Tag:

mold illness

Steps I Took to Heal My Body From Mold

by Catherine 2:41 pm

The Good News Is There’s No One “Right” Way. The Bad News Is There’s No One “Right” Way . . .

I am often asked about what supplements I took, treatments I underwent, and about “all the things” that I did to heal my body from mold toxicity. Many folks are looking for a clear, straightforward road map that they can follow and are hoping that I will be able to provide it. My blog is called “Mold Free Living” after all, right?

Every time I am asked for specifics on healing and detox, I first must make sure everyone knows that I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONER. Any response I can offer comes from personal experience and is not medical advice. My take is an “n = 1” point of view, so I am never sure how helpful any answer I give would be for the rest of the “moldy” population. The frequency with which I am asked detox and healing regimen questions makes me acutely aware of how many people are out there still struggling and just trying to get their bodies and their lives back from this whole mold thing, though. It also makes me acutely aware of how blessed I am to be doing so well after having been so sick and desperate. So, to lend whatever help sharing my experience gives to others, today I am going to circle back around to discuss the topic of healing, how long it took me to heal and my regimen, as it were, that helped me to get to today.

2:41 pm 15 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Q & A's Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Hope and Support for Mold Canaries

by Catherine 8:29 pm

Dr. Jill Crista’s Online Community Gives Support and REAL Answers for Those Struggling With Mold Illness

Are you a mold canary? You know, someone that is beacon or early warning sign for trouble or danger when it comes to mold and mycotoxins—as in your body knows and feels the presence of mold from miles away? I definitely am. If I enter a moldy space, my whole body indicates the danger—my skin flushes, my heart races, my nose starts to run, and my throat closes. My anxiety also shoots through the roof. I have come to realize that if I don’t leave immediately and start on my mold protocols, I know I can expect a decline in my health for the next few days. If the mold “hit” is significant (for me this means being in the moldy place for an hour or more or if that place happens to contain high levels of mycotoxins), it sometimes takes a pretty concerted effort to get myself back to homeostasis afterwards. While I am thankful for the insight my body provides, sometimes, this “moldy” lifestyle can be the pits; anyone with extra insight or tips on how to navigate it a little easier is a welcome friend.

8:29 pm 0 comment

Personal Stories Treatment & Recovery Wellness

The Elephant in the Room

by Catherine 4:12 am

Acknowledging Mold PTSD and How It Can Stand in the Way of Your Recovery

Mold PTSD is rearing its ugly head again. I am writing this post feeling very raw and very scared. I am sitting at my kitchen table with what feels like the weight of the world on my shoulders. You see, this morning my husband was outside skimming leaves from the pool when he noticed a significant amount of water coming from the condensate line that flows from the HVAC system and dehumidifiers in the attic to the outside. He alerted me, and I ran upstairs to see what was going on. Sure enough, the dehumidifier’s pan was full of water, wasn’t draining properly, and was overflowing onto the attic floor and into the attic insulation beneath it. Water marks were even beginning to spread on the ceiling of the guest room located under the dehumidifier.

Springing into action, I quickly unplugged the dehumidifier and grabbed towels and our wet/dry shop vac to suck the water from the pan to stop the overflow and damage. We then cut a hole in the guest room ceiling to remove all of the wet drywall and insulation and to direct fans into the ceiling cavity to dry out the wood framing and beams. We have done all of the right things to contain and to mitigate the damage and moisture intrusion. But, now comes the hard part: Now we have to play the waiting game of whether or not we have done enough to prevent mold growth. It is this waiting game and the unknown ahead that messes with my mind, and, in turn, messes with my body. I can feel the anxiety building inside of me. I even think I can feel some mold symptoms coming back. Is it from the drywall dust? Was the leak going on long enough to already produce mold growth? Am I getting sick again?

4:12 am 2 comments

Products Treatment & Recovery Wellness

MARCoNs: Is a Ubiquitous Sinus Infection Worth Treating?

by Catherine 8:28 pm

MARCoNS Treatment for Mold Illness Recovery:

Explaining the Infection and Looking at Its Connection to Environmental Mold

I am often asked if I tested positive for Multiple Antibiotic Resistant Coagulase Negative Staphylococci, or MARCoNs, when I had mold toxicity. (Note: MARCoNs is a staph infection that resides deep in the noses of 80% of people suffering from mold illness and other chronic inflammatory illnesses that is resistant to multiple antibiotics and is protected by biofilm.) People also are curious about my knowledge of effective MARCoNs treatment. Those especially interested are mold sufferers who no longer believe they are being exposed to mold and for whom serious inflammation is continuing, despite multiple and often elaborate interventions. Once diagnosed, MARCoNs can be such a difficult condition to effectively treat, that sufferers are desperate for tips and solutions. Many have even been told that it is what is preventing their full recovery.

