Monster house

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

i am new to this board and would like to introduce myself and my situation and

possibly get some questions answered. First of all, thank you for starting and

keeping alive this board.

I am 38 year old female. Until March 2009 I was quite healthy, specially never

had any issues with respiratory health.

In March 2009 I moved to Bay area, CA with my husband and little child. We

rented lower part (it was on a slope so part of it was technically basement) of

the house in Berkeley, CA. After few weeks I started noticing that my health has

deteriorated significantly. I started having brain fog, headaches, fatigue,

constant coughing (so strong that i thought i could fracture my ribs), brown

mucus, teary eyes, sinusitis. My problems were correlated with weather changes,

I was specially miserable after heavy rains, which happened quite often in

March-May.

My intuition was telling me something is very wrong with the house. Specially

when few nights were so bad that I could not fall asleep bcs of terrible

coughing....My husband and son experienced similar symptoms but to lesser

extent.

After complaining to a landlady repeatedly i was brushed off and told that it is

my allergies. After telling her that i found some info which says that it could

be mold and my health could suffer she told me that she could show me the

opposite information that mold is not dangerous...

Let me tell you, in the hindsight my biggest regret is that I did not get myself

and my little 3 y.o. boy and run away from the house as soon as i started having

these toxic effects.

I went to a doctor. was told that many people have mold allergies. My request to

get referral to a specialist was not granted.

We stayed there for a little more than 3 months.

After moving to a new apt i felt immediate relieve. However in December 2009 i

had a cold and was left with persistent cough for 2 months. In January 2010 I

was diagnosed with ASTHMA.

However, I noticed that my cough was mostly in the night when i slept in the

bedroom of the new apt. When I started sleeping in the living room my cough has

stopped....I thought that the bedroom in my new apt has some mold somewhere. I

narrowed it down to 2 things:

- it is somewhere in the walls/windows in the small amounts, but since i got

sensitized to it in the toxic house i react with a cough now.

- i brought all my cloth, books, papers, boxes from the toxic house into my new

apt. most of them are in the bedroom closet. Could it be that they release the

toxic spores and make me cough in the bedroom?

Few questions I have to you if you could possibly answer:

- Do you have recommendations for a doctor who can run some tests and tell me if

i was exposed to starchy/cladosporium/aspergillus and still have it in my system

and prescribe me some antifungals?

-I took all my clothes, books, boxes to a new apt. Is there anyway to know for

sure that they are producing spores? Is there any way to get rid of the spores

without throwing them, maybe UV light or irradiation ?

lana

[Guest guest]

The first thing I would do is get the belongings that you brought with you out

of the bedroom, air it out and clean it, and see if that changes, if not, it may

be a mold problem, if so, you will need to deal with seeing what you can clean

,thow away, or store in air tight containers somewhere else. paper is basicly

uncleanable in my opinion.

paper tends to soak up the mold smell and contamination, and yes, it can keep

your symptoms aggervated if your belongs are contaminated.

you well hear different ideas on washing cloths, several washings with dawn dish

soap and amonia worked for me.

sounds like that landlord had probably had complaints on that place before and

knew exactly what she thinks she can get away with.

that might come back to bite her in the behind someday soon.

Dr. michael Gray in az. may be closest to you.

>

> Dear members,

> i am new to this board and would like to introduce myself and my situation and

possibly get some questions answered. First of all, thank you for starting and

keeping alive this board.

> I am 38 year old female. Until March 2009 I was quite healthy, specially never

had any issues with respiratory health.

> In March 2009 I moved to Bay area, CA with my husband and little child. We

rented lower part (it was on a slope so part of it was technically basement) of

the house in Berkeley, CA. After few weeks I started noticing that my health has

deteriorated significantly. I started having brain fog, headaches, fatigue,

constant coughing (so strong that i thought i could fracture my ribs), brown

mucus, teary eyes, sinusitis. My problems were correlated with weather changes,

I was specially miserable after heavy rains, which happened quite often in

March-May.

> My intuition was telling me something is very wrong with the house. Specially

when few nights were so bad that I could not fall asleep bcs of terrible

coughing....My husband and son experienced similar symptoms but to lesser

extent.

> After complaining to a landlady repeatedly i was brushed off and told that it

is my allergies. After telling her that i found some info which says that it

could be mold and my health could suffer she told me that she could show me the

opposite information that mold is not dangerous...

> Let me tell you, in the hindsight my biggest regret is that I did not get

myself and my little 3 y.o. boy and run away from the house as soon as i started

having these toxic effects.

> I went to a doctor. was told that many people have mold allergies. My request

to get referral to a specialist was not granted.

> We stayed there for a little more than 3 months.

> After moving to a new apt i felt immediate relieve. However in December 2009 i

had a cold and was left with persistent cough for 2 months. In January 2010 I

was diagnosed with ASTHMA.

> However, I noticed that my cough was mostly in the night when i slept in the

bedroom of the new apt. When I started sleeping in the living room my cough has

stopped....I thought that the bedroom in my new apt has some mold somewhere. I

narrowed it down to 2 things:

> - it is somewhere in the walls/windows in the small amounts, but since i got

sensitized to it in the toxic house i react with a cough now.

> - i brought all my cloth, books, papers, boxes from the toxic house into my

new apt. most of them are in the bedroom closet. Could it be that they release

the toxic spores and make me cough in the bedroom?

