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OBLIVIONHard to believe I was so oblivious to all these thingsI have just found out we have been mold victims for the past 10 years! We never imagined the Pandora’s Box that we had opened in our home until a friend mentioned this past February that you have to be careful with mold. We didn’t think much of it at first, just knew it was a mess that had to be dealt with. I looked up black mold on Google.com and was shocked at what I found!! I spent the next several days reading all the information I could find on the toxicity of mold and it scared the hell out of me!! Hard to believe I was so oblivious to all these things. I am relieved to have some answers after such a long, long time, but now we face the hardest part, acceptance of all this, finding solutions and moving forward. My story is a long one as it spans a decade of our lives through 2 homes. We bought our first home in May of 93A few months in, our water main burst, flooding the basement. Had problems with the DIY duct tape job under the kitchen sink! There was a strange, white calcification on all the basement walls that had obviously been there for many years. It was an old stone foundation, we thought someone had painted it with a B-Dry product of sorts, it was rusty looking in places and much of it was dried out and flaking off in small bits. Several months later, the tile wall in the shower collapsed. There was a window in the porch room that leaked; the wall under it was stained when we bought the house. The ceiling had a water stain too. We found later that the roof over that room was rotted away on one side under 4 layers of shingle! Spring rains poured into the basement, the toilet ran on for hours one morning, our water filter casing cracked, the retaining wall under the porch room washed out in a heavy rain and on and on it went for the 6 years we spent there…water, water everywhere! I felt like I was rotting from the inside out January 1994, I turned 30 and my periods stopped. During the next several months, I suffered hot flashes; night sweats so badly I would wake up soaking wet 4 or 5 nights a week! My hair, which was always straight and on the oily side, had become dry, thick and curly, I was actually pleased about that one! I had allergies so bad that spring I could not go outside without my eyes swelling up and sneezing fits, all within minutes of stepping out the door! Just having the windows opened in the house bothered me, I was miserable! I got a blistering skin rash that lasted for several months. It started out small behind my rt. knee then spread...it eventually covered the entire back of my leg from my ankle to my buttocks. Then I started getting migraine headaches so severe even the pillow hurt my head! The doctor gave me Claritin for the allergies and Percocet for the migraines. It didn’t cure, but I got some relief and by fall the allergies subsided. I have never had allergies or migraines that bad since. I had some rectal bleeding, not just spotting either! I was horrified! The Dr. said it was probably just a hemorrhoid. It continued on for a few days and then stopped. It happened again in 2002. I had a colonoscopy and they found nothing wrong, again said it could have been caused by an internal hemorrhoid. (On occasion, I still have some bleeding, but none as severe as these two incidents). The doctor insisted I shouldn’t worry about the leg rash, said it was only poison ivy. I saw him 3 times for this as it spread; I couldn’t understand it, I had never had poison ivy in my life! And to have it last for several months?! By September, the rash on my leg finally cleared up…but then it started on my hands…and spread up to my elbows! I had big, scaly patches all over my forearms and my hands would get blisters that itched so badly, I would wake in the night to find myself scratching furiously. They would ooze a clear fluid just like my leg and then would be raw for days. As they started to heal over, the sections would callous. They were so bad I could not make a fist or my fingers would split open and bleed at the joints and knuckles! This cycle came and went every month, just when I would think it was done, the blisters would start all over again. I was always taped up in band aids. I wore white cotton gloves over heavy creams and ointments every night to bed for the next 6 years! I even started wearing the gloves to work and out to run errands as people would take one look at my hands and just stare! I had been in and out of the dental field for many years and assumed I had developed an allergy to the latex gloves. The dermatologist said it was not a latex allergy, it was contact dermatitis due to the cleaning products used in my second job; I did industrial cleaning. He put me on steroids, both oral and creams. I tried to explain to him that I had just started this night job…but have had the rash for several months prior. He just repeated to me his original diagnosis as if he never heard a word I said! My first doctor was at a loss for answers, all the test were normal. I had told him I felt like I was rotting from the inside out!! It was the only way I could describe what I was feeling! If there was nothing wrong with me then what the hell was happening?? I had also lost nearly 40 pounds, without trying! When I told him I thought this was