As you can imagine, summer break means less time for mommy and a lot more going on around the house! It has cut down not only my ability to write, but my ability to think, hahahaha.
The good news is that the mold situation is FINALLY wrapping up this week! The work was completed today, the basement is CLEAN!! Yippeee!! They literally cleaned every inch of the room, the joists, the floor, in and around every nook and cranny. The HVAC duct work was scoped and cleaned today. Tomorrow the exit testing will be done! Whew, what a ride! We've been diffusing essential oils day and night lately too. Anything to help clear the air.
The bad news is that we all have sinus infections again, me worse than everyone else, but at least it seems to be short-lived this time around. I made the mistake of letting the chaos of planning their birthday party and dealing with the mold get in the way of taking my supplements daily. It's obvious to me that this has had an impact on my ability to fight this infection.
The boys are still coughing though. It's definitely less frequent and less severe, so maybe it is working it's way out.
I am sitting on my deck contemplating this world. Thinking about how much more severe everything has become. Our children are being born toxic. Autism, allergies, cancers, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, among other debilitating and life-shortening diseases are all on the rise. In fact, it's been determined that this will be the first generation that will live a shorter life span than the one before it. Natural disasters appear to be increasing, taking countless people with them. I even feel like the number of insects have increased in the past few years. People are less tolerant, perhaps because they are ill. I pray some day there will be enough change to reverse this slippery slope, for the sake of our children and their children. What kind of world will they live in, if this continues?
If you are reading this blog today, please consider making even one small change to your life, for the better. Make a promise to turn the water off when you brush your teeth, or replace one chemical-laden product with a natural and/or organic product that won't poison our land when it goes down the drain (our ground water becomes our rain water, people), you could even remove toxic cleaners from your house, or use hydrogen peroxide on your gardening instead of pesticides, stop using antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers, eat organic and local, take off your shoes at the door. There are so many easy ways to take baby steps towards a cleaner, healthier environment. If we all do this, imagine the impact we could have on the world. Think of it as an insurance policy on the future of your grandchildren.
Showing posts with label mold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mold. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Chelation update, added ALA!
Round 7 for me this weekend and today began with my first ALA + DMSA dose ever! Since I had my fillings out in early March, I had to wait three months post-exposure to add the ALA. I used only the DMSA for those three months to reduce the body burden first. Now I am playing with the big guns!
ALA is the only chelator that crosses the blood brain barrier. I don't know what I expected after taking the first dose, but considering how neurologically effected I can be by mercury and chelation, I expected something more. So far, I feel nothing different. I started with a very low dose (only 7.5mg) so I don't make this too hard on myself and considering how it effects our kids when we increase ALA (which we did last weekend), I was sure I would feel something, anything. Maybe it will take time and tomorrow I will be either a basket-case or a space-cadet! I like to keep my doses manageable, because I have to consider the fact that I am still a mom of two who need me to think clearly, plus life goes on, all around me.
Speaking of life going on around me....I have been very distracted lately, by this mold issue. It's gotten uglier and more complicated. We found more mold while going through our basement and cleaning everything out, so now we need more remediation. The good news is that these two spots are superficial and very minor, but we plan to treat it like we did the leaks, with containment and safety measures all in place. And the timing of everything is SO confusing, with a different contractor for just about every step. Test (environmentalist), put up containment areas (mold contractor), remove building materials to reach mold (general contractor), controlled mold demolition (mold contractor), rebuild (general contractor), leave containments up, clean (us and mold contractor), test (environmentalist), take down containments (mold contractor). Plus we need our HVAC duct work scoped and cleaned and the question of whether we clean before testing has yet to be answered. I would think we would want to clean the duct work first though, so we can have the airflow tested again as part of our clearance sampling...which means we better figure out who is doing this part ASAP, because keeping the large HEPA filters in our home is costing $200 a WEEK!
Clearing out the basement is painful, but I am keeping our goal in mind the whole way. It is driving me through tossing furniture, boxes for my collectibles, hair dressing chairs, jewelry I have made, shoes that were supposed to be Gavin's after Grayson grew out of them (I have a shoe thing), baby things like strollers, high chairs, bassinets, bouncy seats, cloth diapers, toys, memories, all of our Christmas ornaments, and basically anything porous or would cost less to replace than to pay a man $50 an hour to clean! It makes sense and we don't want "stuff" to get in the way of our health, so we are just tearing through it, but MAN, what a HUGE job!! We ordered a dumpster and have already FILLED it, but we aren't done (scratching head).....and it is hot out now so the suits, goggles, face masks and gloves are ridiculously hot! We still have some huge furniture to lug out to the dumpster, should be interesting.
