all of that, and their poo. It’s an ugly orange colour that was fashionable when it was installed over 30 years ago. In some places, it’s threadbare. It’s a nylon carpet, which means it holds onto hair and dust and won’t let it go.
I’m a renter, though, so it’s not my decision. I’m not sure if getting rid of the carpet (and replacing it with nothing but the bare concrete underneath it) would devalue the property (“carpeted” sounds so nice and soft under your feet—though this the carpet is neither) or increase its value (it really is a terrible carpet). I might bring it up with the landlady, but I’m tempted to just put up with it for the year or so longer that i’ll be here before i can move in with my girlfriend.
I’ve sent an overview of your situation to all my friends who are doctors or training to be doctors. I will let you know their opinion. (I’ve also included information from your meat and vegetables post).
I strongly suggest you do not wait for them to get back to me and consult with local experts as soon as possible.
Also, if anyone in the LW community has medical training or knows someone who does who would be willing to offer an opinion on this, I encourage them to do so.
So far have gotten back responses from two doctors / doctors-in-training. They both strongly suggest seeing a social worker to find out what resources are available vis-a-vie cleaning your apartment, improving your living situation, etc.
They also suggest you might take vitamin B and folate supplements, but you should check with your doctor to see if you have any deficiencies that may be contributing to your chronic pain and tiredness (as you mentioned in the eating vegetables and meat post).
Finally, there are a number of follow-up questions. You don’t need to answer all of these, and ultimately what matters is that you see your doctor, but if you want here they are. Feel free to respond by PM.
Is the chronic pain a recent or long-term problem?
Are the migraines a recent or long-term problem?
Are you depressed? Do you have a history of depression?
Any history of eating disorders?
For the unnumbered reason of potentially getting another migraine by having to do the laundry, and just in general to get past this rut/problem: Ask a friend or family member for assistance with the task. Alternately, offer someone money to do your laundry (an amount less than the cost of replacing the clothes).
For 4 specifically, maybe try wearing gloves (dishwashing gloves or latex gloves) to avoid touching the mold/fungus directly.
Could a face mask and nose plugs help with exposure to the fungus?
Google “N95 mask”.
I think I could hold some clean cotton underwear to my face as well, which helps when the kitty litter is stinky, though that would leave me one handed, so if i can find some, your solution will probably help.
These are good suggestions. I will try. I’ve made some progress (girlfriend talked me into running it a few times without opening the drum to touch the scary stuff, and the smell has gone down and the fungus has decreased) since the taking it out is the risky part (it can be fairly loud, but i mostly cant hear it if i close the door to the bathroom and also the one to the hallway), killing some of the fungus, even though i couldnt take it out today, was a useful activity that may buy me more time and will make it safer to handle the clothes when I am feeling well enough to either hang them out or put them in a large trash bag.
Re: vacuuming when you are physically unable.
I strongly recommend an iRobot vacuum cleaner (roomba). It will vacuum for you.
By the sound of it, your carpet is badly ingrained with dirt, so the vacuum will not get it all out in one day—but if you set it to vacuum every day (which few humans would normally do voluntarily, but the roomba doesn’t mind) it is highly likely that over time it will improve until “clean” it a normal state for it.
Another benefit: Having a robo-vacuum on a schedule forces you to get in the habit of picking objects (papers, clothing) up off the floor.
But pets, smoking, and moldy clothes? Ick. A robot vacuum isn’t going to put a dent in that.
pthalo: Think of your pets. They probably don’t enjoy living in that environment. You owe it to them to make your home pleasant.
Yes—though I’ll admit that I discovered the “floor mess” easily becomes “chair and table mess” without having to actually put the things away… Still—it’s a step in the right direction. :)
Here is someone’s solution to that problem. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t personally vouch for it, but it seems likely to work in most cases.
Looks pretty awesome, actually. Quite a sensible progression, and looks like it would indeed be a good way of keeping up with the most important bits.
Though I must say, I have much more than just one laundry-basket of “stuff” to put away—and nowhere to put it away (only one cupboard in my little flat right now). When I get back to Australia and normal-sized apartments, I’ll be able to keep up with that part, and will simply adapt it for now.
