Mold Toxicity. I Am So Upset!

I’m so upset with mold toxicity! Let me give you a background before explaining why I’m so upset.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, we recently moved into a new place. What I didn’t mention in that post was that our previous house had mold in the attic and some in the basement. What I have been told and have researched is that most houses have mold. Mold spores are outside and can blow in when the windows are open. Mold grows in poorly ventilated spaces and when there’s water or dampness. The mold in our attic was due to improper ventilation and the mold in the basement was near our sump pump.

Neither were too unusual situations. Each house might have different kinds of mold spores and in different quantities. Before the buyer of our house moved in, we had a remediation company come out to take care of the mold. They also tested the air quality. Everything seemed to test well and the mold was removed. They are also planning to have annual checks to make sure the higher mold count doesn’t reappear.

I Am Extremely Sensitive to Mold

I am not only extremely sensitive to mold, but it made me severely sick. Today, I believe that my immune system was already compromised before the addition of the mold in my body. It was probably a year after moving into our house that I started getting unexplainable health symptoms then Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Little did I know at the time that it was mold toxicity wreaking havoc on my body. A few years after that, we found out that our attic had mold. The door to our attic was in the closet of the room that we used as our office. In addition, the wood panel over the hole to the attic wasn’t completely covering it. I was in that room a lot during those years as I had been working from home helping my husband with his business because I could no longer work outside of the house.

As I look back, I see how ironic that was. The mold caused symptoms to my health so I couldn’t leave my house which actually was the cause of my problems and making me sicker.

The Mold Was Remediated, So We Thought

Once we found out that we had mold, we had it remediated. Unfortunately, not knowing just how severe mold can be, we only had it painted over with a mold killing primer. They didn’t “scrub” it, or use mold killing air sanitizers afterward to clean the air since it was in the attic. They increased the ventilation some, but not enough. We lived there a few more years thinking that the mold was gone.

My health started to improve some, but by that time I had been doing a ton on my own, with the doctors’ help, to get better. I had also removed other sources of toxins from my life, including having all of my mercury fillings removed. I was also doing multiple different detoxes. I found out later that I have a gene defect that causes me not to detox properly on my own. My toxic bucket had filled up and overflowed. That’s when disease set in.

Today, we’re trying to address diseases that were more or less unheard of, or exceedingly rare, a century ago or less. And even those living a seemingly “clean” life can be dramatically affected; the toxic load is just that great.”     Suzanne Somers

New House, Fresh Start

Fast forward to our new place. Knowing I am severely sensitive to mold, we had the inspector test our new place. The mold spore counts were around the same levels that our previous home had. I was definitely leery about it and it almost caused us not to purchase the place. I showed our inspector, who has the certification of a mold assessor, the test results from our previous house. He said that both places had a relatively low count. I explained that it didn’t matter what the count was. I was extremely sensitive to mold. The only difference with our new place was that we were near a pond which could definitely affect the count. I spent some time in our new place before we bought it and I wasn’t getting any major reactions, so we went ahead and moved forward with the purchase.

Between the time that we sold our house and finally moved into our new place, we lived at 2 different short-term places. It was also during that time that I was being treated for Lyme Disease. Between being out of the moldy environment and getting rid of Lyme Disease, I was noticing major improvements in my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity symptoms. My body was finally getting stronger again. I was even beginning to add a pound or two to my thin weight.

During this time, when we lived in an apartment, we had a storage closet off of the room which I used as my office. It was filled to the brim with many of our boxes. After a few weeks, I had a hard time being in that room, so I began working in a different area. I even taped the closet door off, so the smell of the boxes wouldn’t bother me. Other than that, I seemed to be ok with our furniture and our other miscellaneous items in the apartment. Of course, in a temporary apartment, we didn’t have much unpacked.

Does Mold Travel?

We finally moved into our new place. Before moving everything in, we painted every room, then we moved our furniture and other items in. This time around, I wanted to unpack everything and be all settled in within the first few weeks. I didn’t want the idea of slowly unpacking to linger over my head for months to come like it did in our old house.

