Dear rovingjack, it does sound like a reaction to something you used in the shower; some of these sealants can have some pretty noxious fumes. I hope you are feeling better now and something has transpired on the employment front.
...
With best wishes,
Miranda.
I have spans of time where I have no symptoms, then a few days with symptoms. I've noticed in the past that I sometimes get an ear ache (likely to be more irritation around the Eustachian on the throat end) when eating foods that contain carrots. Though not always (might be a quantity thing... or finding patterns where there isn't one). And I have suspected something like oral allergy syndrome. But the new gummy eye, with crustiness after a nights sleep and the persistent froggy throat is new and I hadn't eaten any carrots that I'm aware of. So maybe suspecting environmental allergies.
Though I ate two vegetarin dishes late last week that I found out later (when I had itchy eyes and froggy throat and looked into what I'd eaten... so maybe confirmation bias) had carrot in them. But since then I've not had any carrot and been reasonly well enough the last few days, ate a couple of homemade chocolate chip cookies today and had a bit of maybe symptoms but nothing persisting. Then made a half sandwhich after running errands using a walnut spread (walnut, rolled oats, cinnamon, and vanilla with powdered sugar) that I'd used several times in the last month for sandwhiches on white bread. and within the hour my nose and eyes were stinging, and my breathing was wheezy. half an hour later it settled out. and I find myself wondering if maybe I might have a nut allergy, or one of the other ingredients. But then maybe none of that.
Maybe during my outing that was my first trip out in a bit over a week I encountered something. maybe it's just household dust, maybe it's seasonal allergies, or some other food allergy I'm not thinking of (butter used in dishes that I cook, flour, or oats, cinnamon, vanilla extracts etc). maybe I caught a cold from the other people in the building and it's just a mild one right now and the symptoms are seperate from the eye irritation from shower work weeks ago.
It's a whole lotta who fekking knows at this point, and unfortunately I'll have to navigate the US health system to eventually figure out anything. So I should expect to have one to three emergency room visits in the next year and a half before getting a hint of an answer; if past trends are anything to go by.
On the plus side my councilor corrected me the other day when I referred to 'unreasonable anxiety' and told me I need to admit that a lot of this is PTSD from when I was wasting away to death from my illness 15 years ago and the doctors stopped returning my calls leaving me on my own to try do anything.
And then again several years later when I'd developed gout and the pain of my two conditions together caused a blood pressure crash to 80/40 and passing out. and an ambulance ride with overnight stay in hospital
I've mostly not had gout in about 8 years, through my own efforts, but I have had a few recurrences of blood pressure crash and near passing out in response to pain and sometimes heat.
yet by almost every measure I'm the picture of health. if you wanted a chart with pretty much everything you could test to show the baseline of what a person should have you could use mine. My body just chooses to reject most foods violently and painfully, respond to some pain and some heat with Vasovagal syncope, occasionally deprive me of my ability to sleep, and produce allergic symptoms irregularly.
Those things combined are part of my health anxiety, hyper vigilance, and a few other things and built the walls of the place they reside within my brain from bricks of PTSD.