I Was Poisoned

This is why I haven’t written since January.

Sick and tuckered out. © Lyon ‘22

I was physically and mentally incapable of writing at all. For two months.

I awoke on Christmas Day to the stench of something dead in my house. Within an hour, I was so nauseated I felt like I had to vomit. Add a dizzy-migraine on top, and I just climbed back into bed, pulling the sheets over my head. It was one of the very worst Christmas Days I’ve ever been through.

I’m particularly sensitive to odors, and I’ve lived for many years being super careful about using organic foods and materials, so I felt supremely vulnerable.

I couldn’t imagine what this smell was, other than it might have been the rat that snuck into my kitchen when the roofers were doing their thing a month before – maybe upsetting the rat’s habitat in or near the roof, so it came down into my kitchen for warmth and possible food.

When I saw it emerge from under my stove, I’d stomped hard on the floor to scare it. I never saw it again. Maybe it had died in the wall, or under the floor, or in the vents.

I’ve lived in places where mice and rats died and stunk. In all cases, the smell only lasted a few days. I determined to wait it out.

But every time I turned the heat on or up, the stink wafting out into the house was unbearable, so I’d turn it back off and just put on another blanket, or one more layer of clothing.

Soon I looked as I I lived in the Arctic, all muffled up, waddling around with two pairs of thick pants, wooly sox, thick flannel shirt and big sweater, poofy outside jacket, double scarves, and shoulder wraps.

But the smell never ceased. In fact, it got worse.

Since I’m so nice (haha), and I knew the management people were all on holiday, I waited until January 2nd to contact them.

But by now, I was freezing cold, only turning my kitchen stove on to at least be a little warm when I ate, in order not to turn the vented heat on. However, I’d had enough – time to call this in.

They laughed and waved hands, hahaha, it’s probably a mouse, just wait.

Ha ha ha. Not funny!

After repeated emails and texts to management, they finally took me seriously enough, and sent over a guy to look under the building. Nothing.

A couple days later, they sent another guy to look at the heating/AC unit. Nothing.

A couple days later, another one to look inside, behind all the cabinets and stove, at the vents and attic area. Nothing.

We all thought it must be the rat I’d seen. So they sent another guy to patch a hole in the wall by the stove. Not sure that did much good.

By a couple weeks later, I was getting really mad – how much longer do I have to live like this? I considered suing, going down the get-mad-blast-them-with-anger route. But in my experience, that just makes things worse.

Besides, I’m not good at sustaining the attitude I’d have to have if I played Karen.

So I decided to Be Nice. Being civil has benefited me with way more results than nastiness and contentiousness.

I don’t consider myself to be a Nice Person. I say it as it is, which puts a lot of people off. When tact and diplomacy were handed out, I was outside smoking.

But somehow I had to get through this with everyone on the same side. You can’t sue and bitch and moan and attack people, and then demand their help or consider them an ally.

So I be’d nice.

I called and asked them how they’d feel to live as I was living right then – sick, unable to think straight, dizzy and on the verge of vomit all day, losing income left and right from not being able to work – freezing my tush off, etc. – maybe they could send me a check for a hundred bucks for every day I’m down, haha?

That seemed to work.

So yet another guy came – again – to look in the walls in the attic. Nothing.

He left scent traps in the attic and under the sink in the kitchen, supposedly to attract The Rat and poison it, and it would take the poison back to its nest.

Can we spell s-t-u-p-i-d ? The Rat was already dead, dummies! Needless to say, no other animal lost its life.

It had been four weeks up to now.

I’m thinking this is no rat. There’s no animal who dies and whose body stinks more and more every day, that I know of!

So I tell them that. They agree. They send out the HVAC guy again, who tears down the unit to its nubbins. Still nothing.

Everyone is upset now, some people even thinking I’m making all this up.

Landlord and two munchkins come over, looking and sniffing in every corner. I turn the heat on and within 2 minutes, they turn pale and beg me to turn if off.

We are all completely puzzled. The stench is horrendous. But now it’s less like Dead Animal and more like some stinky odd chemical – like a cleaning agent or gas or fume or something. None of us could figure it out.

By now I’m almost immobile with nausea and constant debilitating headache, dizziness and lack of sleep. I couldn’t make art, or write, or do any of the things I need to do to make a living.

As a last gasp attempt, they send yet another guy to vacuum the vents. In he comes with an enormous machine that looked like you could suck the Empire State Building up inside of it, with huge rippling hoses that he placed inside the vents.

He shows me the view on the camera hookup that sees down into the vents. Not much there – a few dust bunnies, is all. He doesn’t think he’ll get much, but goes about doing the Do.

After two hours of roaring sucking and rumbling, he tells me there is now no sign of any critter or dirt or dust or any other wayward thing, within the vents. Nada. Zilch.

Now he makes me leave for an hour, and places an anti-smell mechanism in the corners. Hydrogenizing (?) the place, or some such thing, to neutralize the smell.

So much for that – within an hour of his leaving, the smell was back, just as bad as it was before when I turned the heat on.

At six weeks, the stench remains, I’m pissed, exhausted and feeling hopeless.

They are also upset, perplexed not to have been able to find anything, and out of viable find-it options.

I’m looking at for-rent ads now, thinking it’s time to skedaddle, when they call and ask me if I’d like to move into the just-vacated apartment immediately next door. Because oddly enough, the stench didn’t affect any other unit!

Well! That’s a nice thought! After a bit of negotiation, I said yes, and took the next week to prep and pack.

A dear friend spent a couple hours every night trekking the things I’d packed over to the new place. Bless his heart! Because I can’t walk without a lot of pain and use a walker, I never could have done it myself.

Part of the moving deal was that they would give me the help of two gorilla guys to move all the furniture and other heavy stuff over. Those two guys were absolute heroes – even hefting my carving stones over, and arranging the potted plants on the front stoop just the way it had been on the other one.

You might think that’s no biggy, but after 2 months of exhaustion and battling just staying alive every day, details like that made a huge impact.

I didn’t realize how badly the stench/fumes had poisoned me until the headache, mind-fog, dizziness, weakness, and nausea disappeared, and I could feel close to normal again.

I’m still putting things away, but even though my energy hasn’t fully returned, at least I can breathe without gagging and having to cover my nose, and my head has almost cleared up so I can think straight again.

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Today I heard the guys next door tearing out the carpet and insulation to see if they can find anything, but so far, no news. I hope they don’t try to rent it out without being sure they got rid of the stink!

I wish I could say conclusively what it was in the air, but I’m here to tellya if I go for the rest of my life without being poisoned like that again, it’ll be too short a time.

I’m thinking isn’t it amazing how much you can bear under duress, and then later wonder how you got through it!

There must be someone who can think of what that stink came from. It had to be some chemical. I’m not familiar enough with environmentally poisonous chemicals to be able to identify one from another, so I feel clueless.

Got any ideas? I’d love to hear from you – got any ideas about this?

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Thanks so much for reading – I appreciate you!

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https://www.instagram.com/angela.treat.lyon/