I love my new gas mask!

Ok, so technically it's a respirator. But "gas mask" sounds more bad-ass, and people know what it means. So I'm sticking with that for now.

pink badassery

I don't look as cool as these guys, but I do seem to be using the same filters. :)  Protects against acid gas and organic vapors, yo.

Meth cooks can drink beer, gluten and all. Moldies usually cannot. Otherwise, we're pretty similar.

I have to wear it to go back into the apartment that made me so severely ill, as I continue to get rid of belongings and sort the rest for storage.  If you're just protecting yourself from dust and mold spores, a lesser mask will do fine. But if you've gotten sick from mycotoxins (the dangerous toxins some molds give off), you need to protect yourself from the invisible toxins in the air too.

If I don't wear the mask back at the apartment, I get intense symptoms again. Within a couple minutes my cognitive function goes downhill fast; my legs start buckling dramatically and it's hard to stand up; my heart races and beats irregularly; my speech becomes labored, etc.

When I *do* wear the mask, I'm more functional in that apartment than I have been in 4 years. It's amazing, like magic. I mean, I'm not magically healed or anything. My overweight 67-year-old mother who had gallbladder surgery a few weeks ago was running circles around me today. After she worked all morning. No mask necessary.

I have years of recovery ahead of me due to all the neuro-immune damage that's been done.

But I've already reaped some health benefits from being away just a week, as have both cats.

not my cat.