Life is never dull around here! The boys are on Diflucan for two weeks to see, if their constant coughing is a fungal infection. So far, all it has proven to do is bloat them enormously. They are still coughing. So perhaps it really is just a stubborn cold, who knows. The saga continues...
ALA is the only chelator that crosses the blood brain barrier. I don't know what I expected after taking the first dose, but considering how neurologically effected I can be by mercury and chelation, I expected something more. So far, I feel nothing different. I started with a very low dose (only 7.5mg) so I don't make this too hard on myself and considering how it effects our kids when we increase ALA (which we did last weekend), I was sure I would feel something, anything. Maybe it will take time and tomorrow I will be either a basket-case or a space-cadet! I like to keep my doses manageable, because I have to consider the fact that I am still a mom of two who need me to think clearly, plus life goes on, all around me.
Speaking of life going on around me....I have been very distracted lately, by this mold issue. It's gotten uglier and more complicated. We found more mold while going through our basement and cleaning everything out, so now we need more remediation. The good news is that these two spots are superficial and very minor, but we plan to treat it like we did the leaks, with containment and safety measures all in place. And the timing of everything is SO confusing, with a different contractor for just about every step. Test (environmentalist), put up containment areas (mold contractor), remove building materials to reach mold (general contractor), controlled mold demolition (mold contractor), rebuild (general contractor), leave containments up, clean (us and mold contractor), test (environmentalist), take down containments (mold contractor). Plus we need our HVAC duct work scoped and cleaned and the question of whether we clean before testing has yet to be answered. I would think we would want to clean the duct work first though, so we can have the airflow tested again as part of our clearance sampling...which means we better figure out who is doing this part ASAP, because keeping the large HEPA filters in our home is costing $200 a WEEK!
Clearing out the basement is painful, but I am keeping our goal in mind the whole way. It is driving me through tossing furniture, boxes for my collectibles, hair dressing chairs, jewelry I have made, shoes that were supposed to be Gavin's after Grayson grew out of them (I have a shoe thing), baby things like strollers, high chairs, bassinets, bouncy seats, cloth diapers, toys, memories, all of our Christmas ornaments, and basically anything porous or would cost less to replace than to pay a man $50 an hour to clean! It makes sense and we don't want "stuff" to get in the way of our health, so we are just tearing through it, but MAN, what a HUGE job!! We ordered a dumpster and have already FILLED it, but we aren't done (scratching head).....and it is hot out now so the suits, goggles, face masks and gloves are ridiculously hot! We still have some huge furniture to lug out to the dumpster, should be interesting.
Life is never dull around here! The boys are on Diflucan for two weeks to see, if their constant coughing is a fungal infection. So far, all it has proven to do is bloat them enormously. They are still coughing. So perhaps it really is just a stubborn cold, who knows. The saga continues...
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Writer's block, but so much to report
I think when a lot is going on at once, I lose the insight it takes to write from my heart and soul. I am so overwhelmed with the flurries around me that I just keep putting writing off until I have something specific to focus on. So for now, I am going to attempt to push myself for fear of forgetting to report something going on in our biomedical world. And so much of it is important.
The hot topics for today are mold repairs, a 504 plan for Grayson at school, IgG food panels for both boys and camel milk!
MOLD
So I will start with the oldest news, the mold. We are still eyeball deep in trying to figure out how bad the problem is. The location where the leak occurred is the most obnoxious place to reach, it's directly behind where the deck is attached to the house. You guessed it, the deck has had to be loosened (today in fact) to provide access to the wet wood. Yesterday the contractor working on providing the mold company with access to the mold, pulled up the tiles for the sub floor that was wet, and he removed ALL of the siding on the backside of the house under the deck, plus some from above the deck to be sure that they follow protocol which is to remove anything within a foot of the damage.
You can see from the pictures how they are trying to access the side of the house where the deck connects to it!The picture to the left shows the mudroom door above the deck and our window in the basement, below. To the right is the siding removed where the mold is, which is around and to the right of the window. The worst of it all is located just to the right of the mudroom door (picture below) so today he actually removed more siding and deck towards the slider (this picture is from yesterday). He also loosened the lag bolts that connect the deck to the house!
Gimme the 504
Something interesting came about from Grayson's food infractions on the bus....a 504 plan stems from the Americans with Disabilities Act. A 504 plan spells out the modifications and accommodations that will be needed for students who have: physical impairments; illnesses or injuries; communicable diseases; chronic conditions like asthma, allergies and diabetes; and learning problems. They make accommodations to offer them the opportunity to perform at the same level as their peers, and might include such things as wheelchair ramps, blood sugar monitoring, an extra set of textbooks, a peanut-free lunch environment, home instruction, or a tape recorder or keyboard for taking notes.
