new member hello

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm a newbie, I didn't know such a site existed until I was

looking around for help.

I'm a former school employee who had to leave work due to illness.

I worked 16+ years at the school, plus I was a student there. I was

in a car accident and developed major problems from it with my

immune system, a health problem called lymphedema. Lymph fluid

backed up and my body would swell, it started in the left leg due

the accident injury to the abdomen from a seatbelt. I managed work

ok until 1999 when my school painted. I developed chemical

pneumonia and filed workers compensation for it and won. They

painted to cover leaked stained areas. In 2001 December they put in

a carpet with hot glue blasting which made me very ill, same sorta

sickness, then they installed lacquered shades, and the final straw

was when the leaking got so bad that white powder fell on me daily,

my hair was like full of the stuff and I had to wash it out after

work everyday. I was working very sick, my immune problems mounted

and at that point 2002 when mold developed on the walls and their

answer was scrape it off and wash the wall. I took pictures. Also

when they removed the carpet they had high aesbestos levels and I

had to work in that room. I started having a persistent cough and

my throat would swell, I got major asthma attacks and my body just

went haywire. I had xrays nothing was in my lungs, just irritations.

I got fed up and complained and complained but nothing was done.

People who backed me up at the start were threatened or just

casually told that their jobs might not be in place next year. I

started getting flack from all angles about a job I did for 16+

years and it got to the point on my last day of work, I couldn't

breathe and I was so sick I sat on the bathroom floor for 40 minutes

thinking I was going to die of chest pains and a headache right

there on the spot. With my lymphedema, my blood pressure runs at

least 140-190 and at that time it was 160/210 from the work stress

and being sick.

I've got all sorts of things wrong, migraines, back/neck problems,

chronic fatigue, thyroid, lymphedema, tachycardia, etc, the list

grows. I have lupus symptoms but tests have been negative tho I

have the butterfly rashes/fever/joint aches.

I was fighting a 1 person battle against a school system. I took

samples of the dust I breathed as I'm certain that's why I have

damage to my throat and now I have lymphedema of the

neck/head/throat. I could sit at work and watch my body swell and

blood vessels breaking. I asked so many places to test the dust, no

one would. I have no idea what I was exposed to. In thinking back I

never had sinus/allergy/asthma problems until I was a student in

that building. The people under the room where I worked have

serious asthma and breathing conditions but are too afraid of their

jobs to say 1 word.

I've applied to disability and I'm having to fight for it.

It's a very scary place to be, with no job, sick, and having to

fight to get what you deserve and then not having a clue what you

were exposed to and no one wanting to touch the issue. I've been

out of there 2 years and I just can't recover.