Re: Re: Can anyone help - Our story

[Guest guest]

Don, I am also sorry to hear of your difficulties, but there are many here who

have similar

challenges. Moving does not cure the problem. Especially with 4 children. I

moved to Az. from

Wa. to find myself in a water damaged rental house. You have to be careful. I

now have my houses

air quality tested and watch for water damage. Any sign of a problem I fix it.

Personal

responsibility. I admire how you discovered another way to support your family

on the Internet.

Just remember GOD doesn't give you anything you can not handle with out you

faith in his wisdom.

He will always provide what you need.

Bless you and your family

Don in Sedona

--- charlesb35 <charlesb35@...> wrote:

> Don, I am sorry to hear how difficult things are for you and your

> family. There are many of us who can relate to your story. I don't

> know anything about housing in New Mexico, but I hope someone on this

> site can help you with that. As you mentioned in your message, many

> of us know how hard it can be to think clearly because of the toxins

> in our brains. Just thought I would throw out a comment in regard to

> your plan. I don't know much about RV living, but it seems like it

> would be very difficult to live in an RV with 4 children and travel

> around the country. What about school? Wouldn't it be good to get

> your children settled in a safe environment where they can make

> friends and start feeling safe again? I am speaking from

> experience. I have moved my family 5 times since our exposure and it

> is very hard on our kids.

>

>

>

> >

> > Hi all,

> >

> > We were active here about 2 years ago and had many phone

> conversations with KC over our issue. We lived in a house that was

> full of mold and we became very sensitized. We live in Shelbyville,

> Indiana and due to our exposure we smell it everywhere, in the

> stores, in homes we look at in an attempt to find a clean rental,

> just living here our condition is worsening. Myself, I don't care if

> I were to die except for the fact that I don't want to leave my

> children, our greatest concern however is our children. We NEED to

> get them out of this area and into the southwest, perhaps New Mexico,

> but we have very limited resources, here is a letter I wrote to a

> friend that is a brief summary of what we've been through in the past

> 7 years:

> >

> > Wanna hear a sob story? (I don't burden myself with it daily,

> but I just

> > keep on tackling life one day at a time) Our move cannot be so

> smooth.

> > About 7 years ago, I had a good paying job, owned a house, and

> basically

> > thought everything was going well. One night I went in to work to

> discover

> > I wouldn't be working there anymore. My boss said I was one of his

> best

> > men, and everyone said I would never have to worry about lay offs.

> Life

> > throws curves some times. We picked up a couple paper routes, and

> built a

> > nice business on Ebay dealing with antiques and collectibles, then

> the next

> > brick hit the fan. I came down a flight of stairs like a kid, but

> I don't

> > wear a young mans chothes anymore, and my back spoke up to say it

> wasn't so

> > young anymore either. I had a herniated disk, a bulging disk, and

> > degerative disk disease, I've lost about 3 inches of height since

> then.

> >

> > I could no longer stand up and work, something I'd done all my

> life, we

> > were forced to file bankruptcy, we were talked into putting our

> house in the

> > bankruptcy by our attorney, then when the mortgage company file for

> a relief

> > from stay, our attorney never responded so we got a foreclosure

> compiled on

> > top of our bankruptcy. We could no longer do Ebay because of my

> back, the

> > packing, hours at the auction, etc. We worked two paper routes for

> a few

> > years, until my back degenerated to a point where I could not spend

> 3 hours

> > in the car anymore. My back has improved, but I still have to be

> careful

> > and cannot spend lengthy periods of time on my feet and need good

> support

> > behind my lower back when I sit.

> >

> > Social Security denied me three times, so I was left on my own,

> > penniless, out of work, and unable to work a significant job, with

> 4

> > children still living at home, one of which is handicapped. For

> the past

> > seven years we have lived on our wits. I still run a paper route,

> we get a

> > small SSI check for our autistic boy, and have taught ourselves how

> to make

> > money on the internet. I have an affiliate web site that I

> advertise and

> > sell electronic equiptment on, it did real well this past Christmas

> season,

> > but we had to use the money to pay off debts we incurred over the

> past

> > couple years trying to learn how to survive and paying bills.

> >

> > At present, we have no job lined up in NM, a paper route here,

> about 2

> > grand to move on, and we have to be out of this house the end of

> his month.

