3.29.2011

Mold allergy...

Several years ago I went for allergy testing. It revealed that I have allergies to mold, dust, and grasses. I didn't give this much consideration because I don't tend to come in contact with a bunch of mold on a regular basis. A couple of months ago I decided to try growing oyster mushrooms in my house on a fairly large scale. Everything was going pretty good until the mushrooms started to fruit about a week ago. I then started feeling sick and having what seemed to be an allergic reaction to an unknown substance. After 3 days of increasing symptoms it hit me that I might be allergic to the mushrooms I had been cultivating. I hadn't given it any consideration that they were a mold. I know this sounds dumb but I just thought of them as mushrooms and didn't consider the spores they would be putting in the air. Today I removed the mushrooms from the house and cleaned everything well. Almost immediately I began to feel better. So much for my oyster mushroom operation.