Rough Winter & Safe Housing

Many people with ES/MCS do not have access to safehousing and so I recognize that I am extremely privileged to have a home that is mostly safe for me. I also recognize that I am very privileged to have a partner and the resources to be able to secure safe housing. It took a lot of work to make our home safe, but from time to time the house is not a safe place for me. Being a student and managing this illness is very complicated. Even if I don’t leave the house or go anywhere, I still get sick at home. I need to have a lot of flexibility in my schedule and I have to take advantage of brain function when I have it. 

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Back in November, there was so much road construction happening in my neighbourhood. Projects were rushed to get completed before the snow started to fly. It seemed as though every street in the city was under construction. I was having exposures from the constantly idling trucks and heavy-duty construction vehicles spewing diesel fumes day after day. My house is well insulated, but it is not impermeable. When it is toxic outside, it is also toxic inside. And when it is toxic, I am unable to do much of anything because all of my body systems descend into chaos on account of the whole 'canary' thing. All I can do is wear my mask and lay in my ‘saferoom’ day in and day out and wait for it to end. Following these sorts of exposures, I usually have about 24-36 hours of normal functioning before I spiral into a migraine that lasts between 24-72 hours.

Later in November, we had a massive amount of snowfall in a short period of time and then it all melted and our basement flooded. What a mess! We (I use ‘we’ lightly here because I actually didn’t do any work) cleaned up and dried out the mess very quickly, but in the process the entire house became contaminated due to circulating the air from the basement throughout the house. All of the towels that were used for cleanup became contaminated and then the washing machine and dryer got contaminated when the towels were washed in them. It was a mess. We were very worried about mould, so we (again, using ‘we’ lightly) tore out all the floors in our finished basement. I was sick for many days and was confined to one room in the house for many weeks and had to take time off from my practicum placement.

There is one room in the house that is sealed off from the heating system and the rest of the house. I call it my ‘safe room’. I keep this room sealed off in the winter because when I am sick I am unable to tolerate our gas furnace. Eventually, we will have to change our furnace, but we simply do not have the money to do this right now.

It has been very cold this winter, which means that the neighbours with woodstoves are supplementing their furnaces by burning wood. The smoke from the woodstoves makes me extremely ill and keeps me from being able to go outside. I have not been able to go for walks as much I did last winter. Also, when it is extremely cold, people idle their cars in theirdriveways for very long periods of time and the harder our furnace works, the more it makes me sick.  Sigh. And the snow blowers, which are more toxic than the cars...etc...

Needless to say, it has been a rough winter.

But there is a silver lining here...

My Environmental Physician wrote me a prescription for an air purifier. We decided it was time to invest in one so that we can better manage the times when the house is not safe. It was a very costly purchase and so we decided to buy it for Christmas. It arrived by post on Christmas Eve and it has just been a lifesaver. I was able to spend time outside of the ‘safe room’ and enjoy visitors during the holidays. What a blessing! I still haven’t been able to be out of the house much this winter, but at least I can be safe inside the house and not be confined to one room.