Mold allergy?

[Elleon_arual]

Hello!

I am a 27 year old female and used to be in great health. I worked out 4-5 times a week and was in great shape. I always have ate healthy so that's no issue.

Since May 2013, I've been very sick.  Let me start at the beginning.  In December 2011, I moved in with my fiancé into a house (half a double) that his grandma left us.  Since I moved in there, I constantly had a runny nose.  It was gross. I never had that before.  But again, I felt fine besides that.  We got married May 2012 and continued living where we were. By 2013, the constant nose running had stopped.  But my husband started getting weird symptoms. First, he developed chronic dry eye.  We thought he literally burned his eyeballs on our honeymoon as we were in the Turks and Caicos and the sun was blinding and he wouldn't wear sunglasses.  He went to an eye doctor that said some layer on his eye is completely gone and she's never seen that before.  He uses drops every day now. Anyways, then he started having TMJ type symptoms.  His jaw kept cracking and hurting.  His temples started swelling, first when he ate, and then all the time.  He has had SEVERE sinus problems to the point where only throwing up relieves some of the pressure.  His TMJ and temple pressure has pretty much been reduced to nothing now but still has sinus problems and dry eye.

Coincidentally, not long after his symptoms, I started having dry eyes.  Mine lasted about a month. I went to the eye doc who said everything was fine.  Then I ALSO started getting TMJ symptoms and temple pressure.  Then in May 2013, I started getting tightness in my head and extremely dizzy and running low grade fevers (never higher than 99.4).   I have a much worse immune system than my husband. When normal people get colds, I get them and am knocked out in bed for at least a week. I've developed some other neurological problems like burning sensations in my body and tremors.

We moved out of our house in July into an apartment. We had mold in the basement of the house. Well first, the house was  abandoned by the previous owners and my hubs grandma bought it for really cheap. All the pipes had burst in the walls and she hired someone dirt cheap who we don't know actually fixed the damage or just ignored it.  The basement had mold, blackish stuff on the one wall that got completely soaked when it rained hard.  There was also white crystal looking stuff all over the walls. The house smells musty and moldy... like how basements smell but the whole house smelled like that.

So we moved into an apartment and my symptoms got a tad better but not by much. I went to every doctor you can imagine, had all kinds of tests and no one found anything wrong. It's been about 3 months in the apartment now.

I had a lyme literate doctor look at me who did blood work and even though it came back negative, part of it came back slightly positive and he believes I have Lyme.  But it's sort of like, you "go to a doctor who looks for Lyme and they find it" sort of deal.

I have been on doxycycline for 2 1/2 weeks now... supposed to be on it for at least 6 weeks.  Every day is an up and down. Sometimes I feel better, sometimes I don't. I don't know if this antibiotic could help with mold poisoning if I have it.

I feel in my gut that I don't have Lyme.  I've never had a tick bite ever in my life (well that I know of).  I know now that studies are showing that you can give Lyme to your spouse when intimate, but I don't know.  It seems weird that our symptoms started around the same time.  I live in Pennsylvania so being bit by a tick is not anything crazy but I still don't believe it. I have NO other "common" symptom of Lyme and neither does my husband.  We don't have joint pain or any type of fatigue.  I'm not in pain at all, it's the dizziness and my TMJ symptoms are just tightness and pressure.  

I also feel that my work is infected with mold.  As I started here around the same time I moved in with my husband, I can't really determine what started the symptoms.  I do know that my bad symptoms started early summer and it was very hot and my boss ALWAYS has the air conditioning system running.  Like always. I sit with a heater all during the summer and winter...all year long.  I have not been the first one to complain about sinus issues since starting here.  I DO feel the best when I am away from work for a long weekend and I feel my BEST when I'm outside in the fresh air.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas? Could mold poisoning cause some type of Lyme test to come back positive? Can my husbands and my symptoms be from mold poisoning?  Please help because I am desperate.  I am poisoning my body with this Lyme antibiotic and I'm not even sure if I have it.  It's been the only answer I received though.

[Elleon_arual]

Thanks for the reply.

There is no evidence of mold at my work. The only thing is that people who work here always say things like "I never had sinus problems until I started here" or "I never had migraines until I started working here".  There have been multiple people that left because they weren't feeling good and blamed it on this building.

I don't work with a product. I'm an accountant and work in an office building. A very very old office building.  My boss doesn't really care about how expensive it is to cool the office since he doesn't pay for it.  He has no worries about keeping the A/C on but he never wants to put the heat on. I do work with older people, they are all at least double my age and women so they are always having hot flashes!

I have started getting a rash from the antibiotics which always happens. I'm allergic to almost everything I try so I guess I'm going to have to go off them for awhile at least . Not like they have helped at all.

[Jerry_NJ]

Long term exposure to mold can cause bad physical problems, but I am sure you know that.

Moving out of a source of exposure sounds like a correct move.  You mention work, are you saying there is evidence of mold contamination at work or are you saying it is just cold there?   I sit in wonder why any "boss" would run a work environment too cold, cooling is expensive - when it is hot outside.  Is the product you work with sensitive to warm temperatures?  

Sorry I can't help - there is little one reading a post can do that is better than what "hands on" doctors should be able to do.  

I don't think antibiotics are going to poison you, but it seems to be a medical fact that too much use of antibiotics is causing microorganisms to develop immunity to those agents.  That's a bad effect for sure.