help

October 17, 2010

i think i may have taken the mold with me.

4 years ago i moved from colorado to louisiana. at the time i was getting off a

benzodiaipine (sp), a doctor prescribed it for anxiety. it made me feel worse.

he continued to up the dose, saying i had a disorder for life but i just

couldn't buy it. anyway i had a hard time coming off with lots of weird neuro

and physical sx

in the middle of the taper off is when i moved to the south. i lived in a

little house that was damp and a bit leaky. it is also very humid here. the sx i

had got a 100% worse that the benzo w/d but i didn't put 2 and 2 together. i

belonged to a group for benzo w/d at the time and everyone had me

convinced it was benzos and the lower you get in the taper the harder it is. but

the headaches, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, blurred vision, fatigue, brain fog

was horrid. i finished the taper and at 10 months past still not better. i

decided to move to my moms house because i could no longer take care of myself.

i got a bit better. everything i mentioned got 50% better but i was still sick,

and still could not work. felt well enough to go to the dentist, since i hadn't

in a while. a few weeks after going i fell ill again, but this time i was even

wore. hard to believe here are a list of my sx.

headache

extreme nausea

dizziness

in hot shower horrid vertigo, had to lay on floor of bath to recover

severe inner tremors

muscle weakness

feeling like i was walking in a tunnel

if i looked up with my eyes weird balance and head sensations

so ill, worse than flu like sx

extreme fatigue

weird visual disturbances, like i had smoked pot, derealization, hazy, blurred

and double vision

insomnia

hair loss tons

acne

muscle tight, sore

burning dry sore eyes

sore throat

joint pain

muscle degeneration in foot, i know this sounds crazy

when i stood for longer than i minute, i got extreme stinging in my legs and

intense itching broke out. i had to quickly sit to scratch. i would scratch till

i bleed.

doctor after doctor, thyroid disfunction, ana test positve speckled, which tell

me more auto immune diseases, candida, merneres disease, finally i went back to

the beginning at the dentist and thought omg mercury! all amalgams are out ,

statred to chelate, still have lots od sx bad sulfur and candida, can hardly ea

tanything.

a few weeks ago started to think about the candida sx and realized these were

the same sx i had at the house. and then i thought mold. i had a guy take some

pictures of the attic for the landlord for insulation and when i got them out

and enlarged there it was the attic was filled with mold.

so i had mold poison before the mercury poison which has made all this much

worse.

well after my mom died my sister bought our family home and i had to move. all

my stuff from that little house had been in storage, all i took to my moms was

clothes. but in moving i am geting some other strange sx that i had in the

house. of course i took all the stuff out of storge and moved it here. i have

been here 2 months. last night i was sitting on the couch and when i got up i

had horrid vertigo again and hadn't had it in a while. i wonder if all my

funishing are mold infested?

i have slipcovers on all funiture, can they be cleaned and can i have the sofas

reuphostered in muslum, would that get rid of the mold. and the wood funiture,

can that be treated with something? and rugs cleaned professionally? what about

all my clothes? i haven't worked in 4 years i am running out of money, i don't

know if i can replace everything, but i will to get well if i have too.

you said there is not a cure, will i stay sick forever like this?

thanks denise

October 17, 2010

Hi ,

Sorry to hear you are going through so much. Experts can say better than I, but

I'm sure you were exposed to mold--I mean, I imagine in Louisiana, with a

damp/leaky house, you would have been exposed to it; but its impossible to know

what levels or what kinds and what kinds or levels you react to or are toxic to

you. Everyone is exposed to mold on a daily basis; it's in the environment. In a

leaky home, the types of mold are more likely to be the toxic types, the ones

that cause inflammation, and they tend to be in numbers/levels that could

seriously affect a person. That doesn't mean everyone exposed to higher levels

or toxic types will be sick. In my opinion.

You're dealing with a complicated set of factors, it sounds like. Tapering off

benzos IS absolute he-double-hockeysticks, and the effects can continue for many

months after, even years. It sounds, too, like you may have an autoimmune

disorder, AND that you were exposed to mold. It's impossible to say that your

things are contaminated without testing; I think, and again, the experts would

know better, that some mold spores are more " sticky " than others, have a greater

chance of sticking to items. Were your things stored in a climate and humidity

controlled environment?Â

Was your mom's house in Louisiana or another climate from where you are now

(climate change can bring on different symptoms that may or may not be related

to mold)? Are you living near environmental pollutants? Â

Mold spores can nestle in soft furnishings, so your wood furniture is fine--just

wipe it down. Some say washing clothes in Borax would remove mold (I think just

washing them and then promptly drying them would, whether with Borax or

not--vinegar is a nice antifungal and antimicrobial, too, and you can just add

that in with your laundry detergent). You can have the rugs steam cleaned, but

don't let them be soaked with water. The key to mold growth is water--if water

sits on an organic item for 24 hours, it can grow mold (not to mention

bacteria). As for your soft furnishings--your slipcovered furniture--do they

smell musty? Do they have any spots? If not, I don't know that I would be that

worried. I think I would take the slipcovers off, investigate, and, if all looks

fine, I would have them cleaned (again, no soaking in water). I do tend to be

conservative and empirical--that is, I wouldn't ascribe my symptoms to mold,

automatically, when other things

are going on with me, especially without proof. In any case, before you do

anything drastic, you can have the sofa and/or rugs tested. If elevated levels

or concerning types of mold were to be in your environment, that's where you'd

find out.Â

It's not true that you can't be cured. (I guess I don't know what that

means--cured of toxin exposure?) The key is to reduce exposure to mold. So

first, you have to know if you are being exposed to it. Your symptoms certainly

sound similar to mine, but you have some that sound like an autoimmune disorder

(hair loss, for instance; I don't have that). But different people have

different experiences. That's what makes this all so complicated.

Try not to freak out about what you may or may not be dealing with. Anxiety can

really ratchet up our fears and keep us unable to slow down and think things

through analytically (I know; I deal with anxiety and panic attacks--been there,

done that with benzos). I'm glad you came here for support. Listen to everyone's

responses and consider them all carefully. We all have different perspectives.Â

~ANÂ

From: denise.danel <denise.danel@...>

Subject: [] help

Date: Sunday, October 17, 2010, 7:52 PM