I work at a fabric store and the month prior to finding out I had BBs I started a new business, a sewing studio to teach private lessons. The studio is a block away from my home and I spent a month filling it with my very extensive fabric collection and all my sewing equipment from my home. After completing the move, I walked around with bites on my arms for 2 weeks thinking I had poison ivy, until I was laying in bed and a bug walked up the wall. The PCO my landlord engaged said I probably got the bug from the fabric store (people bring in fabric or cushions from home all the time) and that I probably had them for a couple months prior to the bites showing up.
I spent my next to last dime opening the studio and now am spending my very last dime to battle BBs. I am terrified that I took them to the studio (or they were already there, possibly where I got them) and now my new business is doomed. I am on the brink of collapse and terrified. I had one treatment done last Friday and still being bitten and finding live adult bugs, even after encasing bed and totally isolating it on risers, new bedding, etc. I have had about 4 hours sleep this week because I just can't relax enough to sleep knowing bugs are going to be feeding on my face (woke up with bites on forehead after treatment). I live alone and am doing all the prep work by myself, I have scrubbed, sprayed, heated, bagged and vacuumed until my arms are ready to fall off. I feel like I have the plague, no one will come near me and I am terrified of going anywhere and possibly infecting anyone else. I go to work after showering, dressing in the tub with clothes from a sealed plastic bin and spraying myself down continuously with rubbing alcohol. The few friends that know I am going through this are sympathetic but can't help for fear of getting them too. I write this sitting at a lone table and chair in a basically empty apartment and I'm just ready to lose it. I read on here about all the reinfestations and difficulties people have and I feel hopeless. How do you do it?? This is the most horrific thing I've ever had happen, it's encompassing my entire life. If I have bugs at my studio besides the apartment and my business closes before I ever start I'll lose everything. I've been living on part-time retail wages (basically minimum wage) since becoming homeless after the great recession. I'm terrified of being homeless and having to claw my way back to a normal life again. The timing couldn't have been worse, I'm 54 with no significant other and no real job opportunities except menial work and I just feel like giving up. Someone please tell me there's a thread of a chance out there...