My story that I sent in - Fw: Casting: My Medical Mystery Story

[Guest guest]

just thought you would like to see the story that I sent in to Mystery

Diagnosis. We should all send in a story that way maybe one of ours will be

chosen to be aired on the show.

 

Dana

 

send your story to MysteryDiagnosisCasting@...

From: dana dana <gsgrl2000@...>

Subject: Casting: My Medical Mystery Story

MysteryDiagnosisCasting@...

Date: Monday, December 8, 2008, 12:56 AM

Hi,

 

My name is Dana Toliver and I'm 37yrs. old. and live in the Los Angeles area. My

diagnosis is Mycotoxicosis which is any illness that is caused by mycotoxins. It

is more popularly known as Sickbuilding Syndrome (SBS). My story started way

back in 1995 when my daughter and I moved into our apartment. About six months

later I started getting shortness of breath but didn't know why. I have

allergies but never had asthma or shortness of breath before. My daughter a few

months later became anemic and a few months after that she had a bout with

bronchitis.

 

We went back and forth to the doctor and it seemed like all of our symptoms or

illnesses were isolated incidents. However, about three years later in 1999 I

came down with what I now know to be a " mold " rash but the doctors thought it

was acne at the time. About a year or so later I began to notice my hair falling

out and in 2002 I came down with what the doctors first told me was the flu but

that flu lasted for a solid year. I became more and more fatigued. I struggled

to get through just three hours of work and began to notice that I was getting a

lot of random infections. I started having dizzy spells, headaches, and other

non-specific symptoms. Around the same time my daughter came down with patches

of ringworm on her torso and she started getting nose bleeds at night that would

last up to an hour. She began to have a chronic cough at night and the doctors

told us it was asthma, except she never had asthma before and she was already in

middle

school. Working with kids myself I thought this was a bit odd.

 

As time passed, more and more non-specific symptoms occurred. My daughter

started having stomach aches and vomiting spells. I began to notice a pattern

that whenever we were away from the house for a few days are symptoms would

start to subside and in some cases completely disappear and the moment we would

come back into our apartment the symptoms would instantly come back with greater

severity. My sister who had also lived in the apartment unit upstairs with her

family, previously, who also had non-specific symptoms (ie: allergies,

congestion, coughs, miscarriage), suggested that I get the apartment tested for

mold and sure enough the mold testing in my apartment in some places were 15

times higher than the outside air. They found Stachybotrys, Aspergillus,

Penicillium and Cladosporium.

 

Doctor after doctor, through the years, kept telling me there was nothing wrong,

it's just my allergies or the flu. And some doctors even thought I was just

trying to get attention or I was lying. None of the general blood tests showed

anything wrong. At one point I refused to leave the doctors office until they

tested me for something because I knew something was very wrong. I suggested to

one doctor that they test me for hormonal imbalances and she responded by

telling me that they don't test for hormonal imbalances but I still refused to

leave so she said she would test my thyroid and a few other basic things. When I

got those tests results back there was one test that registered borderline so

she sent me to a Rheumatologist and they tested me for Lupus but that came back

negative so I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I knew after a while that I

didn't have typical Fibromyalgia. I had arthritic-like aches and pains but I

knew that mine had a more

specific cause. I just had to find out what that cause was. So my journey

continued.

 

I, finally, found a doctor, outside my insurance coverage who finally listened

and spent more than five minutes with me. That doctor was Dr. Murray Susser. He

did a full, thorough, head to toe exam which none of the other doctors through

my insurance ever did. He spent almost an hour and a half examining me and just

listening. When I explained to him about the mold that was found in my house and

showed him the results of the mold testing in my home he immediately ordered

blood tests. When I went back for the results he said this is why you are so

sick; your blood work came back three times higher than the average person with

aspergillus in the blood. He had wanted to do more mold testing for

stachybotrys, penecillium, cladosporium but I only had enough money to do the

tests for the aspergillus. He then diagnosed me with mycosis, malaise, allergy,

ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, etc. Basically I have SBS and/or Mycotoxicosis which

caused the mycosis, allergies,

malaise, ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, edema, syncope, brain fog and concentration

issues, short term memory loss, dysmenorrhea, shortness of breath, infertility,

migraines, IBS symptoms, ringworm, blurred vision, miscarriages and host of

other non-specific symptoms that appear to not be connected but are and range

from mild to severe that I will have to live with the rest of my life unless

they find away to get mycotoxins out of your bloodstream.

 

This has been a nightmare of events. I was forced to leave my job and have been

unable to work for the past fix years. Most doctors have never even heard of

Mycotoxicosis and/or they have no idea of how to treat it. And most doctors

don't even believe toxic mold and/or mycotoxins from inhalation can make people

as sick as my daughter and I have been along with all those at

who have also been suffering in silence.

 

However, there are those doctors, like Dr. Susser, Dr. Marinkovich, Dr.

Shoemaker, Dr. Kilburn, Dr. Thrasher, and Dr. Croft who have been fighting for

those of us who suffer from the effects of toxic mold through inhalation.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration,

 

Dana Toliver

Pasadena, Ca.