Re: Bad Reaction to Washed Clothing (and our story)

July 17, 2009

Cloth washing hints

Do NOT use chlorine EVER. It will immediately ruin the clothes for you.

Do NOT use ammonia. Remove these chemicals from your home.

Use Vinegar on your 'new' clothing.

Use Borax as a soap booster, hardwater softener, eliminate staining minerals.

Make your own laundry soap from soap flakes and washing soda.

The washing soda eliminates soap scum (increase amount until it does).

There are many instructions online now.

Wear only all cotton, including your socks (hard to find, 2% lycra is easier).

Bed sheets and pillow case should be all cotton, white cotton only.

For the rest of your life. I know.

I too was chronically exposed for 1 year to CO. And mold, in the same home.

20 years ago. We should keep in touch.

Good luck.

July 18, 2009

Hi Mike,

This probably won't be of any help to you, but the only time that I

get that metallic taste in my mouth is when I'm around potent

chemicals (garden centers, formaldehyde). Perhaps there is something

else that is outgassing in your home?

Barth

www.presenting.net/sbs/sbs.html

SUBMIT YOUR DOCTOR: www.presenting.net/sbs/molddoctors.html

---

MW> All,

MW> I'm new to the board. For obvious reasons, I guess that's not a good thing,

but I really do appreciate this resource. I can't imagine what we would have

done without it. I'll start with my

MW> story and then I'll pose my question about our clothing.

July 18, 2009

At 04:59 PM 7/17/2009, you wrote:

>get that metallic taste in my mouth

Such a taste is common for a few ailments. Mold hypersensitivity is

one of them.

It means there is one mold species, out of 500,000 to 1,500,000 species that

you are reacting too, likely due to chronic exposure level, that any normal

person could tolerate for several days, without notice, but most all

people after

several weeks will start symptoms, they think are something else, and after

a month or two, they will be chronically ill, doctors will misdiagnose them

as they can not " see " the mold, and some 90 to 98% of the people in the world

would be suffer like you. Only a few are immune to the long term effects,

and there is no predicting who.

So, you are aware of mold " following you " around, on your possessions,

and found cleaning them is hard, cheaper to toss it all and buy new, and

this has been known for over 30 years by the medical community, not at

large, but those doctors that seek and retain knowledge.

The metal taste will stay as long as you are mold exposed, to even 2-3

molecules a day of it. Once the exposure is over, the taste takes several

weeks to months to slowly go away. You'll notice the change when it comes.

And when it comes back you will have to find what caused it and toss it out,

or never go back there.

Mold hypersensitivity has a cure... no exposure for 1-2 years. None.

The immune MAST cell has saturated binding sites that must all be

freed, and until then, symptoms can come back in minutes. You can

google on these key words, or read my posts several months back.

Getting such a long period with no exposure is difficult if you keep

any possessions, or go back to your parents' home. Sad, but true.

I know. It happened that way for me.

CO poisoning needs high flow oxygen protocol for treatment and you have

a good chance, not 100%, or even 90%, of a full recovery. Go to

http://mcsrr.org for the treatment protocol. You can measure the

arterial O2 level and compare it to the venous O2 level, where the

ratio determines the treatment is needed.

http://carbonomonxide.org is not up to date, but it does link to the

most expert web sites, and you should be able to get any doctor

to call these other doctors to assist with chronic CO poisoning,

which is so very much different from acute CO poisoning.

As we have so much in common, mold and CO brought us to this list,

we should keep in touch. I want to know what works for you. I've

done the mold hypersensitivity treatment, and still have some MCS

from the CO poisoning, and must start the O2 treatment again.

It was " delayed " due to chronic sewer gas exposure preventing it

from working.

July 19, 2009

Hi Mike,

I am so sorry to hear that you are having to go through this nightmare, we

also became very sick from mold,ours were Aspergillus,

Penicillium,Stachy,Tricoderma , you get the idea. We had to leave our home

and we moved to a rental cross- contaminating everything, I think you will

find a lot of people who do the exact same thing, if the item doesn't look

moldy-then it can't harm us right? Unfortunately the mold produces

mycotoxins,these you cannot see ,smell or taste and they are on and in

everything that was in your original home and are continuing to make you

sick!!