Everything was going well and my health continued to improve until a couple of weeks ago. When we initially moved in, we stored a ton of boxes in our garage. I wanted to take a couple of days to unpack those remaining boxes and be done with it. If I would have known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done that. It was my plan to open up the boxes in the garage and bring the items in since I knew I had a hard time tolerating the smell of the boxes.

Unfortunately, it ended up being some of the hottest days of the summer, so we brought some of the boxes in the house. As I started unpacking a few boxes, I began to notice a familiar smell. It was a smell I hadn’t smelled since we had moved. Then my MCS symptoms started to reappear. I told my husband we had to take everything back out into the garage. As I started to bring items in one by one, I could smell this odor on some of them.

I was so upset! The mold from our home traveled in those boxes. I now contaminated our new place.  We thought this was going to be a fresh start. Before we moved, we made a call to a state government agency questioning if it was safe to take all of our things. They said that the mold wouldn’t be in everything, so we packed it all up.

Many mistakenly believe that simply moving out of a contaminated building will solve the problem, but the toxins adhere to your belongings. If you move with everything you have, you can take the problem with you.” Dr. Mercola

From what I have since researched, it gets into everything. Plus, the dead mold can be just as bad as the living mold. According to Dr. Mercola, “when mold dies, the cells’ walls desiccate and break apart into little fragments. The fragments carry the toxins upon them, and when inhaled, they’re absorbed into your body.” Well, I sure inhaled them when I opened up the boxes! Once I realized what was happening, after the first few boxes, I started wearing a mask to go through things and I tried not to move things too much inside of the box. In many cases, the whole box got tossed. I should have referred to this list of what you should do with your things if you are in a moldy situation.

So there we’ve been, during the last couple of weeks, loading up our driveway for the garbage men to take away all of our things. My previous life vanished before my eyes. It was like we were in a fire and had lost everything. Things and memory items I had collected since my childhood are all gone. I so wish we would have thrown everything out before we moved. My new “safe” environment is now contaminated.

Mold Toxicity Can Wreak Havoc on Our Health

My health has also taken a setback. I was starting to do so much better, then this exposure messed me up again. I’ve had a couple of doctors tell me I can’t be around mold, but since I’ve had so many health problems, it’s been hard to know exactly what has been a result of what. Well, after this exposure, I can tell you that the mold definitely contributes to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as my symptoms started coming back again. It contributes to sleep and our brain, as I have had a hard time sleeping since then. It contributes to our gut. It’s amazing how my stomach bloated up after the exposure. I’ve also started losing a little weight again, which I can’t afford to lose. I’ve had a doctor tell me one of the organs it settled into was my pancreas. I have noticed additional issues with my sugar since the exposure. My heart has also been affected again since it’s back to racing a ton. It’s crazy how it can wreak havoc on our body!

My theory as to why I wasn’t affected by it as much when we were in the apartment was because the mold count was down. Being near the closet bothered me, but it was contained to the closet. Once we started opening boxes at our new place, it let all of the spores out increasing the spore count. The mold seems to be the strongest on papers and clothing. I’ve thrown away most of the papers and I am washing our clothes in straight vinegar, ammonia, or tea tree oil. I’m throwing away some of the clothes which seem to be worse. I have also washed our floors and vents with vinegar.

I am so thankful for my Air Oasis Surface and Air Sanitizer! It is a powerful filter that has the technology to cleanse and disinfect. It is similar to the sanitizers that mold remediators use to clean the air after remediation. I have been placing the sanitizer in each room to power clean it. I believe we’ve gotten rid of many mold spores. However, I still smell it from time to time. I’m trying to also strengthen my body again with different supplements and am continuing to detox. However, it can take a long time for the mold to leave one’s body and now I’ve added this whole new batch back into my body.

I would appreciate the prayers. It is so disheartening. My husband and I don’t want to go through this again.

Additional Resources for Your Reading Pleasure:

• Surviving Toxic Mold
• MOLDY The Movie: Resources For Avoiding Toxic Mold Exposure At Home
• Surviving Mold
• Paradigm Change

Read Next: Toxic Mold is Evil

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