This related one seems good for sorting out mess: the taxonomy of mess
I wonder how frequently she goes through this progression, and how long it takes her. It sounds like it’s her weekend schedule. Part of what puts me off housework is that there are so many other things I’d rather be doing… I know that’s the same for everybody, but still.
woah, that is so totally cool. Expensive—more than a month’s rent and utilities combined, but seriously cool.
Also, they sell them in my country—even in my city, and the webpage says they have a promotion thing where you can borrow it for a night and then take it back the next day for free—under the idea that a person would be sold on the idea and wouldnt want to go back to their old vacuum cleaner. So, basically, I could get my carpet cleaned for free, and then give it back. If the thing would clean it thoroughly (and I’d be willing to babysit it for a night if it needed to be emptied frequently), it’s possible that it could get enough of the ingrained dirt out that i could make reasonable progress with regular vacuuming.
I like that idea. Yes you could do it in a night. It’ll seem frustrating if you watch it (because it ha a random walk algorithm)- so don’t. Just let it do its thing and empty it every so often. It will clean your floor so thoroughly that you’ll be surprised.
On 2: What kind of drugs are we talking about that don’t help? If you haven’t tried triptans, that could be a thing.
drugs that don’t help:
1) anything over the counter (aspirin, ibuprofin, acetomenicin (sp?), etc.) do not touch my pain levels.
2) coffee can lower my pain levels by a small amount, but i am sensitive to caffeine and use it sparingly.
3) i have some (expired) tramadol, which gave me rebound headaches, so i stopped taking it.
4) promethazine used to help a lot, but i think my body got used to it, and now it does nothing.
5) Quarelin (metamizol-sodium, caffeine, drotaverin-hidrochlorid), which is available here, but was taken off the market in most western countries because of a few deaths, does help, but i’m wary of taking it too often or too much. it won’t make it all better, but it can take me down from a 7-8 to a 3-4 on my pain scale. i can function at a 4, but stlil have to be careful. I’m useless at an 8.
6) i think they tried some antidepressants as well as a teenager, since i was depressed in addition to the migraines back then, and some antidepressants have been found to help with migraine. (I am no longer depressed), but they didn’t help (neither with the depression nor with the migraines). 14 different psychiatric medications were tried, most of them were not approved for use in children, all of them caused bad side effects, and i still have facial twitches which started when I was a 12 year old on zoloft. (i am 27 now). this has made me wary of medication, since most meds cause harm even when they do good, but i am willing to try medications with a patient doctor who understands that if there is a rare side effect (lactation, aphasia, sleeping 18 hours a day, extreme paranoia), I will probably get it and deem it worse than the condition it was meant to treat.
i’ve never taken the preventative meds for migraines, just the PRN ones.
My access to medical care is somewhat limited by not having insurance (€25 a month), but I know a doctor who is willing to see me even though I don’t have a health card and who might be willing to help me access medication at health card rates. Deciding whether to see her and take advantage of this is a moral quandary. On the one hand, I believe this to be stealing and I believe stealing to be absolutely wrong by standards I hold myself to. (It is a black and white issue with regard to my own conduct. I admit to grey areas for other people by assuming they are doing the best they can and making their own choices based on their own moral reasoning.) On the other hand, the citizens, of which I am one, who cannot afford to pay €25 a month for healthcare are the ones who need it the most, the ones for whom preventative healthcare would have vast and far reaching effects beyond their (our) class. And perhaps I would be able to pay the €25 a month for healthcare if I were healthier. The doctor would be at risk for helping me and others like me if they were found out, but the chances of their being found out are small, especially since I have no intention of telling someone who it is that is helping me, and it is their decision to help.
I have accepted help in getting Quarelin in this fashion (it is prescription only, but I prefer the other method of accessing it: going to the pharmacies where the employees won’t ask the prescription). But for experimenting with new medications, I would need to make the decision to see a doctor regularly who can evaluate my progress and make adjustments as needed.
Watch some episodes of “hoarders”. Just a few should provide enough motivation to implement the suggestions of others...