We also tried cleaning and dry cleaning,as we were still getting sicker

outside of the home, we were told by Dr Shoemaker that we had become

hypersensitive to the mycotoxins and in order to start the process of

getting better would have to get rid of everything. I know it sounds

ridiculously drastic but unfortunately it is necessary, you have to remove

be sure that you *have absolutely nothing *from the house. You will also

have cross contaminated everything by now,so even the new things you have

purchased have to go, this is the only way you can start your road to

recovery.

You said you were in a hotel, I have developed MCS as a result of my

exposure and as a result my body is extremely sensitive to any kind of

chemical,I am sure they clean your room and they probably use Bleach and a

lot of other chemicals-these will only continue to make you worse

unfortunately. Ask the cleaners not to clean for a week and see if the

burning stops.

Please be very careful when hiring remediators, there are a lot of unethical

companies out there that have no idea what they are doing, I am sure there

are experts on this board that can recommend associations,organizations that

you can check references etc. Sometimes the remediation if not done

professionally and correctly can make the contamination worse!!

Chronic mold exposure can produce a large variety of symptoms , my husband

experienced the metallic taste, whereas our two girls and myself didn't. I

had the severe headaches, dizziness,heart palpitations and my youngest

daughter had severe nosebleeds that required surgery. I am very grateful

that your little ones and wife are not showing any signs-that really is a

blessing, you still have to throw everything out though as the longer they

are exposed they could start to get sick.

This all sounds so frightening and unreal-I know!! this started in our brand

new home in April 07. You will get through this and it will get better.

Take care and good luck.

Meng.

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 10:48 AM, White <michaelwhite@...>wrote:

>

> All,

>

> I'm new to the board. For obvious reasons, I guess that's not a good thing,

> but I really do appreciate this resource. I can't imagine what we would have

> done without it. I'll start with my story and then I'll pose my question

> about our clothing.

>

> We've lived in our house for about 2 1/2 years now. I've had ongoing health

> issues for some time. We've spend many thousands (probably tens of

> thousands) on inconclusive medical tests. I've changed my diet and am now

> gluten free and sugar restricted, which has helped, but I still deal with

> bouts of vertigo, joint/muscle pain, GI issues, headaches, etc. I have a

> wife and two children (girls ages 3 and 6 months) and thankfully, they

> " seem " O.K. with the exception of general allergies.

>

> We live in South Carolina, and for the past few years we've been in drought

> conditions, but about 2 months ago we were deluged with lots of rain. A week

> or so into that rain

July 19, 2009

A follow up addition about the metallic taste.

Which metal? Copper, like pennies, or nickel? Or other metal?

I heard it makes a difference in knowing the cause of the taste,

and thus in the diagnose and treatment.

Be sure to wash and rinse the penny and nickel you use to test with.

That is, if you to not remember how they taste differently. ;-)

Oh, they have to be the old years, not the new ones.

Copper pipe is available. It's 100% pure for plumbing needs.

Most stores have a small piece for free near their cutter.

Be careful of burrs, as they cut your lips or tongue.

Aluminum is another metal people taste.

I've heard magnesium, too.

Sometimes you have more than one.

It can vary from day to day, depending on exposure(s) levels. (rare)

An means of exposure (eaten, inhaled, touched), though rarely.

I've forgotten what each metal means.

July 20, 2009

Wow, where to begin. I guess thanks for welcoming me to the club I really

appreciate all of the support we've received so far. It has helped a great

deal.

To clarify a bit, both my wife and I have the metallic taste, numb tongue and

burning throat. Our oldest daughter (3) seems to be symptom free. Our

youngest, on the other hand, seems to have some symptoms but it is very hard to

tell. She is only 7 months old. She has a hoarse voice most of the time and is

allergic to dairy products (who knows if that was mold related or not). I've

had many health issues over the years, so I think I'm more sensitive than the

rest of the family. I guess the burning mouth could be a blessing in disguise

as it forced us out of the home. I've read many stories over the last few days,

and each one has been heartwrenching.

I guess we're OK with leaving the past behind at this point. We had too much

" stuff " anyway. The worst part is the cross contamination of our parents'

houses. That one is going to be tough. The grandparents are going to take it

pretty hard, but we'll get through it in the end. It sounds like others are in

that boat as well. I guess we'll have to plan outings at neutral locations

instead of sleepovers. Oh well ...

The main question on my mind right now is how to handle all of this finanically.

Our house was right at 30 years old so we can't exactly go after our builder. I

think most of our problems stem from renovation work that was done prior to

having lived in the house (responsible for the CO/CO2 and the water intrusion)

but that might be a lost cause. Our insurance has a $5,000 cap on Mold related

claims as well. I have yet to contact them for fear of limiting our coverage.

