Mold illness. Have you heard of it? It has transformed my life and my goal is to spread awareness about this 'mystery' disease.

Here's my story:
Fall 2019 I began a job as a school cook in the basement of an old building. The building was musty and damp, had a leaking pipe in the bathroom and poor ventilation. This is a prime example of a water-damaged building, or WDB.
Happy as I was to have this new job, I didn't really consider the impact of the environment in which I was working. If it was safe for the kids and had passed the inspections, it should be fine, right? And I absolutely loved feeding the sweet students and being part of the amazing school.
Within a month I was developing severe allergies. My nose got stuffier and stuffier to the point where I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes without my head becoming completely congested. Nothing I took over-the-counter would touch it.
By January I had asthma for the first time in my life. My daily walks were suddenly unmanageable and I found myself wheezing and struggling to breathe. Multiple doctor visits later, I was told to take Claritin and handed prescriptions for Albuterol and a steroid inhaler. Allergy testing proved nothing. Pulmonary function tests came back normal. I was completely stumped. My health continued to decline.
In March, the school was shut down following Covid-19 mandates. I assumed that if the water-damaged building was causing my health issues, I would see improvements by being out of that environment. Now I know that there is a genetic marker 24% of the population has called an HLA gene. This gene makes it almost impossible for people to expel mycotoxins (the toxic gas released by mold) without the help of binders, supplements and a detoxification protocol. But first you have to know what it making you sick, and mainstream Western medicine is not well versed in this area yet. The wild goose chase continued!
Over the summer, I had numerous visits with different doctors and an ER visit after an exciting anaphylactic reaction to celery. My body was on high alert and over reacting to histamines, chemicals and strong odors. I couldn't cook food on my stove without gasping for air. Diesel truck fumes sent me scrambling for my inhalers. My husband's deodorant made my eyes water and my nose close up. Walking near the cleaning supplies aisle at the grocery store caused me to wheeze and panic. I carried an epipen and emergency inhaler everywhere I went and felt anxious all of the time. What in the world was happening?
The pieces came together when I went back to work in August 2020. Upon opening the building I had an immediate asthmatic reaction to being in there. We looked around and found mold growing on the walls. The building hadn't been opened in months, mold was running rampant and the air quality was toxic. I finally had the missing piece of my puzzle!!!
I made an appointment with a Naturopath who specializes in mold toxicity. This appointment was a new experience for me: To start, it was 3 hours long! The doctor did an in-depth health history, physical examination and a multitude of tests.
Everything came back confirming my symptoms were caused by toxic mold exposure.
Fast forward to today and I've been on a detoxification protocol since September. My diagnosis included Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS, which explains the inflammation of my respiratory system.
Mold detox is different for everyone but can take 6 - 12 months on average to heal, given you are out of the moldy environment that made you sick initially. I am slowly beginning to feel better and am elated to say I am off of my inhalers!
In my next blogs I will continue to share info about toxic mold exposure and what has helped me so far on my journey back to health. This is such an important topic and one that desperately needs more attention, research and awareness. Thanks for reading about my experience. It has been quite the ride and I hope my journey can help others.
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