> > We've looked at houses in the area for the past year, and have

> found nothing

> > within our budget that isn't mold infested. We did find one place,

> but for

> > some reason that landlord will not rent to us. He is a young kid,

> and I

> > think our bankruptcy scares him.

> >

> > Funny, we've danced for seven years on the edge of anxiety and

> disaster,

> > yet my faith and my family have kept us going, and we have never

> lost hope.

> > What we really would like to do is get an RV and travel the country

> working

> > gourd shows. We worked one in Ohio on a cold rainy weekend and

> made about

> > $600 selling Carmella's hand cream, the gourd report booklets, and

> gourd

> > charts, but we had to pay the $600 to pay for the RV rental. It

> was a test

> > that tells us we could do it, in conjunction with the internet

> work, but due

> > to the bankruptcy and forclosure, we can't get financing on an RV,

> and my

> > greatest fear is if we move to NM, we have no job lined up and

> renters will

> > be weary of that. I'd take a tent and live in it if we had to, but

> somehow

> > we have to find a way out of here because of how the mold is

> affecting us.

> > Carmella actually suffers from Mold induced Fibromyalgia like

> symptoms, and

> > we all have resperitory problems as a result of the mold exposure

> from the

> > house we lived in. Oh yeah, I didn't mention it was the house we

> moved into

> > after losing our house 7 years ago.

> >

> > We still have not decided that this is what we should do, we

> have two

> > more weeks to think about it, but we have to do something....

> (That two weeks is now two days, we are supposed to be out of the

> house we are in on May 1st and have still not found a suitable

> rental. Our lease is up and the landlord will not repair the central

> air system which is causing air quality issues, and this house too is

> now becoming a moldy house because of that. Because of our

> disagreement, he wants us out of his house now, but that's another

> long story.

> >

> > We are looking for any kind of help in relocating to New

> Mexico, some land with a clean trailer, travel trailer, RV, (these

> would help us to work gourd shows and give us another source of

> income), a clean house in the country for rent, anything. We have

> faithfully paid our rent and our bills, but we will be losing our

> paper route by making this move. Even if there is someone who lives

> there who can view houses for us to insure they are mold free homes

> would be a big help.

> >

> > If anyone has any information, a piece of ground we can camp

> on, whatever, please let us know. Our only needs are an internet

> connection so we can continue our work and make a living.

> >

> > I'm sorry, I hate asking for anything, and maybe that is why we

> are still here, but we need help and have very limited resources. We

> lost everything we owned when we moved from the moldy house. What we

> did not lose moving from that house, we sold yesterday in a yard sale

> so we are stripped down to the bare essentials for a simplified

> move. We don't care much about belongings any more, we want our

> lives, we want to be able to create an opportunity for our children

> more than we want material items. Maybe we just are not even thinking

> clearly anymore, that too could be mold related. Then again, maybe

> we are thinking more clearly for the first time in two years. Our

> children have suffered from nose bleeds, asthma, fungal infections,

> my wife suffers from pain like fibromyalgia, bumps growing from her

> knuckles, we all get rashes, suffer from resperatory issues and

> more. I'm sure many of you know what we are suffering. Maybe someone

> else out there has been through this and as a result has learned

> something that can help us out, to know what we should do to get

> relocated. We will spend most of what we have just to get to NM, but

> if we stay here, we will die.... Slowly

> >

> > I would also like to take the moment to thank KC for being here

> for us 2 years ago when we ran into the problems, for educating us

> and for understanding what we were going through. In my tears, my

> heart goes out there to all of you who have suffered, I know where

> you are and where you have been, I know the feeling of people acting

> like your just making this all up. We are the modern day lepers, and

> if we can get out there and get something started, we would be more

> than happy to help others as much as we can as well.

> >

> > Maybe we can all pitch in and buy 50 acres in NM, and create

> lots for people to park, or offer up lots for people to develop to

> help nget them back on their feet. We are the lepers of modern

> society, but only because we know what others don't know, we need a

> mold colony of people who understand and listen.

> >

> > Thank you so much for hearing my rambling, we just don't know

> what to do anymore. We feel utterly hopless at this point.

> >

> > Dan

> > Dan & Carmella Dunkin

> > Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

> > The Gourd Reserve

> > http://www.thegourdreserve.com

> > The Gourd Reserve Forum

> > http://www.forums.thegourdreserve.com/index.php

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

and Don,

I know many people here have the same problems, and maybe this isn't where

to find help or assistance, unless someone else has aready made the move and

possibly have some extra ground for temporary set up until we get situated.

