The only way is up...

Well 3 months into this anti-inflammatory diet, I have to say that I’m charging along. I’ve put on 3 kilos (though am still underweight). I feel much better and have lost the numbness in my left arm which has plagued me for a year.  Who would have thought that cutting out so much food, and eating no fat would help me gain weight??

Anyway yesterday was D Day. I got my results from my lumbar puncture. The fantabulous news is that I do not have a progressive nor deteriorating disease!! The damage to my body has stopped progressing and the inflammation is slowly but surely reducing. Even better news if you ask me.

The bad news is the nerve damage to my hands and feet is permanent. I now need to care my feet as if they are diamonds as the blood supply is severely compromised due to the nerve damage. Not exactly what every dancer wants to hear – but since dancing is so important to me, I have put this high on my self care agenda.

They feel though that my leg damage may be able to be improved. Or if not that I can build up all my other muscles to compensate for their limited use. It also helps that we are in a mold free environment which is giving my body a greater chance of detoxing.

But I feel so happy and positive!! I went home from this appointment on cloud nine, because a) it’s so nice for my body to be co-operating for a change and b) that there is light at the end of this mold saga.

Previous Post 13 September 2010

Is your house killing you???- originally posted 13 September 2010

Is your house killing you?...because it turns out that for the last 8 months our new house has been killing me…literally. As some of you would know, I have been battling unwanted weight loss since we moved into this house. Now I know for some this would be a good thing, but for me it’s been a progressively bad thing.

It started off as losing half a kilo every fortnight. Then I would manage to gain a little, then lose it and some more. Now it has accelerated to half a kilo a week, and the maintenance weight I strive for just gets lower and lower. It doesn’t matter that I currently consume 3000 calories per day, lots of proteins, fats, do zero exercise….the weight just falls off week after week.

I have also suffered ongoing bone numbing fatigue, headaches, numbness in my arms and hands (which has been getting more aggressive), severe postural hypertension including momentary blindness (hence my recent broken nose) and a general fogginess in my thoughts. There are days I feel like I’m swimming under water – slow and sluggish, and other days where I quite literally cant get off the floor.

My local GP’s were at a loss, so I was sent off to a series of specialists, who have also been at a loss. They all agreed that there was something seriously wrong with me, but could only rule out cancer, and problems with my endocrine system to name a few. Finally, someone recommended contacting a mold toxicologist to assess our house.

Little B has also been sick, quite literally, every 8-10 days since March. He, who has never had a cough, has had many coughs plus colds, plus major congestion. He is also always tired (unrelated to the amount of sleep he has had).

When we moved in we discovered the previous owners had hidden a substantial mold problem in two of the bedrooms. We removed all the said walls and ceilings and replaced them with new plasterboard. Had subfloor ventilation put in to dry out under the house as it seemed to be a bit damp. Problem solved or so we thought.  It turns out there is a major mold problem under our house.

The mold is in the bearers, in the earth, and we have water pooling in odd places under the house (not from leaking pipes). Anything we have under the house grew mold but that didn’t seem odd. But now we have mold growing in the house in weird places – smack bang in the middle of a glass window that get’s full sun. Our toilet brush rotted, our washing machine grew horrid black mold on the door seal that wouldn’t come off and microscopic mold was all over my clothes and I was breathing it in (the worst bearer was under my wardrobe).

Our lovely wooden floors are bringing these mold spores in via osmosis. No room is immune.

After speaking to a mold toxicologist, and a building biologist, Little B and I have moved out of the House of B for the time being. I’m currently undergoing round after round of tests to see how much damage this mold has done to my body. You see it turns out that mold can be so toxic that it can induce autoimmune or neurological diseases, damage your lungs, and even in some cases cause permanent damage to your body.

We still don’t know what the future holds for us or this little house.

Mold - 1, The B Family – 0

Previous Post 12 October 2010

Moldy House Update - originally posted 12 October 2010

Well bad news was always in the offing. I’ve been told that I will never be able to live in our little house again. The type of mold there is so endemic and deep rooted, that while it can be mainly removed, it will probably return due to the nature of the block (it’s an aquifer). I also had such a massive exposure to toxic black mold, and such a bad reaction, that I will continue to react in the same way.

Unfortunately, I have had to throw all my clothes away as well as they cannot be cleaned. The type of mold, Stachybotrys, binds to the fibres and is unable to be washed out.

So we look forward. We will fix the house but look for a new House of B in the next 12 months. The Mold may reign supreme, but then again so do we. I now need to focus on getting healthy. They say my physical rehabilitation will take about 12 months and my health will take just as long to recover if not more, so it’s all good timing really.

When you think things are bad,

when you feel sour and blue,

when you start to get mad…

you should do what I do!

Just tell yourself, Duckie,

you’re really quite lucky!

some people are much more…

oh, every so much more…

oh, muchly much-much more

unlucky than you!

- Dr Suess, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are

There will be more challenges as we get through this. We’ve been told that when we move we have to treat our belongings as if the house burned down. All the furniture will need to be disposed of, plus our clothes and books. If we take it with us, we run the risk of contaminating a new house.

We’ve had time over the last few weeks to reflect on this change, and we are completely at peace with the situation. Can we financially afford to do this? The answer is a big fat resounding NO! Ultimately though the health and survival of our family is more important than any old house. And as the Dr Suess story says, there are worse things that could have happened to us and we are lucky we caught it in time :-)

Well..

