posted
I am a wreck. As I posted a week or so ago, my basement has mold and I am scheduled to have it removed in 4 weeks. However now that I know as much as I do about mold, I started to look more closely for it in the main floor of my home. I am freaking out, as I found mold tonight and took pictures of it - in the following places:
Under the toilet in the main bathroom (the kids' and guests bathroom), on the pipes of the toilet (this is green mold), on the pipes under the bathroom sink, under the refridgerator (in that tray thing), under the kitchen sink (this is white but it looks like mold to me), along the kitchen floor on the trim (it's a dark wood trim that makes it very difficult to see any mold on!), under the rim of the kitchen counter tops...
I even opened the attic (which is actually just a crawl space) and shined a flashlight in there and the bag that appears to be an insulation bag (which is all I could see) looks like it has black mold on it.
The kids' bathroom definitely used to have mold by the shower head, and years ago when I knew nothing about mold, I dug it out, but I have NO idea how much more there may have been.
So, now I am devastated, thinking honestly that tomorrow I should take the kids somewhere to stay. I am overwhelmed and disgusted and depressed. I know our Lyme disease has been at a stand still because of this mold and I am so angry that I never knew we even had mold, or what it meant if we did.
I just needed to vent and I wonder if you all agree that I should get out and get the kids out at this point. Thank you. CB
Posts: 114 | From NY | Registered: Jul 2011
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nonna05
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posted
I keep thinking there's something holding me back at our place also. .. Husband thinks I 'm just off the wall.. He was educated as a chemical/hazards waste Engineer... So unless I /he can see this stuff flying around or growing, I'm stuck... It might not be anything. The place looks newish, but it's 14 years old/// What about water getting behind tiles....Or uncovered insulation in basement. Not wet just 6" exposed around whole area.
How else can you find out ,if you can't see it???
Posts: 2563 | From Denver,CO | Registered: Aug 2011
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momlyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
canaanbites - I agree. Get out. That was the best thing we could have done. My son, who was very sick, got better within days. He had been getting steadily worse for 9 months. Nothing seemed to help... until we got out.
You cannot stay in the house while it is being remediated... and no guarantee you will ever be able to go back in that house.
We have been working on our house for 7 months and I still react to the house. We are doing the floors this week (sanding and refinishing with no VOC poly) and that is it. If I still get sick in it, we sell.
The thing is, once mold makes you sick, you become much more sensitive than most people.
I have looked at lots of apartments and houses... and I react to something in all of them.
The more you stir it up, the more gets in the air, the sicker you get.
I am so sorry this is happening to you. I wish I could tell you there is an easy way out.
Do you have someplace to go?
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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momlyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
nonna05 - You find out by testing the air. I hired a professional, which cost me $2,000. I have talked to this lab and you can do the same test with a home test kit - http://www.homemoldtestkit.com/ ($150 for two tests)
I started my testing for mold with an ERMI which gives a good idea of the mold in the house. I used mycometrics which cost $285... since I have found that EMSL has the ERMI for much less (I think it's about half the mycometrics price) http://www.emsl.com/
Testing is not always reliable. There are so many variables. For air testing, the mold has to be airborne. Many molds are 'sticky' and they don't get found in the air.
Somehow, we got 'lucky' and all our tests came back positive. I know people who got many negative tests before they got a positive that showed that the mold was in their home.
I truly believe that if we had stayed in that home, we would all be dead.
We had all been to the ER while living there... all with different symptoms. My husband had heart problems, I had GI problems, my son had everything from seizures to intense pain, my daughter had asthma, allergies and chronic bronchitis, sinusitis and the dog went lame.
We have been out of the house for 7 months. We are all much better.
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
Can you all share how do you test for mold???
Posts: 63 | From north Texas | Registered: Apr 2011
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momlyme
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Member # 27775
posted
Part of what we did when we remediated was empty the house of ALL of our possessions. Much of what we owned (furniture, mattresses, luggage, books) went into a dumpster.
We rented 2 storage units for what we thought we could save. We bought plastic buckets to store stuff in. I went to the storage units a few weeks ago and got sick OUTSIDE the storage unit before we even opened the doors.
When the doors opened, I was appalled at what we saw. The kitchen chairs and nightstands that were in the very front of the storage unit were COVERED with mold.
I think we will probably wind up throwing out most of what is in those storage units too. If not all of it.
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
As far as leaving and getting us out of this house, I just don't know where we would go. I am going to meet with my sister today and try to brainstorm. She really doesn't have the room for me and my 4 children, and she herself is also sick with Lyme and has so much stress.
I would go to a hotel but I don't see how I could pay for it. I also have my father who lives in my town and we have stayed with him during power outages, but the thought of temporarily moving in with him and his wife and daughter is hard to imagine.
So, I just don't know what we will do but I know we have to do something. I can't live like this and it is clearly making us all sick.
Thanks for your help.
Posts: 114 | From NY | Registered: Jul 2011
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posted
As far as leaving and getting us out of this house, I just don't know where we would go. I am going to meet with my sister today and try to brainstorm. She really doesn't have the room for me and my 4 children, and she herself is also sick with Lyme and has so much stress.
I would go to a hotel but I don't see how I could pay for it. I also have my father who lives in my town and we have stayed with him during power outages, but the thought of temporarily moving in with him and his wife and daughter is hard to imagine.
So, I just don't know what we will do but I know we have to do something. I can't live like this and it is clearly making us all sick.
Thanks for your help.
Posts: 114 | From NY | Registered: Jul 2011
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oxygenbabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Go south and go camping. I'm not joking.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
It's probably good advice, oxygen. I would settle for a week out of the house to see if we feel better...I am thinking that we would. Maybe we will get a hotel room...I wonder how much that would cost.