However, I think probably my biggest need in contacting the group on this, is

the need to tell someone who truly understands our problem, and I know the

people on this group do understand. We are so disbelieved about how bad mold

is, my own mother called me an idiot. We do have a few around here that are

beginning to listen, but it has been a constant battle and crusade of writing

letters, talking to people, etc.

(As far as moving the kids around, our kids have been home schooled, and

always have been. They are emotionally stable and associate with other kids

quite well. In fact, they are quick to make friends. They WANT to do this. My

wife and I never did as well at making friends as our children do.)

I know mold can be found anywhere, but we have become so mold sensitive and

chemical sensitive that we can smell mold in most cases before we even enter a

house. Our youngest son is so sensitive, we found a house we thought was OK,

and the instant he stepped inside he began coughing, so on further inspection we

did find mold.

Indiana used to be swamp land and when it rains, water stands for days many

times. Our particular area used to be flood plains, in fact there are pictures

in the library and around town showing a heavy rain from the early 1900's when

downtown was about 4 feet under water. Needless to say, 90% of this town has

serious mold problems. When you walk outside, you can smell the mold, it is

that bad, but most people don't even realize it.

NM and the Southwest on the other hand are much dryer, yes buildings can

still have issues, but we used to live in Southern California and the issues

were minimal to nearly non existent. Not to mention my wife has had allergies

since she was a child, and when we lived in Ca, they did not bother her. All of

our grown kids are headed west, and there is nothing left for us here except for

illness and mold. I'm serious as a heart attack, you can smell the mold in the

air. In fact, when we moved to Shelbyville, we joked about how as soon as we

got off the interstate and headed south toward town, it smelled like mushrooms.

I was excited hoping to find lots of Morels in the area. No such luck, but the

ground in many areas has a slimy green mold, (not moss), all the tree's have it

about 1/4 of the year around, and as stated before, nearly every single house

except for the new and expensive houses have mold, and even some of the new

houses have mold already. There is a new Super Wal Mart in town, it was just

built and opened about 3 years ago, and they have mold, especially in the

produce area and every time we shop there, we get sick.

Doing a search on the internet for air quality, the southwest keeps coming

up in almost every area of air quality as being the cleanest environment. With

the severity of our sensitivity, it seems to be our best option.

It is like this, I'm swimming 100 yards offshore in a lake. I'm exhausted

and cannot keep my head above water much longer. On the shore are bears or

other beasts that are a potential threat, but it is either die out here in the

lake, or swim to shore and take your chances. I'll take my chances for some dry

ground, scorpions or not.

By the way, we actually have 8 children, only 3 are still with us, one will

always be with us, he is autistic and needs constant care, but he will be 19

years old in a few weeks. The other five are grown and blessing us with grand

children, and heading west. one will be on a mission trip to Thailand, then

will be attending school in Texas, another is in FL, our oldest son is attending

College at Purdue, but next year will be in Europe working a co-op program for

Rolls Royce then he will be going to Texas, and our only other child here is

looking for property in Kansas, and our other son lives in Missouri.

Thank you all for listening, it is a relief just knowing someone does

understand our issues, :-)

Trusting in God to lead us,

Dan

Dan and Carmella

Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

[Guest guest]

What is this reference to " Evil Thrives when good men do nothing " ? Where is the

Evil?

Dan & Carmella <moldstory@...> wrote: and Don,

I know many people here have the same problems, and maybe this isn't where to

find help or assistance, unless someone else has aready made the move and

possibly have some extra ground for temporary set up until we get situated.

However, I think probably my biggest need in contacting the group on this, is

the need to tell someone who truly understands our problem, and I know the

people on this group do understand. We are so disbelieved about how bad mold is,

my own mother called me an idiot. We do have a few around here that are

beginning to listen, but it has been a constant battle and crusade of writing

letters, talking to people, etc.

(As far as moving the kids around, our kids have been home schooled, and always

have been. They are emotionally stable and associate with other kids quite well.

In fact, they are quick to make friends. They WANT to do this. My wife and I

never did as well at making friends as our children do.)

I know mold can be found anywhere, but we have become so mold sensitive and

chemical sensitive that we can smell mold in most cases before we even enter a

house. Our youngest son is so sensitive, we found a house we thought was OK, and

the instant he stepped inside he began coughing, so on further inspection we did

find mold.

