We've Been In Chronic Pain For 7 Years!

by Rich & Shelley
(Tampa, FL)

My wife & I moved in to an apartment on-site at a storage facility 7+ years ago. Soon after we moved in we started having sinus problems & joint pain. My wife thought we might have Chinese drywall, the place was brand new when we moved in & it was built during the time period any others were having issues with Chinese drywall. There were no signs of the typical corrosion & such that occurs with it so that was eliminated and we just figured we were getting old.

Over the next 7 years we just got worse. My wife was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia & Fibromyalgia, she's in constant head to toe body pain. During those 7 years I had 8 orthopedic surgeries & 11 injections in my neck & back. I eventually had to start taking pain medication to which I am physically addicted and can't even imagine how I could get off of it. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on medical bills seeing specialists. We've bought 4 different expensive mattresses trying to alleviate some of our back & neck pain.

A couple months ago during routine A/C maintenance the tech related to us that there was some mold in the back of the A/C unit & suggested a UV light to stop it from progressing. We had the UV light installed & our pain became much worse almost immediately. So I did some research on mold sickness symptoms & found that 80% of women diagnosed with Fibromyalgia had been exposed to mold, Trigeminal Nueralgia, joint pain and of course sinus infections were common symptoms of Mycotoxins produced by mold. I then bought 2 home mold test kits that test the air for mold. I placed one in our office and one in the apartment. Pretty simple test. You pour a chemical into a petri dish and leave the lid off for 1 hour then close it. If mold is in the air it will grow in the petri dish within 5 days. There was mold present in the dish in 24 hours, in 5 days there were 5 different types growing. Nothing grew in the petri dish in the office. There was white mold, green mold, black mold, flowering mold & some bizarre kind of orange splattered fungus in the dish we placed in our living room.

So now it all made sense, all our pain & misery was being caused by mold. There was no odor of mold or signs of mold anywhere. It was apparently in the A/C duct system. So we called an A/C company out to tell us why mold was growing in our A/C system and if it could be remediated. The owner of the storage facility immediately put us up in a hotel.

Upon leaving the apartment we started to breath through our noses for the first time in years & the little white bumps on our faces, that had been there for years went away. We then realized that the chronic ingrown toenails we had been having were caused by the mold in the carpet. Both of us had such a problem with our feet & toes that we had gotten the nerves & toenails on our big toes chemically burned, to prevent them from growing back. Most ingrown toenails are caused by a fungus.

When the A/C system was installed the flute which allows fresh air into the apartment was installed but the vent to the outside was never cut out, so the same moldy air had been being recirculating over & over again in the apartment. Some of the symptoms are going away & our pain is 70% better, but much of the damage may be permanent. It's questionable whether our livers will be able to overcome the damage done to them by 7 years of exposure to mold. We are seeking treatment, but very few Dr's know much about Mycotoxins & their effects, even fewer treatments are available.

Knowing what we know now, we will never move into another residence without first buying a $20 home mold test kit to make sure there isn't a mold problem. We thought mold would smell or be visible, we were wrong.

Response

Unfortunately yours is a common story. Move into a new home and develop health problems from mold that you didn't realize was there. The only thing I would mention is when moving into a new home to have it professionally tested for mold. Professional tests are more reliable and accurate than home tests. Additionally most mold testers are trained in where and how to conduct tests.