For Grayson, this specifically addresses the bus situation as well as handwriting. And let me just say briefly, the bus situation is a God-send. He's been driven to and from school by a mini van (like a personal chauffeur) with one other child, a friend's child actually! And how does handwriting come into play? Well, when Grayson was having the food infractions his handwriting went down the tubes, he was complaining of being too tired to write, he was uninterested and his writing was atrocious! His teacher and I spoke about this (keep in mind we didn't know about the food infractions at the time) and I mentioned how in the past he had he had been diagnosed as having delayed fine motor skills. I wasn't sure this was our problem, but we both thought it was possible and decided on having an evaluation done, to be sure. In the time between having the evaluation done and receiving the results, we discovered that he was eating gluten and casein among many other things he can't have, all resulting in personality changes as well as physical changes. Once we got his diet cleaned back up, his writing soared!! His mood improved, his interest skyrocketed and even his teacher said, "He can't be stopped!". His evaluation identified a few areas to target, besides his fine motor skills which are actually pretty on target with other kids his age (yeay!), it didn't used to be!! But his sensory issues came up, visual and auditory processing as well as muscular (tone) problems that can effect his ability to participate in school. So the 504 plan allows him to have 30 minutes of occupational therapy once a week, the "private" bus, and a sensory "diet" at school which is anything he needs to be able to function without distraction, this could mean therapeutic brushing, weighted blankets, joint compression, which all help with prioprioception.
You might wonder why I didn't stop the process when we noticed the food infraction was our cause when even the teacher noticed how he has made a considerable change since resolving the issue....this is because I feel like OT can offer him some other solutions to things that might still need addressing while we go through the process of healing him from the inside out. Having the additional coping mechanisms at his fingertips is a benefit many kids don't have and I want to take advantage of anything that can help him stay in the playing field. He's been doing exceptionally well since the "incidents" and even the teacher has commented on his remarkable composure, maturity and interest lately. This is a testament to the things we do....and why. I love the opportunity for those around me to see what value there is in dietary changes. It's a big problem in our Nation and it needs awareness. This is the best way to create awareness, real life situations. No one can deny the changes they have witnessed in this situation and every person involved has voiced that opinion. During our meeting with the school and therapists, it was clear that they believe in the power of healing through foods. They supported my efforts and plan to continue to do so. I am so thankful for this school every single day!
Culprit foods
On that note, when he was clearly exposed to both gluten and dairy at minimum, we decided to take advantage of the timing and order an IgG food panel update to see, if he was/is still sensitive to these foods. I have also wondered, if there were any other foods that could be causing some inconsistencies in his moods. They have been bearable and nowhere near the way things were in the past, but it still appeared as though he lacked control of them and felt considerable remorse afterwards, as if he didn't even know himself anymore. Gavin on the other hand, has never had an IgG panel done so we still needed the baseline on him.
Want the good or the bad news first?
The good news is that neither of them is sensitive to the many foods we use repeatedly in their diet (we still rotate them) and their gut permeability is good. Gavin's intestinal barrier assessment was negative at well below half of what it would take to be considered mildly effected and Grayson was just 8 points over the threshold!! So what we are doing IS most definitely working, yippee!!!
The bad news is that BOTH boys are effected by egg whites and yolks, grrrrr!! This is a hard one to avoid, but with Gavin moderately effected by them and Grayson in the high category for sensitivity, it's one food we have to remove indefinitely. Ironically, they are both moderately effected by kidney beans, not even a food we give them. For Gavin the only other foods that came up in the low range were kale and oranges. Grayson had just about every food in the dairy category plus gluten and yogurt in the moderate range. His low foods were baker's yeast, chicken (just barely over the threshold), soy, peanut, tofu, pineapple (this was high in his previous test), tuna (odd, he's never even had it), kale, pork, wheat, oranges and shrimp. This is MUCH better than the 23 foods that came up in his last IgG panel! I also wonder about the genetic factors involved, because both boys had almost identical reactions to foods that weren't even considered positive. The test shows a bar for each food that was tested and even though a reaction may not be high enough to warrant fitting into the low category, it may still show a slight reaction. Both boys reacted to a lot of the same things, for example cinnamon and green peas. It is certainly interesting looking at these tests side by side. Very telling of the big picture in our genes.
One thing that is clear for sure is that everything we are doing in the face of prevention with Gavin is working. He only reacted to 4 foods and none were high! This is considered in the very low range of normal. It's wonderful news and had us floating on cloud nine!!
But isn't camel milk still milk?