> Few questions I have to you if you could possibly answer:

> - Do you have recommendations for a doctor who can run some tests and tell me

if i was exposed to starchy/cladosporium/aspergillus and still have it in my

system and prescribe me some antifungals?

> -I took all my clothes, books, boxes to a new apt. Is there anyway to know for

sure that they are producing spores? Is there any way to get rid of the spores

without throwing them, maybe UV light or irradiation ?

>

> lana

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Lana,

>- i brought all my cloth, books, papers, boxes from the toxic house into

>my new apt. most of them are in the bedroom closet. Could it be that

>they release the toxic spores and make me cough in the bedroom?

that seems possible, you might try renting a storage space and keeping

your possibly contaminated paperwork in the storage space. Even if they

weren't contaminated, the less stuff you keep in your bedroom and closet

the better, you could be sensitive to dust mites too, strip your bedroom

of carpets, frilly drapes, get allergen encasings for the mattress, box

spring, pillows, etc. See if it helps you, if not, there might be mold

in the walls??? as you suspect.

>Few questions I have to you if you could possibly answer:

>- Do you have recommendations for a doctor who can run some tests and

>tell me if i was exposed to starchy/cladosporium/aspergillus and still

>have it in my system and prescribe me some antifungals?

You can google Realtime Labs in Dallas, with a doctor's prescription,

they will analyze your urine samples for mold mycotoxins, you could also

get sputum tested, but these tests are expensive, around $700 per

sample. Our whole family, including the one very sick family member,

had parts per billion in our urine, vs. what is normal for non-mold

exposed people = parts per trillion.

If you have mycotoxins in your system, then there are several approaches

used to pull them out of your body, depending on the doctor, one is to

take a drug called cholestyramine (you can read about this approach in

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker's book Mold Warriors or google him and read about

it on his website), and there are many tests you can run that may

indicate mold sensitivity, mold exposure, and things gone out of whack

in your body from the mold exposure. Dr. Gray in Arizona seems to

prefer a combo of cholestyramine, activated charcoal and bentonite clay,

Dr. Rea in Dallas prefers sauna therapy for detox, some docs prescribe

antioxidants, and I am sure there are other approaches....

If you have fungus growing in your body, this might show up on cultures

of your sputum, stool or nasal lavage. Dr. Gray has the cultures grow

for 8 weeks because it takes that long for some fungus to grow. Then

there is always the possibility something is growing and doesn't show

up. Some docs will prescribe a " treatment trial " of antifungals,

others want to see the fungal growth on the lab specimens first. It's

a good idea to get liver function tested frequently if taking

antifungals. Some docs prescribe an antifungal nasal spray instead of

or in addition to oral antifungals.

You could also be allergic to molds and skin testing & desensitization

can help with that problem. Dr. Rosenbaum's office in San

can help you with that.

Dr. Gray is in Benson Arizona, Dr. Rea is in Dallas, TX, and Dr.

Shoemaker is in land I think. I don't know of any " mold specialist "

doctors in the Bay Area. We have been seeing a doctor in Santa

named Win Bertrand at Gordon Medical, but he is moving to Santa Fe in

the near future, but the other doctors there are familiar with mold

issues and mold treatment protocols, however they don't take insurance

and they are expensive. I have yet to find a doctor who is

knowledgeable and deals with these issues who accepts insurance so you

have to pay out of pocket. A couple other doctors have been mentioned

on this list, I think one is in Santa Barbara, but I forget her name.

You mentioned that you had asthma. Dr. Gray did a lung function test on

my son. It was completely normal except for the small airways, dr. gray

said that is typical for mold exposed patients, so you might want to

have the lung function test measure the small airways function, FEF 75 I

think it's called.

>-I took all my clothes, books, boxes to a new apt. Is there anyway to

>know for sure that they are producing spores? Is there any way to get

>rid of the spores without throwing them, maybe UV light or irradiation ?

Killing mold doesn't get rid of the mold toxins, it only stops it from

growing more mold toxins, at least that's my understanding. Invest in a

storage area, take all your stuff there, buy some new cheap clothes, see

if you feel better, or wash the clothes over and over again....

If you want to do testing on your apartment, which can be very

expensive, Dr. Jack Thrasher in Sacramento helped us with testing our SF

house, and he also brought in Chip Prokop who is in Petaluma to do some

additional testing. Based on the testing we had done, we need to move

out, remediate, and the docs are saying that my sick son should never

move back into the house, even once remediated, there will always be

some of the mold that contributed to his illness, a " homeopathic " memory

so to speak.

I am sure this is overwhelming for you. Let me know if you want to talk

or have other questions. You are smart to have gotten out when you did!

Also, I am just sharing with you some of what I've learned along the way

in my long journey trying to create positive change for my sick son. I

am not trying to give you medical advice as I am not a doctor and anyway

your situation may be completely different than ours. So this is not

medical advice. Best of luck.

Sue V.

>

>lana

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

ok, but does milk thistle pull mycotoxins out of the tissues thru out

the body? I don't know about this. sue v

>s> If you have mycotoxins in your system, then there are several approaches

>s> used to pull them out of your body, depending on the doctor,

>

>Don't forget milk thistle. It does wonders for the liver. It not only

>detoxes, but it helps restore the liver to normal and is a very cheap

>herbal remedy.

>

>Pat

>