Mold Allergy?

[JohnQ586]

Around June i slept in my basment which is unfished and seems to have mold, i have stayed down there a lot living in this house since it has couches, a tv, computer and everything else. I guess during all these years i was exposed to mold. ! night i decided to sleep down there. I ended up waking several hours later with trouble breathing and chest pains. I never had this problem before and went to the ER, they told me it was nothing.

As the weeks went on i couldnt sleep. I couldnt even breathe at all. Chest pain was bad and i was having pain and numbness in my left arm all the time. I was very weak and couldnt do anything, i thought i was gonna die. After months of going to the doctor they told me there was nothing wrong and i had GERD. I told them about the mold but they said thats not causing this. After the medicine didnt change anything i demanded them to check for mold.

They did a blood test for mold and it came back i was right about the mold, they said i was allergic to mold and dust. They gave me medacine for the breathing, symbicort and some depression pills. The breathing has got a little better but not 100% but the chest pains are still there. The pain is mostly in the middle of my chest. I just want to know if this is normal with an allergic reaction/exposure to mold?

I have done a EKG done 50 times and all came back normal, i did a stress test and came back with a little depression and elevation or something with the left ventrical, he was a little concerned so he sent me to get a echo cardiogram. Came back normal. I still had chest pain so he send me to a very good hospital and do a stress echo cardio gram which came out perfect.

Im just wondering with all these these tests and months gone by, what is wrong with me? i still get tingling/pain/numbess in my left arm. And still get a lot of chest pain and even played some basketball today and ts been hurting ever since. Could it be from the mold allergy? could it be my heart? im very worried and concered and i dont know what to do.

im 19 and have never had a medical problem up until a few months ago with this bretahing chest pain problem. I used t play basketball everyday all day up until i got sick.

[JohnQ586]

Hi, thank you for the response. Yes the tingling doesnt happen all the time, mostly when im laying down. It happened a long tiem ago as well and i went to the hospital and they took x=rays and told me i had a oinched nerve in my neck. But then it stopped for a few months and never happened again. What kind of doctor should i go to about the Pinched Nerve?

Also what should i tell my doctor about the chest pain, i will see him within the enxt few weeks and i think he is gonna tell me he doesnt know, that what he told me before as well but he didnt even send me to another doctor to check it out. I just want to life a normal life again. I mean the asthma from the mold has cleared up fully only a little bit, but im a basketball player and want to and need to play. I barely do anything now, ive gained weight and have gotten outta shape all due to these problems.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

As you are very young,so chances of cardiac disease or any neurological disease are rare.GERD can cause such chest pain but it cannot explain the tingling sensation that you are having.As advised in earlier post,take some vit B12 and see if the tingling persists.Also eat small nutritious meals at frequent intervals instead of a heavy single meal. Exercise frequently and take your dinner atleast 2 hrs prior to bedtime. Also raise the head end of the bed by 2 blocks. To help control the stomach acid, one should not drink alcohol or drinks with caffeine in them, or eat chocolate or spicy or greasy foods .
Also keep on taking the omeprazole that your doctor has prescribed.

If the symptoms still persist then the other possibilities that I had explained along with pulmonary causes and costochondritis and gall bladder disease has to be explored.

Hope it helps .Take care and pls do keep us posted in case you have any additional queries.Kind regards.

[JohnQ586]

i also did the scope because my doctors thought i had GERD, i take medacine for it. I have a little bit of acid reflux but i dont think it should cause the pain every single day even with taking the medication.

[JohnQ586]

could it be neurological?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

Coughing ,sneezing and difficulty in breathing are a common symptom of mold allergy but chest pain and tingling and numbness are not.As cardiac causes have been ruked out in your case,the other causes which need investigations are GERD,pulmonary causes,anemia,costochondritis and biliary tract disease.

Tingling and numbness in lest arm can be due to diabetes, hypothyroidism, and hypoparathyroidism, peripheral vascular disease, vitamin B12 deficiency or malnutrition, rheumatoid arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome transient ischemic attack, motor neurone disease, or autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis or lupus erythematosus. A diagnostic evaluation by a doctor is necessary to rule these out.

Get your blood sugar and thyroid hormones levels evaluated. You can take some vit B12 for some days and see if the tingling is gone or not.

If the symptoms persist then other possibilities should be evaluated.

Hope it helps .Take care and pls do keep us posted in case you have any additional queries.Kind regards.