Okay, here is the truth!

My story idea was coming from my real life--sort of.

I've been sick. All last fall I was terribly sick. The list of symptoms was as long as my arm. I was afraid for the longest time that I had MS. The problem was that I had some symptoms of MS, but other symptoms weren't on the MS list. We even checked for diabetes. Some of my symptoms have been coming on over the past six years. I have had so many tests run and they have been so terribly expensive. Time and again, the tests indicated that I was healthy in every way. Time and again, the result was, "good news."

Then, for some mysterious reason that I couldn't explain, over Christmas the symptoms all vanished for the duration of the holidays. The day Ike returned to school, the symptoms came on with a vengence. That was the same week that I discovered something in my coffee maker when I was cleaning it, some mysterious white stuff. Three days later, out of curiousity, I took the sprayer head off my coffee pot and there was another something--not white stuff, but crystal like stuff. What ensued in the next three weeks was very much like paranoia. I'll take that back, it became paranoia. I suspected everything and everyone. And there were some misleading clues--just like getting well over Christmas.

Obviously, I wouldn't touch the coffee from the coffee maker. I found that our ice had the white powder stuff in it too. I began to drink bottled water. I went to buy my coffee in the mornings. I drank my pop without ice. Doing that helped a great deal and the symptoms subsided somewhat, but could still suddenly hit. A few times something would happen that mystified me. For example, one evening I grabbed a can of pop out of the refrigerator and washed the top. While I was eating my dinner, something burned my upper lip severly. I knew I had washed the top of the can--so what else could have caused it?

Even after I began to realize it may be the water, I stubbornly tried trusting it. Sometimes it didn't make me sick. That happened just enough to keep me from figuring it out. But then one night when I'd run out of bottled water, I filled my bottle with tap water. After I took a drink, I felt a mini-explosion in my mouth and it burned the entire roof of my mouth like a chemical burn. For the next two days I was terribly ill. Some of these attacks were so extreme that I did believe that I could die from them. It took more than a week for it to heal. That was when a new phenomenon began in that sometimes when I brushed my teeth it was as though I had used acid. Rinsing repeatedly didn't help.

There were other reasons that the paranoia grew. For one, I am the only one who is sick. Considering these extreme symptoms, it seems impossible that everybody else is just fine. At this point I still only have suspicions. I have no proof of anything. But I am narrowing it down to my water as the source. If it is water, it is anything that has been touched by the water--even my hands. The more I try to isolate it, the more illusive it becomes. It can be caused by a dried drop of water in the bottom of a cup or a film over the bottom of my cooking pans. Potatoes boiled in the water disintigrate and my stainless steel pans are stained black and I can't scrub the blackness out with Barkeepers Friend.

In an attempt to research it, I come up against all the black mold hype and I can't find the information I need on what I think may be a common mold that most of you can live quite comfortably with. I finally found a general list of symptoms that can be caused by molds and every symptom I have had is among them except for an apparent link to joint pain during my "attacks".

Now, let me explain: we are on a private water system. It is well water and it is untreated water. The owner tests his wells every month, just as he ought to. It is such good water that people who are on dialysis come and buy it. In truth, it was so good, it was very difficult for me to finally accept that it may not be so very good for me. On the other hand, the problem could be in our own water lines in our house, so the water coming in could be just fine. And one more thing--I have not managed to prove this yet! It is all just theory. Perhaps what I need is a visit to an allergist!

I have two sets of symptoms:
Saltiness on my skin and in my saliva
Dry eye, thick tears, nasal congestion, cough, thick to almost no saliva, extreme thirst.
Cold sweats, hot flashes, menopausal symptoms (which were ignored since I am THAT age--but that go away as soon as I manage to avoid the contagion for a few weeks.)
Imbalance or inability to walk straight
Strange heartbeats, suppressed heart action, pain in my chest, or at times up to 120 beats per minute (I almost went to the ER)
Blood in my urine (the longest running symptom and the one that has been the cause of so many repeated visits to the doctor, but no infection, no bacteria)
Blurred and double vision, increasing floaties in my eyes, sensitivity to light and recently noticing that in the dark, my left eye is blinded by a white light haze.
Bitter flavor in my mouth that taints everything I eat or drink, but is sometimes so extreme it burns like acid.
Burning in my eyes, excessive tearing (see the contradiction in the sets of symptoms!), little explosions or bursts of pain in my eyes, pink eye look.
Headaches, lethargy, muddled thinking, confused thinking, memory lapses, symptoms like extreme depression, irritability, tiredness.
Joint pain.
Digestive symptoms.
Dry nose, scabs in nose, similar scabs in ears . . .

The sum total is that the whole idea makes for a good story! If I could just get well! We are talking about temporary measures to remove me from this house until a solution can be found. Minimal expense is a necessity since we haven't got the money for lavish solutions. I've thought of moving to my rent house, but it actually has a longer running mold problem than this house--but perhaps not the molds that are causing my problem and it is on city water that is chlorinated. And, I am even considering moving my camper trailer to the local campground if that fails. Meanwhile, I can leave my husband to deal with the house.