Yes, camel milk is milk, BUT it's very different from cow's milk! It has medicinal properties that have been healing people at record speeds, people with diabetes, allergies, cancer and autism. Studies are confirming these findings at rapid rates. There is still about 4-5% lactose in camel milk, but the lactose is even different and much easier to digest than cow's milk lactose. The proteins of camel milk are the decisive components for preventing and curing food allergies because camel milk contain no beta-lactoglobulin and a different beta-casein – the two components in cow milk that are responsible for allergies. Camel milk contains a number of immunoglobulins that are compatible with human ones. Camel milk is also rich in vitamin C (three times as much as cow's), calcium and iron (TEN times as much as cow's milk!). How do you like them apples? The healing properties are numerous, from the amino acid profile to the enzymes and minerals!
We found a farmer about an hour and fifteen minutes away and my husband just happened to have an opportunity to be down there yesterday so he went by and grabbed some frozen bottles for us and a friend. I really expected the kids to fight it since we don't do milk at all, but they took to it immediately, even Gavin who has never enjoyed a dairy product in his life even when I tried! They both sucked down the first cups I offered them of the fresh raw milk and promptly asked for more....and more. We went through about 14 ounces in one sitting with both boys! Then this morning, they both had cups of milk with breakfast and again at dinner, they will have more. I'm not really even sure what I am looking for or what I expect out of this, but it seems to be doing a lot of good for those with similar health problems so I had to give it a try. So onward with our newest adventure.
Read more about camel milk and autism here from a clinical Toxicologist!
This is a link to a study confirming that camel milk can heal liver disease!
And below are the kids with their first camel milk mustaches!!
The hot topics for today are mold repairs, a 504 plan for Grayson at school, IgG food panels for both boys and camel milk!
MOLD
So I will start with the oldest news, the mold. We are still eyeball deep in trying to figure out how bad the problem is. The location where the leak occurred is the most obnoxious place to reach, it's directly behind where the deck is attached to the house. You guessed it, the deck has had to be loosened (today in fact) to provide access to the wet wood. Yesterday the contractor working on providing the mold company with access to the mold, pulled up the tiles for the sub floor that was wet, and he removed ALL of the siding on the backside of the house under the deck, plus some from above the deck to be sure that they follow protocol which is to remove anything within a foot of the damage.
You can see from the pictures how they are trying to access the side of the house where the deck connects to it!The picture to the left shows the mudroom door above the deck and our window in the basement, below. To the right is the siding removed where the mold is, which is around and to the right of the window. The worst of it all is located just to the right of the mudroom door (picture below) so today he actually removed more siding and deck towards the slider (this picture is from yesterday). He also loosened the lag bolts that connect the deck to the house! 
The way the water was traveling was starting at the bottom right of the mudroom door where the threshold and trim met. It would pour down to the right and settled in the subfloor and under the threshold as well as overflowing down the basement wall. So RIGHT where the deck meets the house, to the right of the door is the bulk of the problem. Two panels of wood between studs in the basement have to be completely removed, so tomorrow, this view will look right clear into my basement!
We haven't even begun to address the rotted structural wood that was left in the front of the house by the previous mold remediation company! The mold contractor thinks that is where the stachybotrys is coming from too. We have a completely different contractor involved with that repair, since it involves the structure of the home. I am still waiting to hear from him on an estimate. He advised us that he will need to have a structural engineer sign off on the job. Not sure, if that was a warning on how that changes the price....and we can't clean the air or get the post work air testing done until this is ALL done. In the meantime, the boys have been sneezing, coughing and have runny noses. Of course, adding insult to injury, it's also allergy season. They've never reacted like this to allergy season though, so I am inclined to think they are reacting to the mold. We do have huge hospital grade hepa filters in the house running at all times so that must alleviate some of this nastiness.
Gimme the 504
Something interesting came about from Grayson's food infractions on the bus....a 504 plan stems from the Americans with Disabilities Act. A 504 plan spells out the modifications and accommodations that will be needed for students who have: physical impairments; illnesses or injuries; communicable diseases; chronic conditions like asthma, allergies and diabetes; and learning problems. They make accommodations to offer them the opportunity to perform at the same level as their peers, and might include such things as wheelchair ramps, blood sugar monitoring, an extra set of textbooks, a peanut-free lunch environment, home instruction, or a tape recorder or keyboard for taking notes.