my menopause starting, he laughed! Said I was only 30, I couldn’t possibly be going through the change and told me it was all in my head, I was just fine and should go home and take a nap!! I was 9 when I first started my periods. Both my mom & grandmother started early and had hysterectomies in their early 30’s due to cysts. I just thought this was par for the course! With my family history and all the symptoms I was shocked he could say such a thing! Needless to say, I found another doctor, but things went just the same, no tests could confirm any reason for what was happening to me. It was 18 months before my periods started again. Then I would hemorrhage for 2 sometimes 3 weeks at a time. Then it might be a month or 3 before I’d have another. This went on like this for a few years and then finally they regulated somewhat, still terribly heavy, (sorry to be so graphic, but for the record, some clotting the size of silver dollars!). My facial skin started to change too, drier, like my hair. I got big welts from time to time that looked like acne…but they were hard as a rock under the skin and the pressure made them terribly painful. I went several rounds with a few more doctors, dermatologists and even a psychiatrist (who wanted to punch that first doctor as much as I did!) She at least confirmed it most CERTAINLY was not in my head and recommended I see someone she knew at the Menopause Wellness Center in Boston. My new doctor at that time said it was not necessary and he would not refer me. I stood my ground. After a few weeks of run around and telephone tag, I went in and told the secretary I was not leaving without my referral, I needed it for my insurance. The doctor finally came out to the desk and actually threw it at me across the counter and told me I could find another doctor! He was furious because I dared to question his judgment! I was sure it would be worth it; this time I would find some answers! But again, all my levels were within normal limits, nothing indicated that there was anything going on menopausal or otherwise! She said it could be the beginning, my peri-menopause, and I could go back and forth with these symptoms for another 15 years before I actually started menopause!! It was a mystery that I finally gave up trying to solveThen out of the blue, people everywhere I went started asking me if I was embarrassed or if I had sunburn, my face was always streaked with patches of red. Over the years this has developed into severe roseca from my face to my chest. Now I don’t only have red streaks, my left eyebrow and several patches on my cheeks have lost pigment completely. I told everyone I saw during this time that I knew that something inside me must be causing all these outward signs. That it was not possible for me to manifest “in my head” so many different ailments at once! They all said at first it must be my thyroid, but when they checked, things were always within normal limits. Some would grasp at other straws, but none could find a thing wrong with me! Something had changed within me and I knew it…I just couldn’t get any medical confirmation of what it was. That was it!! Over two years lost time and monies looking for answers! It was a mystery that I finally gave up trying to solve. I knew strange things were happening, but no one believed me! I got no relief, just more aggravation so I stopped pursuing the answers and just learned to live with whatever came along. We ended up in bankruptcy by the fall of 95. We had been working 5 jobs between us for months just trying to keep up with life in general, plus raising our 2 children, the fix up of our old house and vehicles. Our marriage was strained to say the least! With everything else happening in our lives, I was convincing myself that the issues I had were stress related. I had terrible mood swings and had seriously entertained thoughts of suicide… Well, we slowly recovered from the bankruptcy and began to rebuild our lives. Symptoms came and went, I did not see a doctor again as I knew by now, I would get more of the same. I had gained back the 40 pounds too. In 98 we decided we needed to get ourselves out of the city. We sat down one evening and wrote “If money was not a factor, what kind of house would we want?” We both wanted a contemporary home. He wanted more acreage, passive solar, to be near or on the water, a 2 car garage and a place for a workbench. I wanted spiral stairs, a big fireplace, each a room of their own for the boys, a guest room for my mom, an office space for each of us and a place for gardens. We wanted all this for $150,000. The search was on…after a year and a half we looked at 100 houses, wrote offers on 6 of them and did home inspections on 3! On the other side of this coin, we had two of the worst realtors; the last one even blew a deal on the house we were selling at the inspection! We couldn’t get our current house sold without doing some serious fix-up. In the next year and a half, we did every project that had been on our list for the past 5 years and then some, but that is a whole other story so I will just let you know we found mold in the bath, roof, attic, kitchen and porch room. Things were looking up Frustrated and tired, our house finally under contract, we came to Maine. Within 2 weeks, we found our dream house for the exact price we could pay, $150,000. We