Strange Sickness maybe happening around the Southeast US

a reply to: Rocker2013i agree the potential for freaking out hypochondriacs is always a risk with threads like this. But it's useful for tracking regional conditions that can lead to outbreaks of sickness in people and pets. Year to year different climate conditions give rise to different kinds of illnesses. This year is a bad one for people with certain mold allergies and allergies to insects because of tremendous amounts of rain causing house leaks and standing water conditions. Information should not be stifled. But I agree with you that it should not be misused, either.

And lest we forget, sometimes the paranoid are right. There's another thread on ATS reminding us that the government has before conducted regional tests using bacterial pathogens on its citizens. It did this to San Francisco. It happened once before and could happen again. A little vigilance isn't a bad thing.

Just throwing out my experience...
We left for Florida on 7/11 early morning (3am).
The morning of the 12th I woke up with a terrible sore throat and choking on nasal drainage (yuck!)
It felt like I was drowning!
We drove down the eastern half of TN, into GA briefly, and down through the center of Alabama, straight through into FL.
A couple of points...I never get sick. I mean rarely...I can't remember the last time I had a cold or anything. I had a stomach bug a year or so ago but, that very easily could have been food poisoning. We are very germaphobic. We make a point to not touch "public" doorknobs, things like that.
When we got to the place we stay I clean with disinfectant wipes (as usual). It is usually very clean but, there is still turnover of guests. I've always heard that germs and such run rampant in FL as there is no winter to speak of to "kill things off". I lived there a while and never really got sick then either.
Anywho....
I am still battling this thing! I don't like going to the Doctor and I figured it was just a URI and it would run it's course but, today is day 21. UGH!!!! Drowning remains. The tiredness and fever only lasted a day or two...
I did go to the pharmacy when we came home on the 19th and described my symptoms and told her I would not be going to the Doctor...
She recommended All Day Allergy-D It is Cetirizine Hydrochloride and Pseudoephedrine. My Sister and I have a joke about that. She was diagnosed once with Pseudo something or another and we were like "so it's not real?"
I'm taking this stuff every once in a while and it sort of seems to help although I am not good with taking pills. Prolly why I don't take my depression meds regularly either...
It seems the medication is just holding back "the flow" so to speak and I remember something my Mom used to say when I was growing up.
Blow your nose! You have to get that stuff out of you if you want to get better! So....
Her in TN you have to show your ID to get that Allergy stuff. I wonder what I should do with the unused pills?...just kidding really...
I have to go to Nashville next week so, I suppose I'll go infect the western half of the State.
Just my two cents...hope everyone has a fantastic day and feels better!

a reply to: TNMockingbird
Good grief, 21 days! I hope you feel better soon now that you're on medication. I've been waking up the past couple of days with congestion and Claritin with the pseudo ephedrine has been helping. But usually I use regular Claritin. The pseudo ephedrine acts as a mild stimulant on me. I think some people use it to make meth or something and that's why it's now hard to get.

So I think in my case it's some kind of allergy. Normally allergy season for me is March-June. I'm almost never bothered with congestion this late in summer. So my guess is still holding at a mold allergy. Oddly,,we've actually had far fewer mushrooms showing up on the lawn than last summer. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any.

But I've been having to keep up with the laundry faster than usual because damp towels quickly get a nasty moldy smell I end up having to bleach out if I let them sit for even a day. So theres a different variety of mold proliferating this summer. And we've had a lot of rain. The spores are probably everywhere even if it's not the kind that makes mushrooms on the lawn.

a reply to: SheeplFlavoredAgain

That's interesting about the towels!
My S.O. keeps up with pools at work and one turned green overnight.
He worked on it all the next day...the County inspector just happened to come by the next day or so and said
there was a bacteria that people were bringing up from Fl that was especially virulent. It took about three days, if memory serves me to get it back on track.
I've made a pot of coffee and am upright, for now, so as to not drown...