For Grayson, this specifically addresses the bus situation as well as handwriting. And let me just say briefly, the bus situation is a God-send. He's been driven to and from school by a mini van (like a personal chauffeur) with one other child, a friend's child actually! And how does handwriting come into play? Well, when Grayson was having the food infractions his handwriting went down the tubes, he was complaining of being too tired to write, he was uninterested and his writing was atrocious! His teacher and I spoke about this (keep in mind we didn't know about the food infractions at the time) and I mentioned how in the past he had he had been diagnosed as having delayed fine motor skills. I wasn't sure this was our problem, but we both thought it was possible and decided on having an evaluation done, to be sure. In the time between having the evaluation done and receiving the results, we discovered that he was eating gluten and casein among many other things he can't have, all resulting in personality changes as well as physical changes. Once we got his diet cleaned back up, his writing soared!! His mood improved, his interest skyrocketed and even his teacher said, "He can't be stopped!". His evaluation identified a few areas to target, besides his fine motor skills which are actually pretty on target with other kids his age (yeay!), it didn't used to be!! But his sensory issues came up, visual and auditory processing as well as muscular (tone) problems that can effect his ability to participate in school. So the 504 plan allows him to have 30 minutes of occupational therapy once a week, the "private" bus, and a sensory "diet" at school which is anything he needs to be able to function without distraction, this could mean therapeutic brushing, weighted blankets, joint compression, which all help with prioprioception.
You might wonder why I didn't stop the process when we noticed the food infraction was our cause when even the teacher noticed how he has made a considerable change since resolving the issue....this is because I feel like OT can offer him some other solutions to things that might still need addressing while we go through the process of healing him from the inside out. Having the additional coping mechanisms at his fingertips is a benefit many kids don't have and I want to take advantage of anything that can help him stay in the playing field. He's been doing exceptionally well since the "incidents" and even the teacher has commented on his remarkable composure, maturity and interest lately. This is a testament to the things we do....and why. I love the opportunity for those around me to see what value there is in dietary changes. It's a big problem in our Nation and it needs awareness. This is the best way to create awareness, real life situations. No one can deny the changes they have witnessed in this situation and every person involved has voiced that opinion. During our meeting with the school and therapists, it was clear that they believe in the power of healing through foods. They supported my efforts and plan to continue to do so. I am so thankful for this school every single day!
Culprit foods
On that note, when he was clearly exposed to both gluten and dairy at minimum, we decided to take advantage of the timing and order an IgG food panel update to see, if he was/is still sensitive to these foods. I have also wondered, if there were any other foods that could be causing some inconsistencies in his moods. They have been bearable and nowhere near the way things were in the past, but it still appeared as though he lacked control of them and felt considerable remorse afterwards, as if he didn't even know himself anymore. Gavin on the other hand, has never had an IgG panel done so we still needed the baseline on him.
Want the good or the bad news first?
The good news is that neither of them is sensitive to the many foods we use repeatedly in their diet (we still rotate them) and their gut permeability is good. Gavin's intestinal barrier assessment was negative at well below half of what it would take to be considered mildly effected and Grayson was just 8 points over the threshold!! So what we are doing IS most definitely working, yippee!!!
The bad news is that BOTH boys are effected by egg whites and yolks, grrrrr!! This is a hard one to avoid, but with Gavin moderately effected by them and Grayson in the high category for sensitivity, it's one food we have to remove indefinitely. Ironically, they are both moderately effected by kidney beans, not even a food we give them. For Gavin the only other foods that came up in the low range were kale and oranges. Grayson had just about every food in the dairy category plus gluten and yogurt in the moderate range. His low foods were baker's yeast, chicken (just barely over the threshold), soy, peanut, tofu, pineapple (this was high in his previous test), tuna (odd, he's never even had it), kale, pork, wheat, oranges and shrimp. This is MUCH better than the 23 foods that came up in his last IgG panel! I also wonder about the genetic factors involved, because both boys had almost identical reactions to foods that weren't even considered positive. The test shows a bar for each food that was tested and even though a reaction may not be high enough to warrant fitting into the low category, it may still show a slight reaction. Both boys reacted to a lot of the same things, for example cinnamon and green peas. It is certainly interesting looking at these tests side by side. Very telling of the big picture in our genes.
One thing that is clear for sure is that everything we are doing in the face of prevention with Gavin is working. He only reacted to 4 foods and none were high! This is considered in the very low range of normal. It's wonderful news and had us floating on cloud nine!!
But isn't camel milk still milk?
Yes, camel milk is milk, BUT it's very different from cow's milk! It has medicinal properties that have been healing people at record speeds, people with diabetes, allergies, cancer and autism. Studies are confirming these findings at rapid rates. There is still about 4-5% lactose in camel milk, but the lactose is even different and much easier to digest than cow's milk lactose. The proteins of camel milk are the decisive components for preventing and curing food allergies because camel milk contain no beta-lactoglobulin and a different beta-casein – the two components in cow milk that are responsible for allergies. Camel milk contains a number of immunoglobulins that are compatible with human ones. Camel milk is also rich in vitamin C (three times as much as cow's), calcium and iron (TEN times as much as cow's milk!). How do you like them apples? The healing properties are numerous, from the amino acid profile to the enzymes and minerals!
