Most of my life I have suffered from your common allergy symptoms, sneezing, congestion, runny nose, etc. I never really pursued testing because I always just dealt with it and moved on.

A couple of years ago my wife and I moved to PA and bought a home (from FL). About a year after moving in I exercised in the basement one night(weights and treadmill). Within a couple of days I experienced what felt like muscle pain (but not sore muscles) in the midde of my back and on the right side of my rib cage. I also experienced some severe fatige. I thought maybe I was just out of shape and overdid it during the workout, so I took it easy for awhile and suspended exercising.

I kept experiencing this all last fall and then my ears starting ringing too (tinnitus). I would have good weeks and bad weeks. The symptoms that were bothering me were:

- Random muscle pain in the back/rib cage
- Fatigue
- Occasional Flushing (pretty infrequent)
- Ringing in the ears (constant, but with varying degrees of severity)

I underwent tons of testing with the doctors to try and get to the bottom of this:

Blood tests, urine samples, stress echo, even a heart catheterization (due to some questionable data picked up from stress echo), gall bladder testing. Result=clean bill of heath. By the way, I was 29 (now 30), male, 6'1", 200 lbs. Not in too terrible physical condition.

As you may guess, doctors got sick of testing and told me to just deal with it. I did get sinus surgery in april this year to remove nasal polyps.

Anyway, in the spring all symptoms went away except for occasional minor ringing in the ears. Life is good until late July 05 when I start getting occasional muscle pains again with more intense ringing in the ears. Tonight I got some instant fatigue while sitting downstairs with a fan blowing on me.

My wife and I were doing some brain storming tonight trying to figure out why all of a sudden I am suffering again, trying to link these symptoms with something I'm doing, eating, etc. No changes in diet. However, we did realize that during late spring/summer I have barely spent any time downstairs or in the basement (we have a split level home where downstairs is half underground and basement is fully underground). I've been outside alot in the yard or on ground level or upstairs when in the house.

All summer I've been suffering typical allergy symptoms, and finally convinced my doc to test my blood for allergies. Turns out I have a high intolerance to certain funguses. I have an appointment with a specialist Sept. 1 for further investigation.

Now I'm wondering if these funguses could be in the lower levels of my home and causing me this extra level of discomfort (beyond normal allergy symtoms). And are these symptoms that I described possibly linked to allergies since I'm very allergic to funguses (according to test results):

- Rining in the ears
- Muscle-like pain
- Fatigue

Allergies experts, please reply.

Apologies for the long post and thank you in advance for your replies.

Flying J

Sounds like your house is making you sick, dampness, mold, fungi etc. Keep track of your symptoms and when they occur. Does it get worse on rainy days?high humidity?are you better on days when you can air out the house?
Change in climate too, from Florida to PA.
There are home kits to check for toxins too, something may be seeping in or in the existing structure, for example the insulation, or even an open drain.
Check out air purifiers, dehumidifiers and also look into supplements that help with immunity and oxidation. Also look into candidia, yeast, and fungi treatment.GL :)

Thanks for the reply DaVinci. I am opening the windows in the house today to let things air out. I'm going to run the dehimidifier in the basement more often too. It has been a very humid summer where I live in PA, this is the worst since I've been here anyway.

I'm kind of holding off on taking anything to treat my condition until after I have an appointment with the specialist in case he performs more testing.

My initial blood test for allergies tested for anitbodies in the blood common to many things in this region. The rating system was 0 to 4, 0 being not allergic at all to 4 being severly allergic. We have a dog and I scored 0 for all tested pets/animals, so no worries there. I tested 1 on a couple of grasses, I sneeze alot after mowing, so that was no suprise. I tested 3+ to fungus, so my doc is sending me to the specialist. I've tried to approach my doc about allergies a couple of time but he always blew me off and just gave me some Flonase and sent me away, I had to really put on the pressure to get this test. Now I'm glad I might be getting somewhere on finding out what is happening.

When I lived in FL I got skin testing, but they could never find anything. I didn't really pursue it much since I only had seasonal sneezes and congestion. What I'm experiencing now really kicks my butt.

Thanks again,

Flyinj

Interesting ,when I had to work in a basement for 8 hours ,i got wheezing .I believe it was exposure to mold. Mold can be in the air ,and make us sick.Mold can cause permanent damage,that is why there have been million dollar law suits on places that have mold ,and made people sick.Best advice is to stay out of the basement,I stay out of basements now ,but still tend to get wheezing once in a while .I never had wheezing before I worked in that basement.My symptoms seem to disapear when I am near an ocean,better air quality. Take care :)

Yes, I think you are reacting to mold. In my experience, mold is different than other allergans. It doesn't necessarily make you sneeze and get a runny nose. Instead it just makes you feel like ill. You need to clean up the mold in your house. Not only run the dehumidifier,but look for obvious mold sources in the basement and clean it up. I would also put an air purifier in the basement and the downstairs.

Yeah, we do have some definate spots of mold down in the basement that needs cleaned up with some bleach. Our basement is not finished, just plain cinder blocks. Last summer we had alot of heavy rains and water seeped through the walls and mold formed where that happened, white mold spots. Also, where the waterline comes into the house, where the pump sits in the basement, the pipes/pump, always sweat and mold forms there too. I'm trying to run the dehumidifier more to reduce the sweat on the pipes. I'm going to give it a couple of days for my symptoms to calm down (they don't go away instantly) and I'll probably get a mask and bleach the walls to clean things up. I also want to replace the carpet downstairs since it could contain unseen mold. Not only is it kind of old, it's ugly.

Thanks for the replies.

FlyinJ

I finally had my allergy tests today turns out I'm allergic to:

3 molds
2 grasses (June, Timothy)
Rag Weed
Dust Mites

He gave me Nasonex and Allegra 180 to take and see if it helps. He thinks that maybe my ringing ears are linked to allergies, but does not think my back pain is linked. Frustrating since it happens often and my doctor will not investigate further into it.

I'm glad you got tested. Now that you know mold is a culprit, make sure you clean it up!

Also, get some dustmite covers for your mattress.

I finally had my allergy tests today turns out I'm allergic to:

3 molds
2 grasses (June, Timothy)
Rag Weed
Dust Mites

He gave me Nasonex and Allegra 180 to take and see if it helps. He thinks that maybe my ringing ears are linked to allergies, but does not think my back pain is linked. Frustrating since it happens often and my doctor will not investigate further into it.

Your doctor is a loser! - Find a good one in your area. I would be surprised if the meds he gave you worked at all! - I also had ringing of the ears. The OTC med Cholortrimeton worked for me. I take that in addition to Nasalcrom. I am also allergic to molds as well.

Thanks for the advice! I'll give that a shot.

Unfortunately I'm under an HMO and he is the only allergy doctor in our area that is covered under the HMO. At least I found out what I'm allergic to though. I have had some unbelievable advice given to me by some of these HMO doctors in the last year and can't wait to enroll in a medical plan that gives me the flexibility to see whatever doctors/specialists that I want in 2006.

Allegra/Nasonex must be doing something though. Yesterday I cut my grass (over 6 acres = 4 hours cutting) and I'm doing pretty well so far. Usually I'm a wreck for a couple of days afterward.

Thanks again,

FlyinJ