The truth is, I was never specifically tested or medically treated for MARCoNs as part of my mold toxicity protocol. As I have shared before, chronic sinus symptoms were definitely a problem for me—facial pain and swelling, headaches, tooth pain, swollen nasal passages, sinus pressure, sinus drainage, etc., but, once we connected the mold in our home to ALL of our health symptoms, the focus of my treatment was on avoiding the antigen (mold) and stopping the cycle of inflammation in my body that the mold had ignited. And, even though MARCoNs doesn’t always present as sinus symptoms, in fact, most patients with MARCoNs report debilitating fatigue, sleep problems, and cognitive issues as their top complaints, I was lucky enough to have my neurological symptoms subside as my body cleared the mold with detox and other treatments. My protocol included many steps and a whole-body approach to healing. Once I set my body up to heal by tackling my environment and the mold mycotoxins inside of me, I never had to literally “dig deeper” or explore MARCoNs. It wasn’t necessary to do so for me to heal.

8:28 pm 6 comments

Personal Stories Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Get “Unstuck” From the Cycle of Inflammation and Nervous System Hyperreactivity Caused by Mold Toxicity

by Catherine 5:08 pm

Learn How Mold PTSD Can Impede Your Recovery Both Physically and Emotionally

I have often cited the term “mold PTSD” when I write about my personal experience and health collapse from a hidden mold infestation in our home. Using the term is my way of trying to somehow illustrate the tremendous and lasting physical and psychological impact that mold and environmental illness had on me and my family. I also use it to show the way in which certain places, smells, memories and objects still sometimes trigger significant physical responses and a sense of panic inside of me. My responses are usually indicative of what I experience with a mold exposure, so for me this takes the form of rapid heartbeat, sudden nausea, facial flushing, sinus pressure, and lightheadedness, even though, in reality, I am not always being exposed or in any real physical danger. For a long time, I struggled to address or to get a handle on this, and just pushed through, mostly doing everything I could to ignore the sudden and magnified symptoms. But, as all unheeded warnings eventually do, they forced my hand by becoming so pronounced that my sanity and recovery were being compromised.

(Note: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. While most often in reference to returning veterans, there remains a great deal of literature on PTSD related to traumatic experiences that can happen to anyone throughout the course of a person’s life. Symptoms can become debilitating and can last a lifetime, if not addressed. In my case, the physical illness, cognitive dysfunction, irritability, insomnia and fatigue I suffered from mold and mycotoxin exposure was ample trauma to trigger PTSD.)

The good news is that I have finally taken the necessary steps to address my mold PTSD specifically, and I am seeing a greater positive turnaround in my health and in my ability to interact with my environment in a way that is no longer driven by compulsion and fear. It is a welcome and happy change for both me and my family. I didn’t actually recognize how negatively my behaviors were impacting others until I addressed them. That is why I want to bring my story and this information to you. I think it can really help and can be a great accompaniment to the other steps you are taking to regain your health, especially if you are finding yourself at a standstill or dead end in your recovery progress.

5:08 pm 8 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Treatment & Recovery Wellness

My “Don’t Miss” Interview with Dr. Neil Nathan, MD, Environmental Illness Thought Leader and Best-Selling Author

by Catherine 5:55 am

Learn How to Reboot Your Body to Heal from Mold Toxicity

How do you become the “difficult patient” or “outlier” doctor? You know, the doctor who people or other doctors turn to when symptoms or a diagnosis eludes them. In business, the person in this role is often dubbed the “fixer”—the guy or gal who is sent in to flesh out and get to the root of the underlying problems, to get all parties to come to an understanding, and to remedy or bring a formidable solution to all issues that everyone can agree with. In short, an unenviable role that not many people are up for, much less want to volunteer for. In the mold, Lyme disease and environmental illness community, these days, the go-to “fixer” seems to be Dr. Neil Nathan, and he is tackling this role with a gusto, transparency, and compassion that is consummate and heartening.