couldn’t believe our luck!!! Things were looking up!! We moved in November of 99. My husband had a 2 hour commute each way, but he loved coming home to our wonderful dream house! For the first time in years, I didn’t have to work. The kids were in school so I actually had my free time to myself too, but all I felt was sad…life was good, so why did I still feel so lost and depressed? I thought it was boredom so I went back to work part time in a dental office. It was a very stressful environment. I started loosing weight again; a good thing, right? Then I started loosing hair too…by the fistfuls! It covered my head rest in the car, my pillow case, and I would fill up a hair brush and clog the shower drain in no time. Forty pounds gone again and now a noticeably thinning hairline, hmm, this was not a good thing! But my arms were clear of that rash and my hands were getting better too…still not gone, but down to just a few areas. We had water back up and come in under the door into our finished basement twice in the 4 years we have lived here. Once in the spring of 2000 and again in January, 2003. We had nearly ankle deep water all through the downstairs the last time. We did run a dehumidifier and used fans, shop vac and a shampooer to dry the area each time we cleaned it. By August 2003, it smelled so bad down in the basement that we finally decided the rug could not be cleaned & would have to go! Sadly enough, the insurance company doesn’t pay if it’s “God’s water” meaning that if it hit the ground first and then it comes in, they are not obligated…isn’t that special!! They told me if the pipes burst inside, we would have been better off! Hmm, I’ll remember that if there is a next time! Our boys, now 11 & 13, have spent a good deal of time down there; it’s a great play area. It is a 3/4 daylight basement that was a separate apartment at one time. We started gutting the front room last September. We got a wood laminate floor and a new door and casing. We pulled the old rug and pad, tore down the wallpaper in the living room; both had more of this mold...yuch. The whole length of the interior wall had black mold growing up about 3 ft. We knew we needed to get it out, so we cut the wall at 4 ft. all around and replaced the old wallboard with green board, just in case we had issues again. We could see evidence of more molds on the wallboard to the adjoining room, but figured that would have to be a project for another day. On the floor in the kitchen and down the hall were two layers of linoleum. Once the top layer was removed, I found it was very damp on the backing, 10 months since the water damage! I couldn't imagine that! The second layer was very brittle and peeled away bit by bit from its plastic backing. Under there was more mold, lots of it! Many black, pink and orange patches! I scraped this layer off on my hands and knees with a putty knife over several days time. No mask or gloves, again never thought anything more of it, just knew it all had to come out. We made this whole thing a home school project and our boys have been helping. They were so proud of all the work they had done…more fool me! We hung the new door and casing, thinking that we would be all set there now. A week later we found that the water had not only entered under the door as we thought, but was seeping in between the foundation and the threshold as well! There was no evidence of a problem when we had the old door out so we didn't think much of it. We were able to heavily caulk the area to last the winter but will pull the door again in the spring and replace the threshold as well. We built an entertainment unit and a large book shelf for all their things. I hung new wallpaper; we anchored the bookshelf and started to lay the floor. We were ¾’s of the way through the flooring when we moved the fridge out and to our surprise...more mold!! Once we found what was behind the fridge, we pulled off the front cupboard molding under the sink, it was awful!! More black mold with shades of pink all around!! On the linoleum under one section, it was like sludge! I removed some of the wallpaper in the hall and found even more mold heading around the corner and down the hall! ARRGH!! We found a small puddle of standing water under the sink…it must have been dripping slightly, not enough that we noticed, but it had run down under the cabinets and out behind the fridge! Here again, the mold was up a few feet from the floor. We cut out the wallboard and found that the 2x4 floor joist underneath had crumbled into pieces from the front wall back about 4 feet! Now with the wall out, we can see under the shower in the bathroom and the boards that hold that up are black where they meet the floor … I found black mold on the far side wall and under the molding near the sink in the bathroom … It is never ending!! This is the point where my friend mentioned you need to be really careful with mold We were going to take out the cupboards but money’s tight. So I got down on my back and spent the next couple of hours scraping black mold…no mask or gloves. The paper layer peeled away and the wallboard was white underneath …so I thought, great, we could get away with that for now and maybe replace the cupboards next year. (Now we have no choice, we will pull the cabinet and build just a 2x4 frame to hold the counter and sink up for