We found a farmer about an hour and fifteen minutes away and my husband just happened to have an opportunity to be down there yesterday so he went by and grabbed some frozen bottles for us and a friend. I really expected the kids to fight it since we don't do milk at all, but they took to it immediately, even Gavin who has never enjoyed a dairy product in his life even when I tried! They both sucked down the first cups I offered them of the fresh raw milk and promptly asked for more....and more. We went through about 14 ounces in one sitting with both boys! Then this morning, they both had cups of milk with breakfast and again at dinner, they will have more. I'm not really even sure what I am looking for or what I expect out of this, but it seems to be doing a lot of good for those with similar health problems so I had to give it a try. So onward with our newest adventure.
Read more about camel milk and autism here from a clinical Toxicologist!
This is a link to a study confirming that camel milk can heal liver disease!
And below are the kids with their first camel milk mustaches!!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The realities of this toxic world
Just when I think we have gotten things back to running smoothly, WHACK up the side of the head with life's ugly lessons.....this time it's mold, and not just any mold, but toxic mold, yup, in OUR house!
I often feel like we can't catch a break, it's bad enough having our children exposed to this nastiness, but every circumstance that we find ourselves up against slips through the proverbial cracks. Our health issues aren't covered by insurance and now our second mold issue, same thing.
The leak first made itself visible in our basement ceiling, by dripping on the floor next to where my husband works. We noticed the ceiling (subfloor) contained a nice water stain and the water was running down the sheetrock eventually soaking it along the way. It doesn't help that we are right smack in the middle of the wettest season either! I can't seem to catch a break from rain after rain, after rain. At first, we couldn't locate the water entry, because putting the hose along the deck (which is just above the leak) didn't reveal anything. And it's not from ground moisture, because we have a walkout basement, so essentially the leak is at the floor of the second level, even though it's our basement. We had THREE contractors come out and all were baffled, literally scratching their heads. The first contractor thought the flashing could be it, so we had him add new flashing....to no avail, the next rain resulted in even more water damage as the seeping water entered the building. I can't even explain the feelings that come with watching water enter your house at lightening speeds while having NO idea where or how to stop it! Hmmmm, sort of reminds me of another battle we contend with daily.
The third contractor had an inkling that it could be a small tiny spot where there was some rotted wood at the base of our mud room door trim. Interesting, yup, there was a little finger-sized hole right there, could be....so the next dry day we had, we stuck the hose on that little hole and sure enough, it was gobbled up like a thirsty mouth and where did it go? Right into our basement, pouring down the walls. What baffles me is how this spot was rotted so poorly when I just sanded and painted the trim in the fall!! I later learned that the "new" prefab door trim kits which are put together before installation included unfinished ends to all the cut wood. So no matter how much we might have maintained the wood, it was still capable of drinking up water that was so readily available. In other words, this wood was rotting from the inside out, even though the exterior new paint gave us the warm and fuzzies as responsible homeowners.
SO....with the water pouring into our house by the boat-loads, we decided to be proactive and remove the wet sheet rock to make sure we didn't end up with some fast growing mold. Sure enough, all underneath was wet, very wet!! We kept the window open to air it out and allow for ventilation, then we put a heater and a fan on the wet walls, aiming up at the ceiling to help the subfloor dry too, since we couldn't get to the inside layers. At this point, the inside of the subfloor was my biggest concern, the possibility that molds could be growing there since we couldn't air it out. Little did I know that we had already uncovered a nice stash of stachybotrys, penicillium/aspergillis and chaetomium right beneath our noses, quite literally!! We found out the next morning when we went down to see how the drying was progressing. The areas that were soaked were drying up, but there was BLACK on the walls in the darkest spots. Uh oh.....we had the fan on this, SHIT!! Our next step was to contact a mold company to get the ball rolling ASAP. I was referred to a company called Air Care where the President acts as a consultant. He does air quality testing, inspects the sites, writes up a work order that is adhered to by whichever mold company is hired. He personally sees the job through to completion and then he retests and issues a certificate confirming that the house is safe again. This is essential when reselling the house. During his inspection, I mentioned the work we had done in the front and I was concerned with the fact that our repair didn't hold up in that area after having the work done, although the additional repair was done as soon as we noticed the problem. He used a moisture meter and found no moisture behind the wall, BUT....in the basement, a very moldy, wet piece of structural lumber was LEFT in the house!! I knew the company had been difficult, but seriously??
The next step was to monitor the levels of mold spores in the house to see what we were dealing with and how much of it. This was highly recommended based on the issues we have with our kids' immune dysfunction. Knowing what we are dealing with is essential. I didn't expect the results we got. When the first thing he said to me when I picked up the phone was not to panic until I heard him out completely, I knew I was in for it. He said "the basement has significant issues and I recommend you close it up and stay out of it"....yikes. What does that mean? Below are the levels found in our basement, I have been advised that the bold molds (hehehe) are mycotoxic in nature.