Dr. Nathan didn’t start out with the most complex patients and cases as the base of his practice, though. So, how did he get to this point?

From the beginning of his medical career after graduating from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Nathan wanted to help people get to the root of their medical issues. While working as a Family Physician, he quickly discovered that his medical training hadn’t given him all of the tools he needed to help some of his more “difficult” patients. These patients had complicated symptomology with multiple diagnoses that crossed medical specialties. And, while he had delivered babies, performed minor surgeries, and helped patients with pain management, it was becoming more and more apparent, that these patients needed a different and more holistic type of care. Thus, he sought to expand his “toolbelt.”

As Dr. Nathan’s approach changed and he began using herbal and naturopathic modalities in conjunction with
western medicine, his practice also evolved into something new, which he began calling “Complex Medical Problem Solving.” Eventually, his practice focus became, and still is, for the most part, patients suffering from persistent and debilitating illnesses for which there is no “accepted” medical diagnosis, like Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic Lyme disease with its co-infections, Autism, and all varieties of Chronic Pain, amongst others.

5:55 am 4 comments

Mold in the News Mold Prevention Mold Remediation Personal Stories

Mold in the News: Is There a Mold-Virus Connection?

by Catherine 5:30 pm

Did Mold Play a Part in a Student’s Recent Virus-Related Death? And, Does a Living in a Moldy Indoor Environment Negatively Influence Outcomes for Other Illnesses?

Whenever a young person dies from injury or sickness, it is a tragedy of great magnitude. We all struggle to come to terms with how little control we have over the causes or circumstances that contributed to such an event. I know my reaction to this kind of news is often colored by fear and worry for the safety and health of my own friends and family members. Tragedy, life’s greatest equalizer, makes me recognize, that my body, while resilient and recovered is also still very fragile and can succumb to outside stressors if they become too much for it to handle once again. So, when I heard of 18-year-old Olivia Paregol’s death, my fears and feelings stemming from our mold ordeal surrounded me. But, instead of being paralyzed by negativity, I have decided to try to contribute what I now know about mold and its influence on the body and its susceptibility to viruses and other illnesses to help others digest, dive deeper, and learn something from Olivia’s story.

For those of you who might not have read or heard about Olivia, she was a freshman co-ed at the University of Maryland who died last week due to complications from Adenovirus. After her death, it was revealed that at least 8 other students on the U of M campus were also diagnosed with the virus—leading the university to label it a viral “outbreak” at the time of this post. Symptoms of the virus include: sore throat, fever, and pink eye. It often presents as the common cold and most young people make a full and rather quick recovery.

Since Olivia’s death, cultures of the virus that were done on the other infected students have been sent off to various labs for analysis, and one strain that is present is rare and more virulent than most. The virus, which has more than 50 strains, can cause illnesses ranging from common colds to pneumonia. Fever, diarrhea, intestinal infections and neurological diseases are also possible, but usually rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adenoviruses are spread by touching a contaminated person or surface, or through the air by coughing or sneezing. They are known to persist on unclean surfaces and medical instruments for long periods of time, and they may not be eliminated by common disinfectants, but rarely cause severe illness in healthy people. However, people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of severe illness, and they may remain contagious with the virus for long after symptoms have subsided. There have even been studies done on adenoviruses showing that they can go into dormant phases where all symptoms disappear, but because of exposure (toxins, other viruses or bacteria), or another immune system stimulating event, they reignite in the host’s body and reoccur with greater virulence and symptom onset.

5:30 pm 3 comments

Wellness

The Complexity of Mold Illness Recovery

by Catherine 9:15 pm

Why am I STILL Sick?

When Symptoms Persist Even When You Are Out of the Mold and Have Done EVERYTHING to Heal

Mold illness recovery is difficult. Most of us desire and need a solid support system of friends, family, and medical professionals to help us get through all of the hurdles. As a matter of fact, you probably found this blog and are reading this post right now, because you were searching for mold illness information online as part of your need for support. You may have even been seeking a shared experience with others who have also been through mold-triggered illness. I hope you found that here. I wanted to provide a supportive and positive community with this blog where stories are shared, and we can help each other feel somewhat normal again.