Some of our damage was due to a leaky dishwasher a year back that was fixed, but

resulted in subfloor damage (under the kitchen cabinets of course). One of the

remediation companies suggested that I contact them about that first to see if

they'll cover the water damage in the kitchen seperately from the mold, but I

have my doubts.

I've contacted a few remediation companies ( http://www.remedics.com and

http://www.thefreshaircompanies.com/ ). They were the two highest rated firms

on Angie's List for our area, but most of the ratings were for simple crawlspace

cleanups etc. Both firms appear to do things the right way (e.g. water

penitration fix, whole house HEPA scrubbers, dry ice / soda blasting in the

crawl, dehumidification, complete wipe downs in a clean environment, carpet

removal, paper and clothing removal and disposal (porus furniture as well)).

Needless to say, none of this comes cheap, and I doubt we'll be able to move

back into the house after the remediation (based on our current sensitivities to

very very small amounts of spores). We'll probably have to considering selling

for a loss, or possibly renting out for a few years until our bodies have a

chance to recover.

Ugh, so much to think about. We checked out some apartments today and looked in

to furniture rental. Our cars are getting to us as well as some of the

belongings in the room (my daughter's teddy bear is the only reminant from the

old house, we've washed it about 20 times but I still notice the " taste " ...

prying that from her hands is going to take some tact

Oh well, time to head back to the hotel room. Thanks again for the help!

--Mike

P.S. - , once I get my head wrapped around all of this, I'd love to chat a

bit more about our situations. Barely have 30 mins of free time a day right

now, but hopefully that will change soon.

> >get that metallic taste in my mouth

>

> Such a taste is common for a few ailments. Mold hypersensitivity is

> one of them.

> It means there is one mold species, out of 500,000 to 1,500,000 species that

> you are reacting too, likely due to chronic exposure level, that any normal

> person could tolerate for several days, without notice, but most all

> people after

> several weeks will start symptoms, they think are something else, and after

> a month or two, they will be chronically ill, doctors will misdiagnose them

> as they can not " see " the mold, and some 90 to 98% of the people in the world

> would be suffer like you. Only a few are immune to the long term effects,

> and there is no predicting who.

>

> So, you are aware of mold " following you " around, on your possessions,

> and found cleaning them is hard, cheaper to toss it all and buy new, and

> this has been known for over 30 years by the medical community, not at

> large, but those doctors that seek and retain knowledge.

>

> The metal taste will stay as long as you are mold exposed, to even 2-3

> molecules a day of it. Once the exposure is over, the taste takes several

> weeks to months to slowly go away. You'll notice the change when it comes.

> And when it comes back you will have to find what caused it and toss it out,

> or never go back there.

>

> Mold hypersensitivity has a cure... no exposure for 1-2 years. None.

> The immune MAST cell has saturated binding sites that must all be

> freed, and until then, symptoms can come back in minutes. You can

> google on these key words, or read my posts several months back.

> Getting such a long period with no exposure is difficult if you keep

> any possessions, or go back to your parents' home. Sad, but true.

> I know. It happened that way for me.

>

> CO poisoning needs high flow oxygen protocol for treatment and you have

> a good chance, not 100%, or even 90%, of a full recovery. Go to

> http://mcsrr.org for the treatment protocol. You can measure the

> arterial O2 level and compare it to the venous O2 level, where the

> ratio determines the treatment is needed.

>

> http://carbonomonxide.org is not up to date, but it does link to the

> most expert web sites, and you should be able to get any doctor

> to call these other doctors to assist with chronic CO poisoning,

> which is so very much different from acute CO poisoning.

>

> As we have so much in common, mold and CO brought us to this list,

> we should keep in touch. I want to know what works for you. I've

> done the mold hypersensitivity treatment, and still have some MCS

> from the CO poisoning, and must start the O2 treatment again.

> It was " delayed " due to chronic sewer gas exposure preventing it

> from working.

>

July 20, 2009

Very good response .

From: Meng <moldsick@...>

Subject: Re: [] Bad Reaction to Washed Clothing (and our story)

Date: Sunday, July 19, 2009, 6:16 PM

Hi Mike,

I am so sorry to hear that you are having to go through this nightmare, we

also became very sick from mold,ours were Aspergillus,

Penicillium, Stachy,Tricoderm a , you get the idea. We had to leave our home