Long one here, my apologies but going crazy over this! May 2025, we rented a rug doctor for the carpets in our upstairs bedrooms as the landlord refused to allow us to replace them, cousin had been crashing the upstairs master bedroom and was a smoker, never smoked inside the home. Wanted to just clean up and freshen up both rooms after he left. About two weeks after, I started feeling my skin dry up, massive headaches, stomach discomfort and a burning sensation on my lips after spending time in the master bedroom. This continued and I left the master bedroom and moved to the downstairs one, directly below it, and I soon started feeling the symptoms all around the house. My mom was hospitalized with a cough, I went to the hospital multiple times due to the headaches, got to the point where we could only sleep/live in the living room as that's where the effect was lessened as we had the biggest windows and doors opened.
Landlord sent us an exterminator (thought maybe something died in attic), an air quality/environmental expert (said there was nothing going on, refused to show results since landlord paid for it), and changed the carpets out. Once the carpets were changed, I felt absolutely nothing for a period of about 8 hours, until slowly but surely, all of the things I felt came back.
We rode it out until this past June, moved to a new place and didn't bring in any of our old furniture, a few days in, I started feeling the exact same things, my mothers coughing came back, strong headaches and foul taste in mouth along with dry skin. I have HEPA filter purifiers (spent about 1.5K) in every room, but this still comes on strong and I am concerned I am losing my mind over this. It is odorless, and any time I leave the home, I am immediately better. The experts in my area refuse to give a quote or assist as it is not visible/traceable like it would be for mold and tell me my purifiers/monitors showing increased levels of activity aren't an accurate indicator.
Has anyone have any similar experiences or advice? Would greatly appreciate all knowledge and assistance. I'm very tired and drained and afraid.