now.) I was going to start on the rest of the floor so we can put this project back together and be done with it! This is the point where my friend mentioned you need to be really careful with mold… After talking with Lisa I have been recalling the days in the old house. My oldest son had terrible trouble with recurring strep throat when we lived there. He also had scarlet fever! He had a dry, tickly cough every winter that the doctors passed off to the forced hot air heat, tends to dry you out they’d say. Since we have been here, he started getting nosebleeds on occasion for no apparent reason! He gets leg cramps too. We talked to his doctors over the years, not one could find anything wrong, thought it was growing pains! So we chalked it up to growth spurts as we could always see a change shortly after these occurrences it seemed. He also, out of the blue, needed glasses in the forth grade, never had eye trouble before this. My youngest has trouble following directions, doesn’t always remember things you’ve told him five minutes before; he has a tough time interacting with friends, and still has problems with fine motor skills. They told us about the motor skills before he started kindergarten, I though they were nuts! What did they think he was going to school for…he was only five after all!! (Now that I am thinking about it, his kindergarten class was in the first portable (trailer) that was added on to the back of the school. The carpeted hall that connected it leaked from day one right through the entire school year. Some days they had to jump the puddle because it went from one side to the other.) He is almost 12 now, and most of the time his writing is still that of a five year old…and it is certainly not for lack of trying. He jokes and says he’s practicing to be a doctor! He had a red, patchy rash all around his torso a few years ago, but it was during the winter, again nothing out of the ordinary, so we though. The doctor was not concerned; creams took care of it quickly. He has just told me that his eye lid pulses sometimes, like a twitch. Mine does too. He also would get sick sometimes 3 times during a school year. He would be out for 2 or 3 weeks each time with high fevers, temps spiking to 106 and vomiting, he’d be completely wiped out! Since we started home schooling this past September; he had a revelation one day and announced…Hey mom, it’s late November and I haven’t been sick once!!! The light should have dawned on me then…but we figured he was not around the same kids…never imagined it was anything more. I know now from all that I have been learning about this mold that our school here also has issues with their portable buildings. Each time, the doctor figured he’d picked up a bug or virus from another child. Looking back now, he spent 2 grades in the same classroom with a leaky roof. They kept buckets for use during heavy rains! This was one of the newer portables; it wasn’t in a month when the center seam fell in due to water! The insulation was left open for several weeks before repairs were made! A year ago Sept., two weeks into the school year, the teacher who spent several years in oldest portable classroom had a stroke! She was 41 with 2 young children at home! We were all stunned! Apparently there was no history in the family…no one could figure out why. Sadly enough, it was very severe and she's had a long fight back to even walk again and regain partial speech, she will never be able to teach again, and she was one of the good ones!! Too sad. There is an elementary school in the next town that was recently closed due to mold issues! Teachers were passing out and some of the children were very ill. My husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1997. He was overweight and eating too much on the run, but I see that is yet another symptom on the list. In the past several months I have noticed he doesn’t always hear us when we speak to him if his back is turned. He spent 10 years managing a local band so I thought the loud music must be taking its toll. He says he doesn’t notice any change, but he talks louder, sometimes I have to hold the phone away from my ear. He has just been put on high blood pressure meds this past month. He also had a mole that has developed and grown hard in the last few years. It was removed and thankfully, found to be benign. I am sure now that the mold was what caused us to loose our first kitty We had a kitty die of fatty liver disease Sept. 9, 2001. She showed no outward signs right up to 72 hrs. before she passed. It was awful! We couldn’t imagine how this happened to her; she was overweight but not so much that her vet was worried about it. She was only six! She had done her business on the rug a few times, but we have four cats and that happens on occasion, we never though anymore of it. I thought the cat smell was what stunk in the basement…I know now it was so much more! Her brother honks, like a hairball almost but nothing comes up, it is more nasal. My oldest kitty has lost his meow…he just opens his mouth and has a raspy rowl. He also has lost some hearing…he gets startled if you walk past him from behind and doesn’t seem to hear us when his back is turned, but he comes running when we call him outside? His gait is slower and he stumbles sometimes…at 15 we never considered any reason for these things