I had my sad sack moment (which doesnt suit me) then launched into an offensive against this nasty mold saga. My neurologist recommended I start an ant-inflammatory diet to bring down the inflammation in my body. Interestingly, it is kind of similar to some of the mold recovery diets out there. So I've started it with gusto.

Quite simply it is a vegan diet with a little bit of oily fish. I also have to watch my saturated fat intake (I have to keep it under 10g a day). So I've been eating lots of beans, lentils, veggies (of course), seeds, almonds, some red salmon and ocean trout, as well as taking lots of flax oil, magnesium and vitamin d. I'm also supplementing some B vitamins as recommended by him to help with nerve damage and also since a vegan diet is often deficient in Vitamin B12.

I feel better on this diet. It's not really helping with my numb arms, or leg weakness yet but he says it could take 12 months to feel any difference. I've also stepped up my detoxing baths and am bathing in betonite clay once a week and epsom salts once a week. I've also started using coconut oil as a body moisturiser (with great success actually - it's made some fungal skin spots flare and disappear).

I also think the diet is encouraging a detox because initially I had days of extreme fatigue, headaches and feeling really foggy and unwell. After about 1 week, I felt better. I'm wondering if this is similar to the fungus die-off you see on anti-candida diets?? Hmm only time will tell. And for the first time in like forever I've gained some weight and kept it on for about 2-3 weeks. Fingers crossed...

I'm struggling...

Well after a month of tests, we are kind of back where we started (but worse). I have neurological damage from my mold exposure which is affecting the muscles in my legs - so greater than the initial assessment of "just" CNS system damage. But I will need further invasive testing to see what exactly is wrong and whereabouts in my body is most affected. My neurologist is quite shocked at the extent of the damage and feels its worse than when he first saw me. My blood tests seem to show that my whole body is suffering from inflammation.

And he feels that my body still seems to be either a) deteriorating or b) they didnt realise exactly how much damage their was initially.

Now the irony is I've been coping really well with everything but this new diagnosis has hit me for six. I just cant seem to move past it. I'd even come close to calling it mild depression. Or maybe more emotional numbness. I'm sad that buying something as simple as a house has done this to my body.

I'm angry that I used to be so fit and healthy and now I'm not. But at the same time, I dont care and I want to give up. I want to cry but I cant be bothered. I've abandoned my autumn garden because I quite frankly I simply dont care.

Doctors visits and tests take up way too much time in my life. And I find it sad that my 4 year old takes going to hospitals in his stride. He just asks which hospital or doctor we are seeing and bounces along with life. The whole family spends so much time watching my weight, my health and we had just too much time recently freaking out about serious weight loss, numb arms, rashes and other annoying mold side effects.

So on advice, I am starting to focus more on some self care. All this trekking around for docs, caring for a 4 year old, selling a house etc etc has taken over my life. So my aim for the next month to spend time doing things I like - simple things like reading books, knitting, watching some movies (and old passion I dont get to indulge with a hands on child). I'm hoping I can work my way through this emotional struggle so I can get on with healing my body.

Health Update

Well my latest round of tests did not go as positively as I would have liked. My neurologist has found greater nerve damage from my mold exposure than first thought. I already have peripheral neuropathy (which is basically weakness and sensory changes in my muscles) but this has become quite significant on my left side. I have to put a lot of effort into getting some movements especially out of my left leg.

This in turn has triggered off a whole new series of tests. In amongst the CT scans, MRI's, blood tests and so forth, the greater fear is that I may have some sort of autoimmune disease as the result of this all.

Of course none of this has been helped by my constant exposure to the outside of our house. The good news is we've had a lot of people helping out. The even better news is the house goes on the market next week. The bad news I had to do a lot more than I would have liked, so fingers crossed now I wont have to go near the place again.

So we soldier on - I've been using lots of charcoal soap and rhassoul clay to clear my skin of any mold spores picked up from around the house. I've also been having Epsom Salt baths to help detox my system. My diet isnt as good as I'd like but I'm on an elimination diet at the moment and hopefully I'll be able to bring back in lots of vegies and berries asap.

Buying a new house??

We've started the long process of selling our house and buying a new house. It's a long process because we have been renovating the moldy house and getting it treated for sale, and then we will obviously have to take out time buying the next one so we avoid mold.

On the weekend, I went to a few open for inspections mainly to see whether I can detect if a house has mold. When we do find a house we like we will be getting mold air testing done to be sure. As well as a building report to check for water intrusion. Mr B has been really concerned that we could inadvertently end up in this predicament again (which would prove too costly).

So around I went. I went to 3 inspections. First one, I was fine - the house was good. I even looked under the house and the ground was dry. But then came the next two. The 2nd house had no visible mold but I knew it was there. Within 10 minutes I started to wheeze, my chest was contricted and my throat burned. I had to reach pretty quickly for Ventolin and antihistamines. The 3rd house - what can I say. It had mold - you could smell it, you could see it - all over one bedroom ceiling. I got out of there pretty quick smart. Again came the meds.

It took me the rest of the day to get over this exposure. And I use the words get over fairly loosely. I still feel fairly crappy but that's for another reason.

On top of this, both yesterday and today I've been around the outside of our moldy house. We simply cannot financially afford for to get other people in for everything. I've been painting our fence and balustrading on the stairs to our front door. And bam - I'm wheezy. Some of our relatives have offered to help and even though I feel guilty, I'm going to have to take them up on it. I've come to realisation that I cant fight through this on going poisoning.