As I type, I realize that my fine motor coordination is so horrible right now, my hands look arthritic. I always attributed everything to lyme since my diagnosis. Now, I think my house is the culprit.
Posts: 114 | From NY | Registered: Jul 2011
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oxygenbabe
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posted
No, go camping. Get a tent and drive south to where it's warm. Go get some clothes at Patagonia or Marshall's. Triple bag them in hefty bags, and buy the tent once you get down there.
Your car is probably cross contaminated, that's a problem. Wear the new clothes, and get a new tent. Keep some old clothes for driving in the car. Change into them in the campground bathroom, and get in the car. Do your shopping. Come back, change out of them and put on the fresh clothes in your uncontaminated tent. I'm not kidding. One nice thing about mold spores and toxins is that they tend to stick--so if your tent is twenty yards away outside it won't get cross contaminated.
Try to isolate yourself completely from the mold toxins. And see if you feel better. A hotel room is just as likely to have mold in the hvac along with disgusting air fresheners that are toxic.
This won't be expensive. For instance, the Ocala National Forest in Florida allows months of camping. Try it for a month.
The weather is great. The kids will enjoy it. You can get one of those six person tents with two rooms at Walmart for cheap, and a couple air mattresses. A propane stove, etc.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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oxygenbabe
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By the way, it's lyme plus mold.
I thought my lyme was getting worse and worse...in my toxic mold apartment. Severe muscle cramps, muscle weakness, vertigo, horrible asthma, pain, malaise, HORRIBLE depression, HORRIBLE headaches. Much was toxic mold.
You must get away from it all. The above is the way to do it. In fact, buy your new clothes when you get to a warm place to camp. From NY you can drive to Florida in two days. You can stop at Osceola National Forest--for a water site it's something loke $16/night. Very pretty. Right now it's 60/70's by day 40's/50's by night. Bathrooms, showers, etc. Stop at Lake City to get new clothes for eerybody cheap, and a tent at walmart, sleeping bags, and air mattresses. TRIPLE BAG, I mean, put in a hefty garbage bag, tie it, put that inside another, tie, and a third. That's how you protect your new stuff including your new tent, because the toxins will permeate plastic bags. So triple bag your new belongings until you get to your campsite.
Get to your campsite, set up the tent, take out your clothes, always keep those nice clothes in the tent (plus some new towels, washing items etc sleeping bags). A good sleeping bag will keep everybody perfectly warm in the 40's. Don't put on those clothes until you've showered and washed your hair--every one of you. Make sure you have some good food in a cooler. Place the cooler at least 10-20 feet from your tent.
I'm saying this because to really know how much better you can get you must get away from all the mold. Going in your contaminated clothes and car...not good. You will have to drive places, so just keep the crap clothes in the car, change in the campground bathroom. NEVER wear your new clothes in the car.
You'll see then. You'll know in a few weeks. You can then assess.
A hotel room is expensive, and toxic, and just as likely to have mold. Not a good idea.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Plus you'd get to spend a whole month in Florida!
Posts: 707 | From Colorado | Registered: Jul 2010
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oxygenbabe
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posted
Yeah and you can swim, boat, fish. In Ocala there are hot springs, 72 degrees...year round. Havne't been there yet but Salt Springs and Juniper Springs are the popular big campgrounds.
In Osceola its smaller but wonderful. Near Lake City.
It's about a two day drive I think.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Oxygen, I really wish I could take your advice. I have a feeling that all 5 of us would feel like new people.
I hope there is a middle ground, something that I could do to get out of this mold-infested home.
I cannot leave and travel, I can't leave my job, I can't pull the kids from school. I am going through a nightmare of a divorce from a man who is NOT well mentally (I blame undiagnosed Lyme disease, and not I believe he also suffered from mold-related illness when he lived here).
I was thinking the same thing about the hotels and that they generally have musty odors (unless they are new and very expensive).
Thanks so much for your replies. I completely believe that you are right-on. Unfortunately I need another plan....cb
Posts: 114 | From NY | Registered: Jul 2011
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oxygenbabe
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posted
Don't the kids get christmas break for at least 2 weeks? Can't you take a leave of absence for 2 weeks based on being really sick?
It's the best way to know--any "compromise" wont' really tell you. You need to get away from all the mold, toxins, and spore fragments dead and alive, and see how you improve. You'll know then what to do.
Or do it it over spring break or summer vacation.
Remediating the house is probably useless and will waste money you need for moving.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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momlyme
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posted
We have spent $15,000 on remediation... doing it all ourselves... I still react to the house.
What oxygenbabe says sounds extreme... but may be necessary.
We camped out for a few weekends this summer.
My parents OWN a motel... if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have been able to afford the 7+ months in a motel room!
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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randibear
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
have you had a home inspector come in and look at the house?
you know like "holmes on homes" on tv? they can tear things up, like behind walls, in the attic, pipes, etc.
then he can tell you definitely what kind and how much mold you have?
also i think if it's bad enough perhaps your home owner's insurance would cover the cost of any repair.
-------------------- do not look back when the only course is forward Posts: 12262 | From texas | Registered: Mar 2007
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posted
I would not go camping. It would just expose you to more ticks. And.yes.......we have ticks in Florida. That's like going from the frying pan into the fire.
Posts: 671 | From Fort Myers, Florida | Registered: Jun 2009
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momlyme
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posted
Home owner's insurance covered nothing for us.
Unless the mold happened because of a covered event... like ice dams... ours was behind the shower walls and not a "covered event"
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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