Another moldy experience got me thinking…

I just got back from helping my friend’s father look at rentals. My friend had called me in a panic because her father has to move out of his current home immediately due to how sick he has gotten from breathing mold. In fact, he has taken to sleeping in a travel trailer just so he is able to function because his landlord refuses to fix his leaking roof.
Coincidentally, I had just written a blog about my family’s traumatic dealings with a hidden mold issue entitled “The Importance of Investigating Environmental Issues” and I knew firsthand the unbelievable suffering it causes. I did know quite a bit about mold before we had our mold experience, but I didn’t have the respect for what it can do like I do now. We had been extensively trained about it through our company and we have a mold addendum that all our clients must read and sign. Nevertheless, until I went through our mold drama, I did not truly understand how unbelievably ill people can get from breathing small amounts of spores. Furthermore, most people do not know they are breathing it in as mold tends to grow where it is dark and moist which are often places that are unseen and hidden.
Mold is very, very good at what it does. In fact, it has remained virtually unchanged for millions of years and it is practically everywhere. Even tiny amounts can produce millions of microscopic spores which we react to on a cellular level. The symptoms often include unbelievable fatigue, headaches or migraines, sinus congestion, watery or burning eyes, coughing, and many other vague symptoms. Additionally, many people and doctors do not consider that mold could be the culprit when one is ill. I know we didn’t as a family, and thankfully a very forward thinking doctor figured it out for us. Even when I was seriously ill and had been hospitalized for my symptoms repeatedly, the doctors at the hospitals did not diagnose that what I was so very ill from was mold exposure. Since different people react differently to the same mold source, it made it additionally difficult to discover that mold exposure was the source of sickness for my family as well. My children’s symptoms were very different from my and my husband’s symptoms.
Moreover, as I walked my friend’s father through a rental that was described in the listing as “very clean inside!” we noticed that it had a very musty odor and had obvious water damage on the ceiling. He looked at me and said, “I think this house would make me just as sick.” Right there I got to thinking about just how many people have leaky homes, workplaces, or schools and do not consider that buildings can have hidden mold which would be negatively affecting their health.
Thankfully, there is something that one can easily do to investigate the possibility of hidden mold being present. Although mold spores are everywhere, it is when a moisture rich condition exists that mold will flourish and people will feel ill as a result of exposure. Home Depot sells a do it yourself mold kit for around $10, and they are easy and kind of fun to do. Experts have said that the kind of mold that grows does not necessarily have to be identified, as no kind of mold is good to have growing in our environments. Nevertheless, if desired, one can have the mold identified at a lab for an additional fee. Experts say that if the test kit reveals 0-3 mold colonies than it is generally considered normal, 4-6 mold colonies is considered moderate and would warrant further investigation, and anything over that is potentially very dangerous for people to be around.
It is important to note that people have truly died from inhaling copious amounts of mold spores and their doctors did not correctly diagnose them until autopsy. This is not intended to be morbid, but mold exposure is extremely serious and until I got so sick with it that I was in the hospital fighting with everything I had, did I realize what mold can truly do. Moreover, it is horrifying to be so ill and watch your family feel extremely ill and have all your doctors puzzled. It literally took us years of doctor and emergency room visits, and needless suffering through everyday life to finally figure out what was happening to us. Still, we consider ourselves incredibly lucky because we found that our mold was on 2 stickers on our indoor fan unit blowing spores into every room of our home. On our own, with how ill we were, I don’t think we would have figured it out.
Nevertheless, I hope that if one notices moisture rich conditions in their environment whether it be in one’s home, workplace, or school, perhaps it would be prudent to perform an inexpensive mold test. Nobody should have to suffer from hidden mold in their environment. Once the situation is remedied, one can go from daily survival mode into enjoying life again which is where life is best.

If desired, you can read more about my family’s mold experiences and what it did to our health at www.trulyfeelbetter.com.