[Alvarywinters]

Hey guys!

Bit of a back story...

DP and I moved into this house a bit over 2 years ago. It's an old house (1850's) and not terribly well cared for. We have a very relaxed rent set-up with the landlord which also means it's tricky to get anything done lol (this is relevant for later lol)
DP started to have trouble with what we thought was hayfever, which he suffered from a bit when he was in his early teens. He was city then and is rural now so it made sense that it would pop up again. Except it rarely had any pattern to it, except for always starting when canola was in flower...but was there other times too.
I have tried to get him to see a doctor but he's so stubborn about it...he saw 2 docs about another problem and mentioned the hayfever then (and asked for tests) and they said "just take some tablets"

So...the last few months it has gotten worse...something twigged with me...the last while (which he describes as being different / worse from normal) have been at night. So we replaced the pillows (only thing I could think of) and it was better for a while. Now it's back. When I mentioned it to family, someone said dust mites. Of course!

Symptoms are;
Hard to breathe
Heavy 'wet' chest (not always)
Wheezing
Watery eyes and nose
Coughing
Chest and throat feeling 'tight'

Lately it's been about 30 mins after going to bed. Also sometimes during the day, nearly always when I'm moving things / cleaning. I don't use ANY chemicals like hair spray, deodorant, air freshener, carpet deodorizer, spray cleaners etc as I am sensitive to them myself. All soaps, laundry products etc are hypoallergenic.
We have dogs and cats but DP has been around them all his life, not sure if a pet allergy would pop up now?

Oh and looking back DP thinks maybe it was asthma he had when he was a kid, not hayfever as it was always during physical exertion or stress.

So...long story short! Until I can convince DP to see a doc about this (it'll take a couple of months of work!) what can I do to test this and cut down on problems? So far looking at;
Covers for pillows / mattress
More regular washing of bedding
Moving the bedroom to a room with better airflow (current is a bit stuffy)
Ditching the woolen under blanket
Washing or removing curtains

What can I do about the carpets? Landlord won't remove them (I have asked before, they have such lovely timber floors under them!) Thinking I might try some diatomaceous earth to cut mite numbers down (vacume it out) but that won't help with getting the carpet cleaner =\
Will pets make it worse? Not that we would consider getting rid of them! ( ) but could change the way they live inside.
What about other parts of the house? Tips, esp from those in older houses?

With a bub not too far in the future I'm glad we are looking at getting this all sorted now. Would be nice to know we are cutting down on nasties in the house, with a history of allergies on both sides of the family!

Thanks for reading my long post! Looking forward to hearing other people's ideas and stories