Indiana used to be swamp land and when it rains, water stands for days many

times. Our particular area used to be flood plains, in fact there are pictures

in the library and around town showing a heavy rain from the early 1900's when

downtown was about 4 feet under water. Needless to say, 90% of this town has

serious mold problems. When you walk outside, you can smell the mold, it is that

bad, but most people don't even realize it.

NM and the Southwest on the other hand are much dryer, yes buildings can still

have issues, but we used to live in Southern California and the issues were

minimal to nearly non existent. Not to mention my wife has had allergies since

she was a child, and when we lived in Ca, they did not bother her. All of our

grown kids are headed west, and there is nothing left for us here except for

illness and mold. I'm serious as a heart attack, you can smell the mold in the

air. In fact, when we moved to Shelbyville, we joked about how as soon as we got

off the interstate and headed south toward town, it smelled like mushrooms. I

was excited hoping to find lots of Morels in the area. No such luck, but the

ground in many areas has a slimy green mold, (not moss), all the tree's have it

about 1/4 of the year around, and as stated before, nearly every single house

except for the new and expensive houses have mold, and even some of the new

houses have mold already. There is a new Super Wal

Mart in town, it was just built and opened about 3 years ago, and they have

mold, especially in the produce area and every time we shop there, we get sick.

Doing a search on the internet for air quality, the southwest keeps coming up in

almost every area of air quality as being the cleanest environment. With the

severity of our sensitivity, it seems to be our best option.

It is like this, I'm swimming 100 yards offshore in a lake. I'm exhausted and

cannot keep my head above water much longer. On the shore are bears or other

beasts that are a potential threat, but it is either die out here in the lake,

or swim to shore and take your chances. I'll take my chances for some dry

ground, scorpions or not.

By the way, we actually have 8 children, only 3 are still with us, one will

always be with us, he is autistic and needs constant care, but he will be 19

years old in a few weeks. The other five are grown and blessing us with grand

children, and heading west. one will be on a mission trip to Thailand, then will

be attending school in Texas, another is in FL, our oldest son is attending

College at Purdue, but next year will be in Europe working a co-op program for

Rolls Royce then he will be going to Texas, and our only other child here is

looking for property in Kansas, and our other son lives in Missouri.

Thank you all for listening, it is a relief just knowing someone does understand

our issues, :-)

Trusting in God to lead us,

Dan

Dan and Carmella

Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

[Guest guest]

,

I don't know if this info will help or not. It's working camper. Typically

these jobs are filled by retirees who want to supplement their income. As I

understand it, there are many opportunities like this all over the country.

The website says families, too. Just an idea.

_http://www.workamper.com/WorkamperNews/WNIndex.cfm_

(http://www.workamper.com/WorkamperNews/WNIndex.cfm)

Sharon

************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Evil Thrives when Good men do nothing....

I first saw that on a bumper sticker, and we were in the middle of a tough

situation, (what's new), and there was immediate family around who could have

helped. It kind of caught my eye on that, then I realized just how true that

statement is. A news story several years ago where a woman in NY City was

coming home at night, and someone attacked her with a knife. The story goes

that the screams for help went on for a good 15 minutes or more, it was a street

that had high rise apartments on both sides, and people saw what was going on,

but not one offered to help, or even call the police until it was too late.

Where is evil? Watch the news, read your paper... Any time there is an

injustice done, and someone may have been able to make a difference but kept

silent, then evil has thrived because someone stood by and did nothing.

The whole mold issue could fit right into the same boat. Carmella has

written a dozen letters to send out to different types of groups to try to

educate the public about mold. She is in the process of trying to email this to

every single newspaper and TV/Radio station she can find on the internet. This

is doing something. Where is the evil? Our local high school had an outbreak

of Histoplasmosis. This comes from the mold strain of Histoplasma Capsulatum

which is indeginous to the mid west area. They tilled up a court yard in the

school which had the ventilation system intake ducts right next to it. More

than 50% of the students were out of school sick with fevers, of those that

still went to school, 80% of them appeared to be very ill and suffered flu like

symptoms, the teachers quoted in the newspaper said, the students looked like

the walking dead. Our daughter was very ill from it. The Evil is, our at that

time, family physician was also the head of the local hospital AND head of the

county health department. He said, no reason to shut down the school. He

played it off as being relatively innocuous. Fortunately the state health

department head over ruled him and said that would not be prudent, and they shut

down the school for two months while the entires ventilation system and school

was remediated. If the good state man had not spoken, evil would have thrived.