Knowing that you are not alone and that there are other people out there who also have to be vigilant about indoor air quality, practice mold avoidance and mold maintenance, and who have been through the trauma of losing a home or many of their possessions to mold can be comforting and provides hope. Mold illness is also very isolating (mold is everywhere and when you are forced to avoid it, socializing normally is sometimes hard), so I am grateful for the sense of community that writing about it provides for me. I like sharing what I have learned to help others recover. In doing so, though, I have identified one area of mold illness recovery that is consistently more difficult for me to be as helpful with on the blog–the “how I recovered my body from mold” part of this illness.

Obviously, I am not a doctor or medical professional of any kind, so I am ALWAYS careful with any information or opinions I present as far as body care and treatment are concerned. No matter how much personal experience I have with mold illness, it does not make me qualified to give anyone else medical advice. Thus, whenever I write about recovering my body from mold, I try to only speak from personal experience and perspective, and am careful not to offer counsel or instructions to others on that front. I know what protocols, treatments, and supplements work for me and my family, and filter all information I share with you through that frame of reference. Nevertheless, I find more and more that while STEP #1 (the hardest step of getting out of the mold in whatever form that takes, remediation or leaving) works for ALL of us in some capacity, STEPS #’s 2, 3, 4, and so on, of curing mold illness in our bodies, are not always as straightforward. As a matter of fact, the lack of positive response to even maximum treatment for some patients can be monumentally frustrating and, in the words of one reader, “just doesn’t make sense.”

This topic of unshakeable chronic illness from mold actually hinges on one central question, in my opinion:

9:15 pm 4 comments

Personal Stories Q & A's Wellness

Learning to LIVE Post Mold Illness Diagnosis

by Catherine 4:16 pm

Embracing Your “New Normal” May Be the Key to Letting Go of Fear and Feeling More Like Yourself Again

The longer I write this blog and build relationships within our community of readers, the more those interactions impact what I write about. Often your questions are at the forefront of my mind when I am writing my weekly post. Sometimes, I have even been writing about an entirely different topic but get such an excellent reader question, that I halt and reroute everything I am doing to share it instead. Then, on days like today, I just cannot ignore the feeling that I NEED to write about a topic, because it has impacted one of you and is weighing on my heart. This is one of those posts.

A reader who I have gotten to know through our email correspondence is about to embark on her first travel experience since being impacted by mold illness. Her home environment is finally under control, and she is feeling much better. (Her main symptom was debilitating and chronic fatigue.) These days, she is doing all of the “right” things with mold maintenance and mold avoidance and is extremely proactive about taking charge of her health.

This reader has also been very inspiring for me to communicate with—asking me detailed questions about cleaning methods and practices I use in our home and always thinking out-of-the-box to make products and techniques do double-duty to be more effective and cost efficient. But, with her trip on the horizon, doubt, fear, and anxiety have started to impede her positive momentum. So much so that, rather than being able to focus on her current good health and upcoming travel, she is stuck worrying about all of the potential mold situations she may encounter along-the-way. She is already foreseeing challenges to remain well in new and unknown indoor environments.

To help her get ready for her trip, we have communicated in detail about products to pack, how she can purify her space and air on the airplane, and what mold maintenance and avoidance actions to take when she arrives at her destination. (If you want to read more about these techniques, HERE is my post on travel.) In other words, “on paper,” she is totally prepared and ready for this trip and knows exactly what to do.

4:16 pm 4 comments

Personal Stories

Mold and Marriage: Relationships in the Midst of Environmental Illness

by Catherine 3:47 am

Mold and marriage do not tend to be good bedfellows. Experience, online forums, and psychological studies show that relational decline, conflict, and marital separation are unfortunately harsh realities in families plagued by environmental and mold illness. Tremendous medical expenses, time, and failed treatments and/or remediations foster stress and frustration between family members. What often results is a falling out between spouses and/or family members that characterizes many people’s mold stories. It can be such an isolating and misunderstood illness for all those involved. That is why I am writing this post.

I’ve actually thought long and hard about writing this blog post and started on it many times before. It is not something I enjoy talking about or writing about for that matter. I guess no one enjoys dwelling on times in their life that were scary or hurtful. Then, when I got the latest SinusitisWellness.com newsletter I connected so deeply with the subject matter, that I thought it was definitely time to share my story. Now, more than ever, I’m at a place where I am willing to put myself out there, because I feel that it is important for me to share some real truths about mold illness in this space. I hope that my story may help someone out there get through their own ordeal. So, without beating around the bush, I’m just going to jump right in with some heavy reality:

Our mold ordeal almost cost me my marriage.

There. I said it.

3:47 am 16 comments