Hello Bill,
I was the first to join your forum as when you sent me an invite to this forum there were no other members but yourself. I joined and did not post because i wanted you to set the stage for the conversations. I have personal experience with mold and mold remediation plus a background in asbestos removal too.
I notice in this article that once the source of the mold has been removed about 95% of folks tend to get better. A small percentage are very susceptible to airborne contaminants and still need further medical care for the symptoms.
I have allergies and often when I was doing inspections and there was a strong evidence of a heavy contamination of mold in a home or business my own allergies would act up. My nose will run, mucus build up in the sinuses, eyes burning and watery. On a few occasions I could not complete my inspection without a mask. So I would go to the truck and grab a mask and continue my inspections.
Mold contamination is serious and most folks will scoff that all houses have mold. This is a truism but not all have black mold and this is a result of a contamination not addressed. If you see mold in a shower you clean it away usually using bleach. These folks often refused to have the mold removed from their HVAC systems even though their children have allergies constantly active and doctors have them on medications that never seem to cure the issue.
One question I would always ask is if the sufferer felt better indoors or outdoors or away from home. Most would say they felt better when they spent time away or outdoors.
From my own personal experience negligence on the homeowners/sufferers part is the the main cause for their infestation and suffering. 95% of my clients symptoms were alleviated by removing the mold contamination from their HVAC systems. Mold unchecked will make most anyone sick if they live in that situation for anytime at all. You do not have to be a victim of this contamination there are remedies. Refusal to address the contamination is a personal choice. One of the big reason folks cannot move back into homes after floods is because the moisture and the contaminants must be removed first.
For years HVAC Techs like myself have been accused of using scare tactics with relation to mold. I am glad to see it is now being considered a true threat and addressing and removing the cause of the threat now no longer seen a scare tactic but responsible care of the client. It took us years to overcome this issue in the industry.
Best wishes to your forum.
Jim
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I am going to start off by posting some personal experience stories that i have collected over the years.. I am doing this for 2 reasons.. 1 is so you can get an idea about how serioius a problem mold can be when it comes to your health.. The other is so,,, if you recognize anything familiar in these stories,, then you may want to look into it more and see if you might be suffering from a mold related illness.. I am not going to post the names of the people whose stories these are just in case their situation has changed since they sent their story to me,,, for privacy issues.. Here is the first one." At first I began to suffer from headaches and sinusitis. I went to the Dr. and she put me on antibiotics for about four months. During that time I developed chronic fatigue, hair loss, memory loss, terrible nose bleeds and was diagnosed with Asthma, which I never had a day before in my life. My primary care Dr. then diagnosed me with fibromyalgia due to the amount of pain I was experiencing in my joints and muscles.
The entire time I just kept getting sicker and my sinus infection worsened. Finally she directed me to an ENT who said I had a sinus infection with a 75% blockage in my right sinus, 55% in the left and he recommended surgery. I had evacuative sinus surgery and my sinuses felt better for a little while.
The fatigue, hair loss, memory loss and pain still persisted. After six months I was in worse shape than before. I went back to my ENT and he said I needed sinus surgery again, this time I had such pain in my ears it was unbearable. He did my surgery and put me on steroids and more antibiotics, I felt so sick from the medications and steroids I felt as though my life was slipping away.
I still had the fatigue, hair loss and memory loss. While in Greece I went to see a homeopathic Dr. who seemed to understand some of my symptoms and provided me with some relief. When I got back to the U.S., I researched several Doctors who all sounded good and was about to go get treatment with one of them for my fibromyalgia.
By chance I spoke to a girlfriend’s husband who had gone through a nightmare with mold in his home and he had lost his job, became disabled for a time, but now has experienced a complete recovery. I remembered that at the time before I got sick, in my home, my icemaker line had broken and flooded my property for about a week.
The plumber came and cleaned up the water and fixed my refrigerator, but I never thought about mold. Finally, I had a mold test done and they found mold in my wall behind my refrigerator, the wall beside my refrigerator and in the subflooring under my refrigerator. I had the place remediated and once the post-test came back clean I went to research treatment. I asked my girlfriend’s husband where he went for treatment and he recommended the Mold Treatment Centers of America.
Though I was not as sick as I had been before, I decide to go to for testing before treatment to see what exactly was in me. I had high levels of Tricothocenes and Ochratoxins. I wanted to try and get this out of me once and for all, so I went for treatment.
All I can say is that my hair has grown back, my fatigue was gone within a few weeks and I feel like my old self. Strangely enough, since my treatment I no longer suffer from any symptoms of the Asthma or Fibromyalgia. I don’t know for sure if my Asthma and Fibromyalgia suddenly going into remission had anything to do with the treatment, but I would like to think so.