Every once and a while I have to take a step back and celebrate successes in addition to acknowledge the struggles that I continue to face. Almost a year later, I still have both to talk about. At least I can look at the struggles and still see some progress.

An improvement has been my breathing. A year ago I was on a high dose of Advair and still had breathing difficulty. I was also prescribed Advair due to the inflammation in my lungs for the rampant mold emporium at the district office. I also had two prescription nasal sprays.

A year later I am the lowest dose of Advair Diskus they make with hopes that I will be able to drop that for a single compound at some point this year. It is still unknown if I will ever get completely off of it, but I am optimistic that I will, one step at a time. I wasn’t on it before, so hopefully, will reach a point where have maximum recovery possible from the inflammation I ended up with and potential scarring of my lungs.

In line with that, I no longer take Singulair. I am now able to take Xyzal instead of both Singulair and Xyzal each night. This has drastically reduced the amount of sleepiness that I have. I spent about 9 months as a complete zombie.

Instead of two prescription nasal sprays, I now only have one over the counter one that is seasonal, mainly for pollen. That has made an improvement to my well being as not spending my entire day spritzing my nose, taking multiple allergy medications, and inhaling potent powders. I just have to constantly remind myself that I didn’t get as sick as I did in a day, so can just take one day at a time, remaining patient that could be another year to get back to normal.

Now for the struggles. I have been working diligently on being back in grocery stores, at least out of town. When I was so sick, the cleaners would almost make my eyes swell shut to just go down the aisle. I have to keep pushing myself that I can now breathe, and I am no longer in an environment that inflamed my body to the point that a sprig of lavender would make me start wheezing.

It will probably take a lot longer for me to be comfortable in the local grocery store. It is not that I am afraid of Horrible Hope Blinco, or Demonic Diane Rodriguez, rather, I am afraid they will pull another stunt like the fictitious restraining order that was dissolved. They are clearly morally bankrupt and would stop at nothing to try and get revenge on me.

I at least have gotten where I have some comfort at the local grocery store if I have my spouse with me. At least for the time being, it gives me security that I have a witness should they try and pull something. My hope is when the investigation and litigation is done, they will be required to move on with their lives and I won’t be walking out of rooms backwards to make sure not coming at me with another baseless accusation.

My anxiety medication also remains at double the dosage it was at before the reign of terror and mold poisoning happened. I would like to see it decreased, but at least I am at a point where my specialist is no longer trying to increase it even higher. I am unsure if will ever back to my normal dose because things like a bogus restraining order has left me stuck in fight or flight all the time. It is possible that once I get justice, I will no longer be afraid of unfounded shenanigans like that happening, and I could return to the dose I had before.