It was Christmas Eve and I was breathing so poorly that I called my friend Ivan and asked him to take me to the ER.
While wheeling me in on the ER wheelchair, Ivan’s heart rate spiked. He’s waiting to have an ablation on his heart to get it back to normal rhythm but until then he has to take it easy. I didn’t realize how easy he has to take it until then. We were like a circus trick of bad heart wheeling in bad breathing.
Seeing it was Christmas Eve, the ER was slow. Thank goodness. Intake was quick and then the slog began of having blood taken, an IV inserted, an EKG taken with all those little sticky pads put around my heart and whatnot done to me.
The worst part was having a CAT scan of my sinuses and of my chest. I was wheeled into the scan room and rather than have me get up onto the scanning bed, the technicians activated a hover bed. I hadn’t felt that comfy in forever. It was like being cocooned in a bubble. They hovered me over and onto the scanning bed. Incredible. Then I was put into position that killed my bad shoulder, my neck and my back. Good gracious, it was difficult to keep from crying.
“It’ll just take five minutes. You’ll be okay,” the tall male nurse said.
I sighed. Easy for him to say.
Back in the ER room where Ivan waited patiently for me, I tried to be brave with feeling like crap. The worst part of my time there was the blood pressure cuff. It squeezed my arm until I thought I’d pass out. It was set to update my BP every 15 minutes. My BP spiked to 197/89. I swear it was spiking in anticipation of that damn cuff! If I ever need an automatic BP cuff put on again I’m going to ask/insist they don’t have the cuff set to over 200 to pump to. Give me a break.
The doctor asked several times what started my breathing problems. I told her about accidentally inhaling Diatomaceous Earth six months ago and having bronchitis from that but she wanted a more current cause. I couldn’t pinpoint anything.
My mouth was extremely dry so Ivan handed me my Contigo water bottle. I happened to look at the silicone mouthpiece and saw a ton of black mold inside it. WTH? Black mold? In the mouthpiece? I’ve been sucking on black mold. Poisoning myself.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see the doctor after I discovered the huge amount of black mold in my water bottle.
Symptoms of exposure to mold are: runny nose, sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, shortness of breath, headaches and eye irritation. To prevent mold in your water bottle you can: wash the bottle every day with gentle cleaner and water, deep clean weekly with white vinegar, completely drying bottle before reassembling it.
I’m so embarrassed about not cleaning the water bottles properly but I need to tell about it and inform people just how unhealthy it is. I’m not sure I’ll ever use those bottles again, even after a through cleaning. I can’t believe how sick I got. After only a few days drinking from a clean glass, I’m feeling much better. Much better!
What’s a girl to do?… the ER doctor called to check on me and isn’t convinced that my problem was due to the mold. She voiced concern about a node on my left lung so I guess I’ll just have to keep watch on that via my regular doctor. Oh my, what IS a girl to do?
Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments and shares. To contact her, email lucywgtd@gmail.com