I guess if there is some good news in this mess, it's that the Stachybotrys isn't in the HVAC or throughout the house.
So the plan is to basically rip out the exterior walls that were wet, from the outside starting with removing the siding, etc. Not sure how they plan to handle the subfloor yet and then I have to get a different contractor who does the repair work. We plan to use the same guy who will do our leak repair on Tuesday. I'm not sure what is going to be recommended for the area that already was repaired, but not properly remediated, but I have to imagine that in order for him to give us a completed mold remediation certificate, it will need to be addressed. He told me during our meeting that it needs to be accessed from above - AKA - our newly repaired dining room walls/floor!! We still don't even have a quote on all of this work, but what I can tell you is that even before starting the mold remediation, we have already spent $2,000 between the leak repair and mold testing (some of which gets paid with the final testing phase).
How has this effected our family....? Aside from the emotional disturbances of dealing with mold AGAIN, having to deal with the previous mold company who screwed up their job exposing our family to continued mold spore toxicity, knowing that there is a very toxic mold residing right below our feet settling on all of our beloved belongings (which will need to be thrown out, if they are porous) and the sheer cost of all of this, we are also experiencing some physical symptoms. Grayson seems to be the most effected with burning red eyes, a runny nose, a phlemy cough, and a very moody disposition, Gavin only has the runny nose and mood swings. Hubby and I also have some mucus congestion and headaches.
This morning I made an inhalant on our stove with water, a touch of food grade hydrogen peroxide, grapefruit seed extract, eucalyptus and cinnamon oil, which we all took turns breathing into our lungs. It definitely generated some coughing which felt like clearing the lungs.
I am a bit paranoid about the time span between exposure and remediation which will be at least a week and a half total, depending on when the mold company can do the work. I immediately went out and bought a 3M filtrete HVAC filter to filter out 93% of the mold spores in the unit. We've also researched Thieves oil which we can't find anywhere locally so I will be making it with the essential oils and a recipe I found online. I will soak cotton balls and put them on our HVAC venting (especially the return vents), plus expose some to the air around us by dipping wood sticks into it to act as a reed diffuser.
We tried to call our doctor yesterday explaining the concerns we had and if he thought we should get out until the work is done, but I haven't heard back. So now with the long holiday weekend, we are pretty much cornered into making it through the long weekend before speaking with any additional professionals. I'm perturbed to say the least. And now I am off to create my homemade thieves oil, wish me luck...
I often feel like we can't catch a break, it's bad enough having our children exposed to this nastiness, but every circumstance that we find ourselves up against slips through the proverbial cracks. Our health issues aren't covered by insurance and now our second mold issue, same thing.
The leak first made itself visible in our basement ceiling, by dripping on the floor next to where my husband works. We noticed the ceiling (subfloor) contained a nice water stain and the water was running down the sheetrock eventually soaking it along the way. It doesn't help that we are right smack in the middle of the wettest season either! I can't seem to catch a break from rain after rain, after rain. At first, we couldn't locate the water entry, because putting the hose along the deck (which is just above the leak) didn't reveal anything. And it's not from ground moisture, because we have a walkout basement, so essentially the leak is at the floor of the second level, even though it's our basement. We had THREE contractors come out and all were baffled, literally scratching their heads. The first contractor thought the flashing could be it, so we had him add new flashing....to no avail, the next rain resulted in even more water damage as the seeping water entered the building. I can't even explain the feelings that come with watching water enter your house at lightening speeds while having NO idea where or how to stop it! Hmmmm, sort of reminds me of another battle we contend with daily.
The third contractor had an inkling that it could be a small tiny spot where there was some rotted wood at the base of our mud room door trim. Interesting, yup, there was a little finger-sized hole right there, could be....so the next dry day we had, we stuck the hose on that little hole and sure enough, it was gobbled up like a thirsty mouth and where did it go? Right into our basement, pouring down the walls. What baffles me is how this spot was rotted so poorly when I just sanded and painted the trim in the fall!! I later learned that the "new" prefab door trim kits which are put together before installation included unfinished ends to all the cut wood. So no matter how much we might have maintained the wood, it was still capable of drinking up water that was so readily available. In other words, this wood was rotting from the inside out, even though the exterior new paint gave us the warm and fuzzies as responsible homeowners.