That doctor was still calming the public like a good politician trying to

prevent a massive law suit, my wife wrote an article in the local paper talking

about ocular histo which is blindness that occurs in your 30's and 40's, after

having had a minor dosage of histo as a child. Of course the local doctor came

back with a rebutle and basically played us off as the outspoken fringe and

calmed the community. Needless to say, he was no longer our doctor since he

didn't even know what Histo symptoms were after the CDC had passed out flyers

with a list of symptoms on it.

There is one example of evil thriving when good men did nothing, and an

example of evil being halted by one doctor over ruling another. Evil thrives

when good men do nothing afterall...

Dan

Dan & Carmella Dunkin

Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

The Gourd Reserve

http://www.thegourdreserve.com

[Guest guest]

Who wrote>

HI, SORRY TO HEAR YOUR STORY, CAN YOU GO LIVE WITH ANY OF YOUR

CHILDREN? AT LEAST IT MAY BE BETTER THAN THERE. SORRY, NOT MUCH HELP.

SEEMS THIS ILLNESS LEAVES MOST OF US WITH NOTHING..--- In

We would have pressed that issue if it were a possibility. Of our local

children, the one on the co-op with Rolls Royce has an aparrtment provided to

him by Rolls, and he cannot share or sublet, etc. Our local daughter has a very

small two bedroom apt, and indiana laws will not allow that because if you have

a boy and a girl, you MUST have a 3 bedroom. She has four beautiful girls. :-)

Our boy in MO lives in a trailer that probably isn't any better than what we are

facing here, our daughter is FL lives with her boy friend and she has said they

have a lot of mold because they are always getting rained on and wet, and last

but not least, our other local daughter is newly wed and graduating from

college, after which they are going into missionary training then will be

spending a year in Thailand. The rest live with us.

Thank you for the thought though, our daughter with the four girls did say

we could go to her apartment Tuesday so I can rebuild my tech web site. I

populate it with nothing but sale items for the month on electronic stuff. That

is our primary source of income, so for her offer we are truly grateful. Our

children have grown up to be such blessings to us and we are grateful most of

them are doing fairly well.

We aren't left completely with nothing, we have two laptops for working on

the road, a van with 200,000 miles on it but runs good, and the most loving

chldren and immediate family unit any one could possibly hope for, but none of

them are in a position to help.

Thanks again,

Dan

Dan & Carmella Dunkin

Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

The Gourd Reserve

[Guest guest]

KC, how ya doin???

I can't begin to tell you how many times I thought about writing you. You

remember the house we were in, and what I was trying to do to remediate the

place, at least to make it livable for at least the year we had remaining there.

Everything I tried just caused another problem. Knowing it was in the walls,

after a few good dry days, I sealed up all the cracks in the brick siding. Of

course, this caused sporulation which was immediately noticable. We sealed off

the two most offending rooms with tape and thick plastic, and made the living

room and kitchen our home. Of course these rooms had carpeting, so Carmella

would take the kids to the theater every night, and I would spend about 3 hours

ripping out the carpeting and padding. I have to say, I hate those staple

hammers, workers go nuts with those things, I bet I pulled 100,000 staples from

a beautiful hard wood floor that was under the carpet. You might remember that

I seemed to have a certain level of immunity to the mold as it wasn't effecting

me like it did the rest of the family, well by the time I got the carpeting out,

that was no longer the case. I do not suffer the pain and bumps Carmella

suffers from, but I have other issues.

