Could my new home be making me sick?

[Irishgal]

About 3 weeks ago we moved into a new rental house. It appears to be in good, clean condition, built in 1950. Ever since I have slept in this house I feel horrible. My chest is tight, feels "heavy" actually, increased congestion, even slight chest pain every so often, etc. I went for my check up last week and my lung function has dropped 5% points. I started oral prednisone, cipro, and my cycle of inhaled cayston. I am finishing my cipro tonight and am down to 20 mg prednisone (will taper to 10mg tomorrow), and I don't feel any better. If anything, I feel worse. I especially feel bad in the mornings. There is a large attic right next to my bed and I am starting to wonder if that is causing a majority of my problems. I just feel awful every morning-puffy eyes, stuffed up nose, etc. on top of all the other symptoms I am experiencing throughout the day.
I am concerned that everything I tried has not worked (cipro, prednisone), etc. and the next step is IV antibiotics which I dread doing, especially if something else cold be causing my symptoms. It just seems too coincidental that all of my symptoms hit the minute we moved into this house..... Have any of you experienced this? Is there a way to get air quality testing done, and if so, can anything remedy poor air quality due to mildew, aspergillus, or anything else that may be causing my issues? The basement is damp, and we have had water trickling in through the roof in one area of the house that the owner is fixing as soon as possible.
Any advice/experience/input would be much appreciated.

 

[Irishgal]

Another thing to add is that the owner of the home laid fresh mulch all around the property right after we moved in. The smell was initially very strong and is still giving off odor. Could the mulch be contributing to my symptoms as well?

 

[Twistofchaos]

Stress of moving seems more likely to me, but everything's possible.

You can check humidity with a cheapo analog humidity thing from the dollar store. Or a simple weatherstation with humidity for maybe 10 bucks. Now in summer you might get over 70% indoors, much higher would be problematic. Lower than 50% (40% in winter) would suck too.

Can you close the attic with a hatch? Don't want to sleep in drafty air indeed as that could cause the stuffy nose.

Do you have a history of allergies?

Here in the Netherlands pretty much all basements are damp because of groundwater, unlikely to cause problems unless you're there half the day.

 

[imported_Momto2]

Yes, it could. I react very quickly to houses that have mold, dust, animal dander, mice, you name it. And if I have to stay there, I get sick within a few days. ( I have learned I simply dont stay, no matter what) I would suggest getting a heavy-duty hepa filter and sticking it in your bedroom, running it 24/7 and see if that helps. It's been my experience that a damp basement and CF is a very bad combination. Do you have a de-humidifyer down there? Is the attic sealed off? I'd personally stay out the basement and attic until the issues are resolved.

 

[Melissa75]

I'm sorry you're dealing with this when you should be enjoying your new home. Here's a goofy story before I get into your questions. Before I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis, I made my husband move a heavy expensive sofa out of our living room and into our basement because it was making me cough. Later I realized that I had only been using it to lie down at the end of the day and watch a bit of TV. The issue was postural drainage and moving mucus, not an allergy to down. 10+ years later, the beautiful sofa is still in the basement because it's heavy as heck and the leatherish replacement couch is addictively wipeable.

I think that in addition to getting back to baseline, you need peace of mind. Could your health problems be from the stress of moving? Definitely. Could your new house have a mold or excessive dust mite problem? Possibly. See this thread: http://forum.cysticfibrosis.com/threads/17057-Mold-inspection

If an inspection turns out fine, then you still probably should hire or have family/friends do a deep cleaning of the attic and all its nooks and crannys (vacuum, damp rag wipe-down), and should put an air filter next to your bed and stay out of the attic and basement anyway, as Momto2 suggested. If there IS mold, then the home owners should pay for remediation. We got the name of our mold inspector from a trusted home inspector. They did testing only, not remediation, so there was no incentive to make the problem seem huge.

 

[Jennyvb17]

I got really sick once due to mold in a rental. Seemed like a nice place but the mold was in the crawl space. I wasn't ever in direct contact.

If I were you I'd try to stay with parents or a friend for a few weeks. If it really is the house, you should feel better in a few days with the steroids.

Good luck!