The blows seem to keep coming and coming. Bad news piles upon bad news. MOLD LITERALLY RUINED MY LIFE AND THAT OF MY FAMILY. Since my then husband and my father were convinced there must be a mistake, I hired a hygienist and also a toxicologist (who is also an immunologist) to come in and do further testing, inspections, and evaluations. I knew there was no mistake. The mold problem explained the years of health issues my daughter and I have been battling. They explained the recent health issues that were honestly debilitating me. More on that later. The hygienist found water damage in our living room and bedroom. Yes, the bedroom. MAJOR water damage. And here I was convinced that this room was the one that was totally cool. The water damage wasn’t from a recent event either. This was something that had been happening for a long time.
The toxicologist (Dr. Jack Thrasher – one of the nation’s leading mold experts) did further ERMI testing which also looked at the breakdown of mycotoxins being produced by the molds present. While costly, and I mean COSTLY, this test helped us better understand our exposure and what this might mean for our long term health, both from a treatment perspective but also from a permanent damage perspective.
Basically, our home is overrun with the mycotoxin Trichothecene. It is what is used in biological warfare to give you some perspective. 0.2 is considered “toxic”. We had levels as high as 5.97. That is deadly. Plain and simple. Our home was killing us. Dr. Thrasher also tested for moisture throughout our home. Every single wall in our home had high levels of moisture. Every. Single. Wall. And yet, there was not an iota of visible mold. That scared me. How did we not know that our house was literally a breeding ground from top to bottom? The most eye-opening portion of Dr. Thrasher’s initial visit was the preliminary neurological testing he conducted on my husband and I. My husband pretty much passed which wasn’t a surprised to Dr. Thrasher. Since Rasta Daddy isn’t home 22 hours a day like my daughter and I are, he wasn’t breathing in as many mold spores. So what about me? Well, I failed the test. It wasn’t the worst failure Dr. Thrasher had ever seen but he did give me a hug.
My heart sank. My job as a mother is to protect my daughter. And here she was living in a toxic pit. Here I was living in a toxic pit. There was a lot that happened in a one week period once we met with Dr. Thrasher and we really got an understanding of the situation. It was a whirlwind of phone calls and meetings. Of decision making. Of tears. Of frustration. Of anger. Of worry. Of blame. Of regret. Of denial. Of confusion. SO HERE IS A QUICK BREAKDOWN (WITH MORE DETAILS TO COME IN FUTURE POSTS TO HELP YOU ALL UNDERSTAND THE SEVERITY OF TOXIC MOLD) OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US AND WHERE WE ARE HEADED IN THE FUTURE:
On December 12, 2014, my daughter and I vacated our house, leaving our pets and Rasta Daddy behind. Since our health issues were the worst, we needed to leave. We left with nothing. We even took off our clothes we were wearing and threw them away. We invaded my parents’ house as a temporary shelter. I quickly purchased a couple of days’ worth of clothes and some other essentials.
SO WHAT ABOUT OUR HOUSE? WHAT ABOUT OUR POSSESSIONS. Well, technically we are homeless right now with next to nothing. We have a very short term place to stay and a few things such as clothes and toiletries and a few toys for my daughter but really, we have nothing.
Our house basically needs to be torn down and rebuilt. It has structural issues that are not an easy fix. The house cannot simply be remediated. We have to fix the structure itself. We are already upside down in our house due to the downturn in the economy. Therefore, we already owe more than it is worth. You do the math. We obvious have no choice when it comes to the house. It make no sense to sink several hundred thousand dollars into rebuilding. All our earthly belongings? Gone. All of them. Important tax records have been sealed up and put into storage but beyond that, we had to leave it all. Mold is a nasty living creature that intrudes upon and in every crack and crevice. It can lie dormant for 50 years. Even if you do not have the right conditions for it to grow, mold spores can continue to cause all kinds of health issues. The mycotoxin levels in our home alone preclude us from taking anything. It would be disastrous for our health. Dr. Thrasher along with many other leading ...
LOSE YOUR EYES AND PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES FOR FIVE SECONDS. CAN YOU FEEL MY PAIN? CAN YOU FEEL HOW IMPOSSIBLE THIS ALL IS?
There is however one light at the end of the tunnel and that is our health. For the past six months I have been feeling increasingly lousy physically despite doing a ton of work to heal myself. If you will recall, I had an intense surgery in January 2014 and I committed myself to healing ALL of me once I was through the first six months of recovery. For the past few months, I had been experiencing feelings that I can only equate to being drunk. I was having horrible headaches all the time. Headaches that never went away. I was moody. More than moody. I was an ass. The mold explains everything. In case you are skeptical, I haven’t had a single headache since leaving our home. I haven’t felt drunk. When you sleep closed up in a mold infested room it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you wake up with a severe headache from mold exposure.
Getting out of a toxic environment that was basically killing us slowly is a blessing. But we have a lot of work to do before we are healthy again. My daughter and I are no strangers to hard work and dedication when it comes to our health. So I am up for the challenge no matter what it takes and how far we have to travel to get help. Rasta Daddy might not need as much help as we will health wise. That remains to be seen. However, he is starting to have some insight into what he thought we “small” health nuisances. He realizes that he does indeed have mold related health issues.
Our biggest struggle right now is building a life from nothing. I homeschool. I need stuff to do that with. I have to cook 100% of what I eat from scratch. I have nothing for a kitchen. We have no beds to sleep in. No table to eat at. No blankets. No towels. I lost my entire library. It was extensive with a lot of unique and rare books. All my resources for this blog are gone. All of my natural health resources.
Thanks for sticking it out through this rather long story. I plan on writing more about the mold testing we did in the event that you ever need those resources. I also plan on sharing more about health issues related to mold as well as why we couldn’t save any of our possessions. This is the area that most people just cannot wrap their brains around. But it is important NOT to take anything from a home with toxic mold. So it is worthy of its own post. Please pray for us on this journey. While words can’t ease our pain, prayers and positive energy can lift us up when we need it most.
Read More at https://hybridrastamama.com © Hybrid Rasta Mama
Read More at https://hybridrastamama.com © Hybrid Rasta Mama