Once the rooms were closed and the carpeting removed, there were exposed

gaps between the walls and the flooring. When the wind was blowing in the right

direction, it would enter the house, carry the mold through the crawl space, and

up through the cracks between the floors and walls and blow practically right in

our faces. That is because by this time we had already tossed all the padded

furniture including our beds and we were sleeping on blankets on the floor. I

sealed the cracks with silicon, but that mold just finds another way in. I

finally started smelling a dirty foot type odor, and i know it was a type of

mold, someone told us that was probably aspergillus, (I know the walls harbored

Stachy and others, just by the black grape like clusters and other pretty colors

I saw through a gaping hole from the window frame that rotted out leaving about

a 3 inch hole from the outside going right into the drywall. Everyone please

understand, I had no knowledge of any of these issues, and I didn't know holes

would do this. It wasn't our house, so I wasn't real concerned, but that has

changed. Anyway, I layed there so many nights smelling the molds that were

permeating the room, totally terrified and finally found myself desperate. One

night it was so bad, we took our blankets into the garage and slept in there

just to get away from the attack. We both fell into a pretty serious

depression, and that was around the last time you and I both spoke to each

other. I don't know if you knew Little Dan ended up in the hopital one night

with an asthma attack so severe he could not breath. Of course the doctor in

the emergency room wanted to give him steroids and a very strong antibiotic, but

I told her no. She informed me she went to school for 8 years and knew what she

was doing, I told her, not without a second opinion from our pediatrician. The

pediatrician agreed with me, told Little Dan to stay out of the leaves, (that is

what triggered the event thanks to his sensitivity because of the exposure), and

said if he wasn't doing better in a couple days she would prescribe the steroids

but NOT the anti biotics. She also basically ordered us out of the house. :-)

We did...

From there we moved into a house that is only a couple years old, a modular

unit, really nice, clean, mold free, etc. Then I developed a serious breathing

problem. I thought I had developed Aspergillosis from the old house and was

gong to die. We went to a doctor and I was diagnosed with COPD. It gets

better...This was in the winter time... As summer rolled around, we realized

the air conditioner was not working properly. The hotter it got, the more I

noticed hot pockets in the house while the air conditioner was running and there

was a spot in one room where the carpet was lifting up and you could feel cold

air coming through the carpeting. I checked the crawl space and it was freezing

cold. Inside the house it was 80F and the air conditioner would not shut off.

I got the landlord to fix the initial leak which worked for about a day, then it

went back to normal. He said every thing came apart, and there wasn't any more

he could do about it. We spent most of the summer baking in the heat,

occassionally running the airconditioner which didn't help much, it was still

95F in the house. Then came the realization of what had been wrong with me in

the winter. The air being taken from inside the house, was being pumped into

the crawl space. The house, now being negative air pressure was sucking air in

from the outside by the path of least resistance, through the attic vents and

down the interior walls drawing in all the super heated attic air, along with

blow in attic insulation dust. We quit using the air conditioner, i went back

to the same doctor that diagnosed me with COPD, he now diagnosed me with NO

COPD. That was a blessing. Anyway, we continued to complain and try to get the

landlord ot believe us with what was wrong with his house, but he does not want

to tear all the tarping off the bottom of the house to fix the problem. It is

easier for him to listen to his buddies who are telling him to run a return line

through the attic. Since I kept telling him no, that he would be wasting his

money, he agreed to cut our rent by $50, but would not renew the lease. In

December he gave us a four month extension, (with the $50 tacked back on), so

we wouldn't have to move in the winter, (and he wouldn't have to heat a vacant

house in the winter), but now our 4 months are up and he wants us out. I guess

it is OK, paying his rent for this place has pretty much wringed us dry, every

month was a struggle and the pressure was too severe.

So, sorry for the long letter , but hey, there's two years to catch up

on. We've just been through so many wringers over the past two years, we

haven't been in the talkative mood, and have been very busy trying to make

enough to afford this expensive piece of,... I mean poorly put together home,

(LOL). We have thought of you often, and my wife and I are both curious to know

how you and your wife are doing. You can email us privately if you prefer, I

know I get wordy some times, and sorry if I've bored anyone. It is really good

to talk to you again, and it is great to get involved in our groups again. You

are a good man, and thanks to you forming this group, so many people are getting

educated about molds. We have learned so much from your group and its

comtributors and especially from you, had it not been for this group, we may

have died in that old house, or worse...

Your friend,

Dan

Dan & Carmella Dunkin

Evil Thrives when good men do nothing...

The Gourd Reserve

[] Re: Can anyone help - Our story

Dan & Carmella,

It definately has been a while hasn't it. It's hard to believe that

it has been two years. I often wondered how you all were doing and

I'm very sorry to hear the situation that you are in now. It has

been a journey for all of us and we are hoping that it can only get

better from here on out.

[Guest guest]

Dana,

That is horrible, we do know how you feel, and I have wept many times over a

situation like yours. I didn't mention it in the previous letter because I've

already written off any chance of getting help from that direction. There is a

member of my family that could possibly help, but her money is worth more to her

than her son, so I look down the family tree for help, not up. My last

conversation explaining how bad things had gotten awarded me the " you're an

Idiot " label. There is nothing that cuts deeper or hurts more than when someone

who is supposed to love you and has it well within their grasp to do so, will

stand on the sidelines watching you die and do nothing. Our prayers are with

you and your daughter, because we know exactly how you feel and what you are

going through.