other than his age. Our Maine Coon is the only cat I have ever had with dental issues. We have to have him put out to have his teeth cleaned every few years, even though we feed dry food, the plaque builds up for him and he has the worst breath! He is very good natured with us, but will pick fights with our older cat a lot. I thought this was just the alpha male thing as he is next in line by age, but now I wonder. We also have a 2 year old little girl who came to us just after we lost our Missy…she was born to a feral and then rescued, another shy baby. She seems fine so far, but has not been in it as long as the others. Having read about others who have lost animals due to the mold, I am sure now that the mold was what caused us to loose our first kitty. Now that I think back on it, a few months before Missy passed, there was blood in her stool more than once and she used to “cry”, literally tears would stream from her eyes. We did have her stool checked but nothing showed up, vet said it could be hemorrhoids. The crying he chalked up to pollens…sounded reasonable, don’t you think? I have seen her brother cry like that too, and his stool is very stinky!! We also lost 2 fancy mice that lived here for 9 months in 2000. One just died…the other developed tumors and then lost a paw…just gone one morning, no blood in the cage and since he was alone, it was not due to a fight. We were at a loss, but the vet said that this can happen with mice. Never know where they come from even when bought in a pet store. My husband says he has been feeling just OK, not great, but he has been under a lot of pressure these days. (He was laid off in 2001 after 18 years in the computer field. He has struggled to find something comparable in pay to no avail. He has since settled into real estate, which he loves, but working on commission only is tough and we have fallen behind on a lot of things). He has thought he was coming down with the flu for sometime now, but it never comes. His eyes have been burning and itchy lately, and for the past several months he is congested and stuffy. When all this began for me, he was working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week; then would go straight to the club on some Thursdays and most Fridays to set up. He was usually gone from 4pm to 3am most Saturdays as well. It’s only the past four years that he’s been working at home more often. I think that overall the boys and I have had more exposure. Although he believes we have something going on here, he still has a hard time grasping the scope of it. I was still sure this was menopause As for me, these past 10 years of symptoms have been a living hell. Since there was mold in the last house too, it seems my search for answers has been in vain from the start. My periods finally got so bad last year, clotting and cramping that doubles me over and back pain the whole week before that is excruciating, my latest doctor ordered a D & C in Jan. 2003. I had begged the surgeon to do a hysterectomy as I was still sure this was menopause but she wouldn’t. Said nothing indicated that I needed one at that time…I was angry then because all I wanted to do was end these rounds, but am so thankful now! The surgery did very little to relieve my symptoms, only left me with another bill after insurance did its thing! Just what we needed. Went through a time last summer with reoccurring yeast infections, I would just get over one and within a few days or a week…it would start all over again!! This went on for a few months! End of August, I lost my middle fingernail on my left hand…no bleeding, it just started to peel away from the cuticle and in a few days time, it was gone completely.
These symptoms would
sometimes stop as suddenly as they started. Some would return now and again
then disappear, others never came back. I still have problems with my hands,
but it seems to cycle with my period, leading me to believe all this time it was
hormonal, now I know that was just coincidence. The weight gain and loss along
with the hair loss I could always chock up to stressful times I was going
through. I have never had another rash on my leg, or anywhere other than my
hands, since 94. I have developed insomnia and some nights I wake up at the
same time, several nights running. I also go through nights that I am up until
the sun comes up, and then I sleep for a few hours and get on with my day. Also
many strange dreams, I visit the same house, night after night, searching for
something and just before I find it, I am startled awake then lay there for
hours thinking about it all. Over the past few years I have had an increasing
loss of interest in the things I used to love, including sex. I take very
little, if any time for myself. I’ll go days in the same sweats and not even
care, I even go to the store like that if I have to. I might brush my hair and
teeth…or not. Nothing seems to matter anymore. I have noticed a huge change in
my eyesight and have trouble driving on dark or rainy nights. Dr. says I’m 40
now and these things happen to women my age…made my day! I feel exhausted and
just can’t seem to get out of my own way most days. A few months ago I noticed
that when I’m tired, my head will start to shake slightly back and forth, like a
palsy or tremor. It doesn’t last long and I can stop it if I really think about
