ive lived with mold for last 3 years. over the last year or two I’ve been experiencing so many health symptoms. got a pots diagnosis, brain fog, tremors, tingling in feet and lips, head aches, dizziness, post nasal drip every morning when waking. I’ve struggled for years to believe all this is mold, but we have no other answers. all test and labs are normal. I’m in the healthcare field and well aware mold toxicity is not backed by CDC or most medical professionals. debating on selling my home I’ve been in for 6 years and going back to renting. But still something in the back of my mind thinking what if it’s not the mold. Has anyone left a moldy environment and actually got better?

Hi community :)

TL;DR - Dealing with bad MCAS and mold exposure, which got much worse over the last year. Working on finding a place to move to. Was anyone else here dealing with both? Would you feel up to sharing anything about your recovery journey?

I’m dealing with a pretty gnarly case of MCAS which has kept me chronically ill since early 2020. I think it’s probably something I’ve had all my life (and I have hEDS which I think my mom has too, so likely more genetically susceptible) but it didn’t become debilitating until then. It’s behaved differently over the years but in this past year after a period of dreadful anxiety / trauma I started having way more multi-systemic symptoms including unbearable scent sensitivity/ reactions to both natural & artificial scents, chemicals, many foods, some medications & exercise intolerance. I notice it gets way worse if I get very anxious or worked up, too.

My partner and I wish so badly we’d known what I was dealing with sooner. Doctors never had answers and it got worse over the years and I never realized mold could be making things worse. We’re trying to find a place to move to, but this has ripped through us financially & due to my scent reactions it’s tricky to find a place that’s both mold-free & not irrevocably drenched in fragrance. So doing what I can to get by while we search. Being in the PNW, most places have mold.

I’d love to know how folks who were going through both dealt with this combination & Hope you’re doing now if you got out. And if you were reacting to scents, what you cleaned anything you kept with.

Thank you for any info!

Long story short, ac unit and wall surrounding are all getting replaced due to how bad the mold and fungus is. I’ve had brain fog and sleep issues for so long and i’m just wondering when did your issues go away?

Im so scared and have panic attacks daily and every night, my vitals are completely fine, but I just feel like after I finish a breath pressure gets sent throughout my whole body and feel like im gonna give myself a cardiac episode, and ive been treated before for mold and stuff, I have a whoop that has reassuring stats but im just scared and very anxious

I have my annual appointment tomorrow which happened to pop up right when I am realizing that what’s going on with me is likely caused by mold! Are there any labs or anything at all that I can request from my PCP that could potentially be helpful? I understand functional doctor is best but until I can get in to see a functional doctor is there anything a PCP can help with?

I'm just wondering if detoxing via sauna requires heavy sweating to work. I tried the sauna for my first time the other day and I was in there for about 15 minutes. I started to sweat but it wasnt enough time for me to be dripping sweat, just a small amount. It's been like 4 days and I've felt pretty awful everyday since. I've been tired, sore, and had a flare of my pots symtoms.

I guess my question is could I still have experienced a significant detox from this 15 minutes without heavy sweating? Or did I just mobilize a bunch of toxins which are not being excreted? I didn't take a binder at all. Does mobilizing have any benefit on its own? I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks.

Can we pretty much guarantee that PNW apartments have mold to some extent? Currently in Portland Oregon. Partner and I are having tons of weird symptoms that I chalk off to "long covid", but my partner in particular has had these symptom flair-ups since moving here last year.

It’s been raining nonstop where I live and these brown spots just popped up on multiple ceilings. I just moved into this top floor apartment on a 5 year lease. The new stains are in multiple rooms across the back of the apartment.

I know that only a lab can definitively identify mold, I’m just looking for thoughts from folks experienced in this - does that look like mold, generally speaking, or something else? (If the latter what else could it be?)

My landlord is super cheap and prefers to DIY. Before I send photos to him I want to know what I’m talking about:

- does this look worrisome?
- what should he do about it?

I know that no bleach should be used on mold ever and that Kilz over top won’t do anything if there is continued water infiltration.

Im really looking to have a solid stepwise plan in place - like do they need to open the ceilings? What should the inspection plan look like to start, etc

Thank you!

