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What Were We Poisoned With? (years Ago - Not An Emergency)

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cat-lady

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So, just to be clear this happened years ago and I'm not asking for help with current symptoms so don't worry. If that was the case I would just call poison control. I'm not really sure where to post this so feel free to suggest a category to move to. One of the abuses I have ptsd from is MSBP (meaning my mother had munchausen syndrome by proxy and poisoned several people around her including me). I don't really need to know what she used at this point since symptoms have long since passed but I'm curious. If anyone here has medical education please let me know if you have any guesses what she used. Thanks. Here are some details as far as I can remember:

- when I was about 8 I had "the flue" supposedly for about two months. I lost a lot of weight and started to lose hair. I would dry heave and throw up bile for hours on end even when I hadn't eaten. Every time I would start to get better and be ready to go back to school again I would have another "relapse."

- when I was about 12 I developed "allergies." I would cough and sneeze uncontrollably and my sinuses felt so congested it felt like they would split open. I was supposedly allergic to cats but I know this is not true because I have cats now and am on no allergy meds. I would only have symptoms when I was around my mother or some place she had been. I've never had an allergic reaction to anything I came across naturally in the environment and I've lived in all sorts of climates so it would have to be something uncommon I guess. Around this time I also developed very bad asthma which I also no longer have despite taking no asthma and allergy meds and being exposed to all sorts of allergens. I could barely breath and as a result could barely sleep or pay attention in school. It was something far worse than a cold and constant for a number of years of my life until I moved out of the house.

- at 20 I still didn't have her figured out yet even though several people around me did. I guess I just couldn't see her for who she was. I went to visit her and accepted a cup of tea. Immediately upon the first sip I felt something I had never felt anything like before in my life. All of a sudden my lungs burnt terribly. The closes thing I could equate it to is when the wind blows on a fresh badly skinned knee. It felt like the inside of my lungs had been skinned. At first I thought it was a coincidence. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis. What followed was about two months of extreme weight loss and mental clouding and burning lungs and coughing fits. I went from being maybe 140 pounds to maybe 110 points in maybe two or three months (I'm five foot six inches tall). At times I would get confused by the simplest things and forget how to speak but maybe this was just from not getting enough oxygen. I struggled so hard to breath even with an asthma inhaler. I went back to college but it took about a year for the coughing and trouble breathing to stop and for me to gain the weight back. I also began to get orange stains in my bed sheets from night sweats and drool.

-a few years after this my mother latched on to an elderly woman and began to help her do chores. This woman eventually developed breathing troubles and began to need oxygen. My mother described her as a good friend but the one time I went over with my mother the lady wouldn't let her in and seemed distrustful towards her. Later it turned out my mother had tried to get into her will and she had refused. I'm also suspicious because my mother has inherited money from several relatives who supposedly died of lung cancer even though some of them were not smokers (and there would be no genetic link because those who died were not related by blood).

Anyway, I'm sure my memories are incomplete due to the age I was during some of this and it may not be enough information to go by, but if anyone especially with medical knowledge has guesses I would really appreciate it. There's just something about wanting to know what it was even though probably none of this is provable given how long ago it was, and the fact that everyone who has passed was cremated.
 
I'm so sorry... goodness I really wouldn't know... I think even someone qualified to make such an assessment would have to ask you a battery of questions about your whereabouts and eating/imbibing habits throughout the duration of your illness and recovery. I myself am not in any way "qualified" to make such an assessment but if I had to guess I'd venture to say that mold is a distinct possibility. Forgive the super short response but I've got squirrel brain just now... Also, could you possibly have been using artificial tanner at this time?

Best wishes,

Reno
 
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So, just to be clear this happened years ago and I'm not asking for help with current symptoms so don...
I'm an RN , although I'm not working as a nurse. I cant give any kind of definitive diagnostic guess, please understand that. Botulism will produce orange sweat when your body is trying to get it out of your system. The breathing and lung sensations can be caused by a multitude of things, its impossible to speculate.
 
If I had to take a guess? I'd say Thallium.

But there are literally hundreds of possibilities. Thallium is just possible in all 3 examples given (each one has a thallium-nod that would make me want to test for it), as the symptoms line up with different methods of exposure & doses; and it not only used to be readily / widely available, but it's as notorious in certain circles as the use of arsenic in horse sharping. But when I say hundreds of possible toxins? I really do mean hundreds. There's no way at this late date to know which, that I know of.
 
I'm an RN , although I'm not working as a nurse. I cant give any kind of definitive diagnostic guess, ple...
Possible sources. Anti clotting agents, Warfarin, produce similar symptoms. Vitamin K overdose, same symptoms. Easy bruising, respiratory struggle and slow liver function. Easy to provide to someone else.The most common toxin causing acute respiratory distress without an obvious cause, that's a suspected poison, is amitriptyline overdose. Amitriptyline was a common anti-anxiety anti depressant in the 80's...thru 90's and longer in UK , due to NHS.

That one is worth looking into for your peace of mind. There is no question that you cant prove anything at this point. I certainly cant do anything but give a semi educated guess. I was prescribed Amiltriptiline by the NHS in Cambridge in 2008 for anxiety. That was considered a dinosaur of meds by 1995 here. Its highly toxic, and an overdose stays for years in liver and lungs.

Just something for you to look into, the reality is you'll probably never know for sure. Made me feel good to go into helpful mode, I kind of lost my temper ptsd wise a little earlier on a different post.

Sorry about munchausen mom too, thats a horrible thing to wrap your head around also. I hope you know that the odds are, you'll be fine. The guy that smokes a pack a day, that was born before 1975, has more to be anxious about than you do. Keep it real, monsters aren't scary when you have their resumes in your hand.
 
Thanks everyone for all your responses! I'm glad to hear that I probably have nothing to worry about at this point - that's what I figured since I haven't had symptoms for a long time. I will look into all those suggestions. Even though it will not be provable there's just something about wanting to know what happened to us. Thanks!
 
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