it, but it just starts again on its own. Last week, I was having nose bleeds
almost everyday then they stopped. I was also having my period so I passed it
off as one of those hormonal things again. My gums sometimes bleed during my
cycle. I have had a strange reaction from people I
have told, a most look at me differently, like they are afraid whatever I have
is catchy. We kill what we fear, and we fear what we don’t understand. Too
sad…L As I have been dealing with so many issues for so long, I have thought the listlessness was that I am just so feed up with it all, giving in to defeat. Then I read these pages about the black mold and I am stunned, it was like a cold slap! Some other symptoms that I can now identify and relate to the black mold are as follows; forgive me if I repeat some from the above text… terrible foot odor (me and the boys, to the point of having to throw away slippers every few months!) Extremely pungent gas and abnormal bloating, recurring heartburn, chronic sinus infections, ears ringing, feeling lost in a fog, aching joints, arch of my foot cramping up so bad it hurts to walk, leg cramps, legs feeling heavy, like walking through mud. Back and shoulder pain, dry itchy eyes, sore throat, flu like symptoms that last for weeks, constant drippy/runny nose, chills, metallic taste and occasional sores in mouth, unable to socialize comfortably, coughing up mucus, waking in the night with difficulty breathing i.e. cannot swallow saliva or clear my throat, chronic fatigue, repeated yeast infections, dry mouth/excessive saliva, excessive facial hair growth on chin and jaw line, constipation/diarrhea, lethargy, shingles, hopelessness, depression, wheezing and congestion, itchy fits all over my body, sudden mood swings, emotionally unstable (crying at the drop of a hat over nothing), quick temper, loneliness and isolation, inability to focus or stay on task, no energy. Forgetfulness, can't keep things in my head, if I don't write it down, it's gone. Numbness in feet, hands and arms; many mornings I wake up and cannot feel my hands & up to ¾’s of my arms, they come back once I get up and moving, other times the numbness wakes me in the night. Sometimes during the day, one or two fingers will get prickly and just stay that way for hours. I have been seeing my chiropractor due to an auto accident in Jan. and found that has really made a difference in my back and joint pain. I have found I have bad reactions to libraries…never knew what it was before…but I get itchy fits, pressure headaches and terrible gas pains within an hour of being in a moldy library. We have just started with at home school group who unfortunately, meet at our local library! Thank god summer is coming; they like to meet outdoors in good weather. Sorry to have been so long winded…ten years is a lot to muse over. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for listening :^) Even with all of this going on and as bad as I thought things were for me, I now know many of you have suffered far worse pain and have been driven from your homes! I cannot leave here as we were already in financial ruin before this was discovered. Family has already helped us as they could just to get us through the winter, they don’t even know of these most recent findings! I hope to be able to remediate my home, but I looked above the suspended ceiling in the basement and found mold on the sub floor above... We did get a Humidex. This is a whole house air re-circulator that is made specifically for Sick Building Syndrome. It had to be installed in a room we had not dealt with yet so we got ourselves each a hazmat suit, goggles, N95 masks and heavy chemical gloves. We sent the kids to family for the weekend and went at it. We pulled the carpet to find they had laid it over the old carpet…and that was still wet!! We pulled out all the wallboard below 4 feet all around the room and found an area that we though was dry had mold even worse than the sections that were wet. We put green board only on the section of wall where the Humidex needed to be installed and left the rest open. It needed a hole for a vent to the outside. When we cut through the clapboards, we found more mold under them…and on the wall under the Tyvek! We have had the Humidex running now for about 2 weeks and it seems to be helping air it out down there, the fact that now we have completely cleared out 2 rooms of this nasty mold might have something to do with it too. We are going to keep plugging away and do our best. It is all we can do for now… Inconceivable I made some calls to my local health dept. and got some startling misinformation! A Mr. Bob Stillwell informed me that the mold issue is just propaganda put out by people who have nothing better to do with their time! He also stated that the CDC has made no guidelines concerning mold so it really cannot be an issue. The worst symptom you will get after repeated exposure to Stachybotrys is hay fever! When I asked about the many schools that have shut down due to mold infestation, he said that they will use any excuse to get a new building and that their claims are false. It scares me to think of the many other hazards we may be facing due to the lack of intelligent life in our state offices! Inconceivable!! Contact the author of this story by clicking HERE |
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