LAURIE'S STORY
Its because I'm working on a tv show on problems between neighbors that I came across your site. But I'm so glad I did.
I have had so much trouble with noise, reading your info made me feel so validated and not like a "freak" a "supersensitive" like everyone thinks I am.
While living in an apartment in New York City, I had a hellasious experience with a 94-year-old man who lived upstairs. I know this experience affected my health and I have paid hundreds of dollars, multiples of hundreds of dollars trying to right my health ever since.
He was an invalid, who instead of getting into his wheel chair every morning, allowing himself mobility, sat in a chair on a wooden floor and dragged himself around on it. He dragged tables over to him, pushed tables, chairs and items away from himself, dragged the tv stand (not on wheels) over to him, etc. And he woke each morning as early as 4:00 a.m., no later than 5:00 a.m. I would wake each day to ...sssSSSSSSSSCCCCCCAAAAAAPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEeeee, ..sssSSSSSSSSCCCCCCAAAAAAPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEeeee, ..sssSSSSSSSSCCCCCCAAAAAAPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEeeee, The sound would vibrate my floor, my bed and vases would shake. And his wouldn't happen just once either, it would happen three, four, five, six, seven times in a row, then stop for 5 or 10 minutes then begin again. The floor he was dragging himself around on was MY CEILING. After an hour or two, it would stop for a while then begin again around lunch time.
This went on for 3 and 1/2 years and the building wouldn't do anything about it. No carpet was put down, he wouldn't get in his wheel chair, the building people wouldn't move him to a ground floor apartment. They thought I was crazy and treated me like I was a freak. The super would give me dirty looks if I saw him in the laundry room or in the lobby.
To add insult to injury, a musician moved in downstairs from me. He would gig at 11:00 p.m, 12:00 a.m., 1:00 a.m. He would then come home with his friends who were at the gig, or his band members and they would laugh and talk loud, sometimes they would sing and he'd play his guitar till 3:00 a.m. He felt that since he was paying rent, he had the right to do whatever the hell he felt like in his place. It was a living hell to say the very least. I couldn't get anyone to stop either of them. The building didn't care, the management company didn't care, the housing commission was only open one day a week from 12-4 and you had to wait on hold forever to get through and you cold only make complaints in person.
I had to move out to get any resolution and since I didn't have the money to move to a better place, I had to move out of the city, out of the state even. I couldn't afford housing there at all when I had to move from that place.
It has been nearly two years since I've lived there, yet the health problems I developed still persist. My body clock was totally off. I could hardly wake up in the morning and get to work. My metabolism had shut down, I gained 45 pounds in one year. I used to have to take days off work to sleep and I was getting sick all the time, bad colds, 3 to 4 dabilitating sinus infections a year causing me to miss more work. Migrane headaches, digestive and intestinal problems developed.
As I said, even though its been two years, I still have trouble waking up and getting to work on time because I'm so drowsy. I haven't been able to loose the weight no matter what I do, I still get headaches and my doctor told me recently that my digestive system is in such bad shape she expects it to take years for it to get back to normal.
And I've spent loads of money on doctors and health practioners. I don't have health coverage, so I have had to pay for all my medical bills myself and all the alternatie medicine myself. I'm broke from the health stuff - but thank god, I am out of there and don't have to deal with it anymore.