Breathing problems??? Check this out

[bbrown]

How many of you with breathing problems have MOLD in the home??  I am in the middle of a lawsuit with a landlord because of covering up mold in my rental ..I lived there 5 years and have spent 3 years steady studing  mold.  Please if you have any breathing  problems (main complaint) or skin edema) please search your home for mold ...check under sinks,walls,tubs and showers ..everywhere of get someone to test your home. 5 years of breathing in this toxin , 4 hospital stays and around 63 ER visits in a 5 yr span each year and each visit worse then before. The one before the last 2 I was rushed to the ER unresponsive..Major Astham attack shut my lungs down and now I am left with a paralyzed left lung diaphram.. I have been in my new house since Easter of 07 and not one NOT ONEEEEEEEEE ER visit let alone a hospital stay.. I still have breathing  probs but not as bad.. They are just when i do certain things...its not just like it use to be and breathe bad by just sitting..
Bless all of you and if you need any more info tell me.. I have made a promise to save as many and educate as many people as I can.. Slum lord landlords will be the most reason for this problem..
I have pics if any of you would like to see what it may look like and how to identify if its mold

[JBold1z]

Thank you for your stories. I've been researching mold for some time now as I've had to move back in with my parents after a divorce. The house has serious mold issues. My parents have had heart complications, & I've developed asthma & many other symptoms, including goopy eyes upon waking, itchy skin, memory problems, headaches, & even pleurisy. I have tried talking to my parents & have even sent them links to sites like this & others like WebMD that talk about the dangers of mold, especially black mold which is probably what we have. Every time someone does laundry, the drain for the washer spills water out all over the floor. It hits the base boards & walls & continues the cycle is mold growth. I've pleaded with my dad to fix the drain at least. I'm at my wits end & don't know what to do. He's scared of the house getting condemned & says he doesn't have the money for abatement. We live in Missouri. Does anyone know of any programs for the elderly to help with these costs? I told him that any home improvements can be deducted on his income taxes, but he is so far in denial & won't listen...even though it's affecting his own health & ours. Any help or info on what i should do would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[ziptronics]

I moved in the spring to a house that had mold under the sinks and various places.i thought nothing of it. I thought I was suffering allergies from all the pollen from the many fruit.as I continued to live there over the course of an year it worsened. I had to carry a inhaler and a box of tissue for all my constant nose blowing. I heard once that mold could cause problems so I decided to treat my home for mold.I used to be a farmer and remembered what we used to treat our big potato storages with that had mold on them.we used a food grade mold treatment that was called Oxidate. I opened all the cupboards and doors in my house.I kept the out side does and windows shut. I then turned my furnace fan on and set up a humidifier by it  with the treatment so it would draw the mist to all the rooms of my home. I took my family for a couple of hours why it ran. after two hours I came back to check on it. it was kinda strong and made my eyes run while I dashed around the house opening the windows.I let it air out all evening.when we came back for the night I could still smell it but decided to stay there anyway.when I woke up the next morning it felt like windpipe was twice the size or something,I COULD BREATH! that was the last time I had asthma or alergies for over five years. it worked for me but be careful and do it at your own risk. that chemical is highly consecrated hydrogen dioxide which is used for sanitation and some kind of acid that kills mold.it is food grade but had to be diluted with water.

[gmitch]

I wish you luck with the lawsuit. I worked in a very moldy building and never thought a thing about it. I never smoked, suffered from allergies, etc. One year the mold was particularly bad in the building and I started to have trouble breathing. Soon I had trouble walking any distance at all  without being very short of breath and coughing. This led to X-rays, a bronchoscopy, lung biopsy and eventually the diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis with an expectancy of a couple of years at best at age 47. Four more doctors give the same prognosis.

I was on oxygen round the clock for approx. a year and worked from home or later another building pulling the oxygen tank with me. Eventually I began to feel somewhat better. My lungs remained scarred, but I weaned myself from the oxygen tank. I wondered what the lung biopsy samples actually showed and found the test showed geotrichum, a form of mold, and nothing else. I also was in the middle of a worker's comp. claim and to my shock was told that they were basing the denial on doctor reports from doctors that had never looked at the biopsy report. I delivered the biopsy result to the surgeon myself and he called later to say he had to look up the word as he'd never heard of geotrichum. I am not trying to downplay the importance of doctors, but we should be following our own care very closely.

However, along with the education on mold I'd like to tell everyone to get copies of every medical test, research things and always ask questions. This is not a "poor me" story, but one that can hopefully help someone else avoid some pitfalls. I am doing better than anyone expected five years ago!
Gayle

[Sunny602]

Wow..you certainly have been through alot...thanks for sharing this! People underestimate what mold can do to you. My son is also severely allergic to molds. He actually gets giant hives if he comes in contact with the stuff. His asthma was very uncontrolled until we found out what the culprit was. Mostly molds were, his skin scratch test was very positive for it (the doctor had never seen a reaction quite as extensive as his was). He is of course treated with preventative medicine for his asthma but most importantly, we make sure that molds are kept down to nill existance. I am so glad that you are doing better after your move. 5 years of needless suffering, I hope that things work out for you...Sunny