Moldy adventures

[Guest guest]

This was one of the first incidents, and it is in many ways one of the

very few where I was not the only one who was affected.

It was 1993. My country was under UN economic sanctions, which

produced extremely high inflation. People didn't travel much to other

countries, except for brief shopping tours. During Summer 1993 my

father and I decided to spend a short holiday in a domestic holiday

resort called Divcibare. It is in fact a small mountain, and it used

to be quite a nice place during 1970s and 1980s, but in 1990s due to

economic sanctions the quality of service deteriorated considerably...

We arrived at the hotel where we placed our reservations, and were

given the keys of our room. As soon as we entered the room I noticed

something wasn't quite " right " . I sat on the bed and felt a slight

itching from the bed sheets through my clothes. Then I washed my hands

with the water in the bathroom of our room, but didn't drink any of

it. My father drank almost a liter of that water. We went outside to

take a walk. In less than 5 minutes I sensed that something on my

hands was spreading on all my clothes and very soon I sensed that my

stomach felt completely blocked. After only half an hour I got severe

diarrhea and nausea. I told my father it was because of the water and

that I was 100% sure of it, but he laughed his ass off. He didn't

believe me one bit.

During lunch I tried to supress this feeling, I tried to believe he

was right after all - that it was all in my head - but the nausea and

stomach upset were not to be tricked in this way. I even drank some of

the hotel water (only a few gulps). It had some unpleasant odour but

it was barely noticeable.

I couldn't eat any food at all. After sunset I was in great pains, but

after having " relieved " myself a bit in the bathroom I thought I would

be able to get some sleep. I was wrong.

My father was ridiculing me all the time in the most humiliating

manner. He told me " How come everyone here is ok and only you are

affected? It's totally unimaginable that the hotel water is bad!

Nobody would come here if that were the case. "

Well, luckily, during midnight the truth began to emerge, so to speak.

My father got so severe diarrhea that he said he couldn't remember

last time he had had something like that. He spent almost all the

night on the toilet.

I was having great problems too, but I didn't drink the water anymore.

My exposure was primarily through the skin and by inhalation. The

hotel bed sheets were severely contaminated.

In the morning both my father and I still had nausea and diarrhea. I

told him to go and find a pharmacy and buy a probiotic medicine that

always used to take care of my stomach broblems.

He went searching for the pharmacy and lo and behold - there was a

whole queue of people in front of the pharmacy. The queue was almost

150 meters long. Everyone had diarrhea. Everyone wanted to buy the

same medicine.

Then a local villager passed by and told them: " Did they not tell you?

The water in that hotel has been contaminated with some nasty stuff

for months! Oh my God, they didn't tell you? Of course, they just want

to get your money. Even they don't drink that water. We all drink only

the spring water. "

Well, this was an eye opener for my dad. Finally there was something I

was complaining at which he also experienced for himself. However, I

got all the symptoms even BEFORE I drank any of the water. All the

other people, my father included, got the symptoms only after having

drank the water. In all probability, if these people had not drank the

water, they wouldn't have had any problems. However, being more

sensitive, I sensed the contamination and got all the symptoms only

throught the skin and by inhalation.

We packed our things, and the next day we returned home. I was very

afraid that the contamintion would be sticky, but luckily it wasn't. I

took a shower and changed my clothes, and in about 4 hours all the

symptoms were gone. Since it went away so quickly, I am inclined to

believe that it wasn't bacterial infection but some mold. Bacterial

infection would last much longer even after evacuation from the place

where the contaminated water was drank.

This goes on to show that although I am more sensitive than other

people, I merely react to an existing and really problematic

contaminations. The fact that other people don't react to smaller

amounts of toxins (which can make me ill for months) does not mean

that these contaminations do not exist, or that I feel them due to my

overloaded immune system.

There were several other incidents like this one, but less striking.

E.g in 1992 when my father and I were slammed by some contaminated

smoke in the vicinity of the Intercontinental Hotel in Belgrade, we

both got diarrhea and nausea. However, his problems lasted only 3

days, whereas mine lasted over 6 months due to greater sensitivity and

the problem with cross-contamination of objects. At that time I didn't

have any idea what these contaminations were. Mold never crossed my

mind then, and I thought it was some odd sort of bacteria or

non-living substance.

Of course, all these incidents did absolutely nothing to convince

either my father or anyone else that I have a problem with

greater-than-usual sensitivity to the toxins that are really present

at certain objects and areas. This notion is so alien to most people

that they will accept any, and I mean ANY other explanation (even the

most dumbfounding ones) just to evade the possibility that my

explanation IS the right one.