You live in an apartment? Won't your local health department help and make

them clean up the mold? There must be others living there also whos health is

at stake. If you haven't called the health department, I would give them a

call. Of course we called on our current house, but the kid that owns it plays

golf with every doctor, lawyer, judge, health department personell, etc. in

this town, (small town america). If you don't know someone important or have

money, your out of luck and alone.

Our thoughts and prayers to everyone on this group,

Dan

Dan & Carmella

[Guest guest]

Sue,

Actually the bumps on her knuckles are sticking out, not fully internal. In

fact, the first sign of any of these types of bumps was when we were sleeping in

the worst room of our mold exposure home. Carmella felt ill, but it was the

kids and I that were running the fevers and suffering from severe flu like

symptoms, then one night her legs started hurting. This was just days before

our discovery of the mold problem. She squirmed on the bed crying, " my legs, my

legs " , when she could calm down a little she explained that it felt like it was

in the bones and muscle, not really in the joints at all. within two days these

bumps that measured about an inch in diameter and grew to a point of about 1/2

inch to and inch in height just started growing from what appeared to be the

front of her calf bone above the ankles. She said if you touch them they

burned. This was totally different from any of the symptoms the rest of us were

having. Now she gets miniature bumps of the same type, but they appear to eb

growing from the very edge of her finger knuckles.

We also suffer from little rash like bumps, and just last week Carmella got

a red spot on the side of her chest that looked like a thumb print, I thought

maybe she had bumped into something and just didn't realize it, but the spot is

growing and looks like a mild rug burn now. I've never seen so many weird

things go on with the human body in my life as I have over the past two years,

and every time we walk into a building in town that has mold, it is like one of

us or one of the kids suffer from something new.

So, I don't know if you both are experiencing the same thing or not, it

certainly could be and you were just unfortunate enough to have your growing

within the joint instead of on the exterior.

one thing we first learned about, and I don't know the latest on it, was a

thing called Reactive Rheumatoid Arthritis. Poeple who suffer from a bacterial

infection, if not taken care of right away, can get reactive arthritis. It is

where the bacteria forms colonies or something in the joints. We read a report

online about it, and if it was cleared up within a certain period of time, your

chances were good it would go away. As time progresses, your chances diminish.

Since Mold, even though it is different from bacteria, it emulates many

bacterial and viral type problems, I'm assuming it can also do the same thing

adn cause arthritis as well. In fact, I do believe arthritis is on the disease

list of molds.

I hope yours is nothing more than a cyst that can be removed with full

recovery.

Dan

Dan & Carmella

[] Re: Can anyone help - Our story

Dan,

I am sorry that I can't help you with NM connections - I don't have

any in that part of the country at all. Something in your post did

catch my eye - your mention that your wife has bumps growing from her

knuckles. I have a large 'cyst' according to xray, on the side of my

knuckle that is actually causing my finger to twist and deviate to one

side. Sometimes it is painful. It is totally internal, the skin is

normal. Does this sound like what your wife has? Surgical removal

has been recommended but can't afford it. Your post is the first I

have heard of another mold survivor with this problem. (Like you - I

lost my house, job, sick still from mold, trying to scrape together a

living - I do know what you are suffering! And I am smelling mold

really strong tonight; am in Michigan).

Good luck to you -

Sue

>>Then again, maybe we are thinking more clearly for the first time in

two years. Our children have suffered from nose bleeds, asthma,

fungal infections, my wife suffers from pain like fibromyalgia, bumps

growing from her knuckles, we all get rashes, suffer from resperatory

issues and more. I'm sure many of you know what we are suffering.

Maybe someone else out there has been through this and as a result has

learned something that can help us out, to know what we should do to

get relocated. We will spend most of what we have just to get to NM,

but if we stay here, we will die.... Slowly

[Guest guest]

Jackie,

I do understand your point completely, however...