SO....with the water pouring into our house by the boat-loads, we decided to be proactive and remove the wet sheet rock to make sure we didn't end up with some fast growing mold. Sure enough, all underneath was wet, very wet!! We kept the window open to air it out and allow for ventilation, then we put a heater and a fan on the wet walls, aiming up at the ceiling to help the subfloor dry too, since we couldn't get to the inside layers. At this point, the inside of the subfloor was my biggest concern, the possibility that molds could be growing there since we couldn't air it out. Little did I know that we had already uncovered a nice stash of stachybotrys, penicillium/aspergillis and chaetomium right beneath our noses, quite literally!! We found out the next morning when we went down to see how the drying was progressing. The areas that were soaked were drying up, but there was BLACK on the walls in the darkest spots. Uh oh.....we had the fan on this, SHIT!! Our next step was to contact a mold company to get the ball rolling ASAP. I was referred to a company called Air Care where the President acts as a consultant. He does air quality testing, inspects the sites, writes up a work order that is adhered to by whichever mold company is hired. He personally sees the job through to completion and then he retests and issues a certificate confirming that the house is safe again. This is essential when reselling the house. During his inspection, I mentioned the work we had done in the front and I was concerned with the fact that our repair didn't hold up in that area after having the work done, although the additional repair was done as soon as we noticed the problem. He used a moisture meter and found no moisture behind the wall, BUT....in the basement, a very moldy, wet piece of structural lumber was LEFT in the house!! I knew the company had been difficult, but seriously??
The next step was to monitor the levels of mold spores in the house to see what we were dealing with and how much of it. This was highly recommended based on the issues we have with our kids' immune dysfunction. Knowing what we are dealing with is essential. I didn't expect the results we got. When the first thing he said to me when I picked up the phone was not to panic until I heard him out completely, I knew I was in for it. He said "the basement has significant issues and I recommend you close it up and stay out of it"....yikes. What does that mean? Below are the levels found in our basement, I have been advised that the bold molds (hehehe) are mycotoxic in nature.
- Chaetomium - 27 spores per cubic meter (this would be a 3 foot cube of air space) this level is not concerning, however, the spore itself is considered a mycotoxin.
- Cladosporium - 80 spores per cubic meter
- Ascospores - 80 spores per cubic meter
- Basidiospores - 350 spores per cubic meter
- Penisillium/Aspergillis - ready for this? 1,500 spores per cubic meter!!! WOAH!
- Scopulariopsis - 80 spores per cubic meter
- Stachybotrys - 27 spores per cubic meter - again, not a very high number, but a VERY toxic spore known as the "killer mold" which will grow on just about EVERYTHING it finds.
- The total spore count for the basement was 2,144!
I guess if there is some good news in this mess, it's that the Stachybotrys isn't in the HVAC or throughout the house.
So the plan is to basically rip out the exterior walls that were wet, from the outside starting with removing the siding, etc. Not sure how they plan to handle the subfloor yet and then I have to get a different contractor who does the repair work. We plan to use the same guy who will do our leak repair on Tuesday. I'm not sure what is going to be recommended for the area that already was repaired, but not properly remediated, but I have to imagine that in order for him to give us a completed mold remediation certificate, it will need to be addressed. He told me during our meeting that it needs to be accessed from above - AKA - our newly repaired dining room walls/floor!! We still don't even have a quote on all of this work, but what I can tell you is that even before starting the mold remediation, we have already spent $2,000 between the leak repair and mold testing (some of which gets paid with the final testing phase).
How has this effected our family....? Aside from the emotional disturbances of dealing with mold AGAIN, having to deal with the previous mold company who screwed up their job exposing our family to continued mold spore toxicity, knowing that there is a very toxic mold residing right below our feet settling on all of our beloved belongings (which will need to be thrown out, if they are porous) and the sheer cost of all of this, we are also experiencing some physical symptoms. Grayson seems to be the most effected with burning red eyes, a runny nose, a phlemy cough, and a very moody disposition, Gavin only has the runny nose and mood swings. Hubby and I also have some mucus congestion and headaches.
This morning I made an inhalant on our stove with water, a touch of food grade hydrogen peroxide, grapefruit seed extract, eucalyptus and cinnamon oil, which we all took turns breathing into our lungs. It definitely generated some coughing which felt like clearing the lungs.
I am a bit paranoid about the time span between exposure and remediation which will be at least a week and a half total, depending on when the mold company can do the work. I immediately went out and bought a 3M filtrete HVAC filter to filter out 93% of the mold spores in the unit. We've also researched Thieves oil which we can't find anywhere locally so I will be making it with the essential oils and a recipe I found online. I will soak cotton balls and put them on our HVAC venting (especially the return vents), plus expose some to the air around us by dipping wood sticks into it to act as a reed diffuser.
We tried to call our doctor yesterday explaining the concerns we had and if he thought we should get out until the work is done, but I haven't heard back. So now with the long holiday weekend, we are pretty much cornered into making it through the long weekend before speaking with any additional professionals. I'm perturbed to say the least. And now I am off to create my homemade thieves oil, wish me luck...
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