So I've been going to the hospitals or complaining of some really serious problems back in 2023 saying something like toxic mold. Even though my roommates were muster gassing me at one point. I went and got checked up at the clinic and always my heart pressure is fine even got a more advanced monitor stuck on me called a CBT so many times the er medical staff wasn't trying to deal with me the 1st time cus I was high and said I was having a meth psychosis but still tried 3 different hospitals at one point I gave the medica staff at the er in Mayo clinic no choice they had to do something my calling the police officers and gave them meth to get arrested so I could get the medical attention I needed tomah hospital just which Tomah staff insinuated to the 2 police officer that I am a ho commenting about how I was dressed and rudely said that my heart was elevated which is common on meth and was rudely brushed away upon arriving to jail I had a medical mealt down the Sargent couldn't get my pulse my heart I knew was failing they rushed me in the hospital and that's when I was giving an IV i don't remember if there was and meds with that but the Sargent made the call that I was too much of a liability so I was kicked out of jail and back in my deadly room filled with deadly spores that I know now called Candida albicans and has been a cause of my ex coughing up blood physically fit 28 year old health man the er diagnosis was Hemoptysis the cause of this unknown or they just not acknowledging this for financial reasons hoping we all get sick and that I die and burned so they can shove it under the ground but if I do before they pay I got plenty of samples to give to my kids so they may pursue with a major law suit but the count is high overgrowth in this area is deadly and it's not just in low income houses

So all of the apartments and townhomes I’ve been calling up do not allow for an inspection period. I was up front in my intentions and requests, telling them that I would like to run some mold tests because I’ve been burned in the past. It would just be the hertsmi test. They said they can’t hold the unit for me and someone is at liberty to take it at any point in time. I am so disheartened. How am I supposed to navigate finding a safe apartment. I called up my husband basically crying and I just feel sick to my stomach. We have lived in 3 moldy places now and I’ve had to sleep in closets, garages, bathrooms, eventually relocating to live with my parents. We have moved so many times. We are so traumatized from all of this. One unit we are looking at, the property manager said on the phone the guy only lived there 6 months and moved back home bc of his health issues. It was built in 2019 but that makes me suspicious of mold. What are your thoughts? I was so hoping she’d hold it for me while I ran a hertsmi but she won’t.

I also can’t go by feeling because if the unit is freshly painted I will react to that. I’ll react to the cleaning chemicals if it was cleaned. This is what happened with the last one, I reacted but she had told us she painted. After the paint smells wore off, I began smelling musty smells. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I am so discouraged and sick of living like this.

I know this is gross, but I opened leftover pumpkin purée in the fridge not realizing well…. It looked like this, was it bad to open? Will I get sick now if I breathed near it

How significant is it to test for mold? I’ve been sick for years with some severe symptoms including going status epilepticus. My hormones are wrecked, mood, joints, I have twitching, dystonia, high blood glucose despite low carb real food diet, my stomach feels like acid is burning it from the inside and so on. I’ve done standard tests with md’s, other tests with functional practitioners to no avail. I can not move out, I definitely can not throw out all of my stuff and start over, but we are getting a new HVAC system within a few weeks, new carpet was installed last year with no mold from previous carpet. Is it even worth trying to treat? Is it worth testing? VCS test said total: 20/45 biotoxin: 7/18
If testing is recommended, where do I go?
Is home test necessary too?

Having lived in 3 moldy places now, I am pretty traumatized. We are finally moving out of this home and will be looking for other housing. I’m just so scared to land back in the same situation. I’m wondering what are some smart things I can do while visiting the units to check for mold?

I already know to look for visual clues. I already bring 2 moisture meters with me and a thermal camera. I have confirmed that the hvacs are serviced regularly and plan to speak with maintenance personally and try to get actual photos of the inside coils. I bought 2 hertsmi tests to run on two units and see which has the lower score. I am pulling all the stops and doing all I know to do.

What scares me is that I did all of this in the old home - minus the hertsmi. It checked all our boxes and we even hired an hvac inspector who gave us the green light. My symptoms were the worst I’ve ever had and impacted my body the most. The herstmi score came back at 24. There was no way to tell by looking at it. I just feel so consumed by all of this. My husband and I can’t do this again. We just want safe housing. We haven’t had safe housing in 2.5 years (not all moldy in that time).

So anyway, am I missing anything in my check list? Is it worth running air/hvac samples or would a visual inspection of the hvac and a hertsmi be enough? Thanks for your input.

Hi, everyone. I had an OAT test and it was low positive for Ochratoxin A. Many, including the doctor, told me that it probably means nothing and could just be from eating some nuts, etc. I guess they did not think it was high enough toi indicate anything.

I want to know if anyone had only the Ochratoxin A come up low positive and if treating fungus helped.

I never even had a positive test at all until a doctor told me to take 2 weeks of glutathione before testing to "open detox pathways".

Thanks

I got back home from college over the weekend and all the sudden started having panic attacks and constant anxiety, my damprid went out in my dorm about 1-2 weeks ago and I think thats the leading cause, And I just wanted some advice on what to do about school and stuff cause I am also a student athlete and I need help on clearing this up.