| As a boy growing up, I often sneezed for no reason | | | | gradually lost its swollen look and new, pink skin |
| and sometimes had a problem with my breathing. In | | | | appeared. None of our guests recognized me when I |
| college, to take advantage of a free screening | | | | appeared for the first time downstairs.Ten years later, |
| program, I subjected myself to twenty patch tests. It | | | | an Army sergeant told me to climb into the rafters of |
| turned out that I was allergic to house dust, | | | | the radio building and vacuum the dust on the beams. |
| phosphates, mold spores, mildew and of all things, my | | | | My warnings of the danger to my health only |
| own bacteria.I found out about phosphates the hard | | | | convinced him that I didn't like the job. Fifteen minutes |
| way. I read somewhere that bat guano made good | | | | later, he had to take me to the hospital.A small, but |
| fertilizer. If followed that the 20,000 bats that lived in | | | | sudden temperature drop at about sixty-five degrees |
| our attic must produce plenty of fertilizer for my | | | | triggers a catalyst in my blood causing me to sneeze. |
| garden (four tomato plants). After ten minutes I | | | | Usually I try to avoid going outside at dusk because |
| collected about five pounds of "fertilizer" and two | | | | that is when mold spores are released from the damp |
| minutes later my throat closed up completely, cutting | | | | earth. But one time the mold and mildew spores |
| off my supply of air. I started for the stairs but fell as I | | | | almost killed me. A |
| entered the second step. Thankfully, my mother heard | | | | few years ago my breathing ability started to decline. |
| the bumping noise and came running. She breathed into | | | | Over-the-counter medication alleviated the symptoms |
| my mouth and pumped my chest until I could breathe | | | | somewhat, but after a month of suffering, I admitted |
| again. I later found out that the benefit of bat guano as | | | | that I needed professional help. A short walk of only |
| fertilizer is from its phosphate content.Just as serious | | | | ten feet had me gasping for breath! A shocked |
| was a bout of poison ivy. In the woods around our | | | | allergist tried to admit me into the hospital but I wouldn't |
| house grew poison ivy vines with trunks as big as my | | | | go. She finally agreed to treat me at home and in her |
| arm and extending thirty feet into the air. These | | | | office on a strict regimen of steroids and rest. I |
| mature plants produced small red berries in July. My | | | | required three weeks of treatments on a breathing |
| brother and I used them as ammunition for our blow | | | | machine before I could breathe normally. The cause |
| pipes, peppering the birds and cats and whatever else | | | | turned out to be a water problem in the cellar where I |
| we could hit. The next day, my brother turned a brilliant | | | | worked. Continual dampness under the carpeting grew |
| red and itched all over. I had the same symptoms, but | | | | a huge colony of mold and mildew. The owners ripped |
| because I was allergic to poison ivy, my body broke | | | | out the carpet but I didn't stay long enough to see it |
| out in the well-known vesicles. Every inch of my body | | | | done.Knowing the root of your allergy problems can |
| was affected except my scalp and eyeballs. It took | | | | go a long way toward living with them. If you are an |
| two months in bed sipping drinks through a straw and | | | | allergic person, don't put off having yourself tested for |
| staring at the ceiling. At my weakest moment I | | | | the exact cause. It could save your life.While |
| contracted a case of pleurisy pneumonia. A new drug | | | | photography was my main profession, I have dabbled |
| called penicillin saved | | | | in factory work, sales, house cleaning and writing. |
| my life. At the end of the two months, my body | | | | |