When I was a kid, I went to 5 different schools in 5 years time, and it

really had a horrible impact on me. Public schools are not the environment for

a new kid in town, not to mention for every day kids. I grew up afraid to talk

to people, afraid to make friends, and the friends I did make were all the wrong

ones. Of our 8 children, I should clarify that 6 are from my wifes previous

marraiges, but when I married her I made it clear that I married her children

also, and I love each of those kids as if they were my own. In fact, most of

them are closer to me than they are to their own father. I've had the

priviledge to walk two of my step daughters down the aisle, and the last one I

think was more emmotional for me than my own daughters wedding will be, we are

that close as a family. I just wanted to clear that up so there are no

misunderstandings or questions in the future as I do refer to all of them as our

children.

Anyway, my wife had a hard life, and she and her kids moved a lot too, but

you know what? They have grown up and are very stable adults. What seems hard

to us at the moment often build character in us later, so your children may not

be as harmed by all this as you think, however I do still agree with you, it is

hard on the kids.

Now the HOWEVER of the point. All of this refers to the world of public

education. All the older kids were home schooled as much as they wanted, and

entered public school on their decision when they were ready. We lived here

long enough for them to make neighborhood friends, and they were not forced to

enter a class room with a bunch of strangers who already had their cliques. My

children have Mom & dad, and brothers and sisters as their closest friends, and

they have neighborhood friends. We have rules in our house about language in

movies, and if our children, 9 & 10, get a movie and start watching it in

another room, even if they are getting into the movie, if the words we do not

allow are spoken, they come running into the room with the DVD in hand, and say,

" They said the bad word " , and no more of the movie is watched. You know what?

They make thier friends the same way, and if a kid they are with starts speaking

fowl language, they flat out tell them, " We don't use that language here " . My

kids readily make friends, and they hava a comfort zone because they are not

forced into it. They will not likely develop foul mouthes because they are not

tossed in with kids that do use it. I can also say from people we've met

through full time RV groups, that their kids are some of the most stable kids

around. It is not likely that the moving is what is traumatizing your children,

it is the environment they are forced in to.

If a childs primary association is other chldren who have not yet developed

their security level of who they are, how can that child develop a security

level of their own? As we grow up, (speaking from my own emotions and life

experience), we depend on Mom & dad, (ever notice how Mom always comes first?),

they are the security, the rock of stability, the ones you run to when you get

hurt, the ones you show your latest efforts hoping to win approval. Then you go

to public school, and you are thrown in with a bunch of immature kids who don't

have a clue about life yet, but will do anything to win the approval of their

peers, and certain, often undesirable, characters seem to be at the top of the,

" I wanna be like him " hill. This creates some serious mixed signals between

that mature, understanding parental figure who understands life, and this

character of a kid who in reality is insecure himself which is why he is the way

he is, and if you think about it, it should be no surprise that half of todays

kids grow up confused, not knowing who they are or what they are supposed to be

like as parents. They don't even understand how to play a role in a

relationship. My kids make friends immediately, and unlike my mother, I do not

have to tell them that certain kids are a bad influence.

For thousands of years childrens education was in the hands of the parents,

in most cases a son would do what his father did, but this was not always true.

Men got along just fine and society, giving consideration to the lack of

technology they had then, seemed to flourish just fine. Schooling has only been

gong on perhaps for a few hundred years, and only in this century, in fact in my

life time has public schools been centrally controlled by the government. Is

this a good thing or a bad thing? The jury is still out on that, but we have

known several home schooled children besides our own, with a home school

association and activities for the children, they get the education, the social

life, and the stability that only a parent can provide without the shock, (in

tha case of moving), of being stuck in with lots of strangers trying to figure

out life.

Either way you look at it, life is hard. Kids can be mean, so can adults.

Our kids WANT to move, they want to camp, and they want to RV, so I don't think

it will be a shock to them.

Dan

Dan & Carmella

[] Re: Can anyone help - Our story

I don't think moving around will be healthy for the kids. They need

to be settled and nested. I know because I constantly moved my 2

kids when I was a single divorced mom. If I had it to go over again,

I would had never moved them from the first place! I know mold is

bad and seems to be everywhere but moving and moving and moving and

moving, is not good for kids.

>

> Don, I am sorry to hear how difficult things are for you and your

> family. There are many of us who can relate to your story.

[Guest guest]

Jackie,

Thank you so much for the kind words. I don't know that my words prove

anything, it may not work for others as we are all different and unique which is

what makes meeting people such a wonderful experience, even though it is not

always a good one.

We all make mistakes in raising our children, parenting is a learning

experience in itself. Love you children, and let them know you are their friend

as well as a parent. Spend time with them, and I'm sure they will grow up just

fine.

Dan & Carmella