It should've been. But then mold happened. And just as you are so innocently ignorant about the effects of toxic mold as you sit here and read our story, that's exactly how we were when we moved into our new home. So unbelievably clueless.

NOAH'S STORY

It's difficult to remember a timeline and the order of Noah's symptoms. Noah was already having some health issues in our previous home (which I'll talk about later), but when we moved into the Owosso home, all hell broke loose and Noah fell really sick, really fast. He began having horrible reactions to seemingly anything and everything. Nothing was consistent. The breakfast bars he would always eat before, now his cheeks and chin would turn fire red. His stomach would hurt terribly and he developed a horrible rash next to his mouth that would become fire red most any time he ate something. He eventually became randomly anaphylactic where he'd eat a few chips or an applesauce packet then struggle to breath. We would frequently have to use an EPI pen. It was incredibly scary. His pediatrician believed he had developed Oral Allergy Syndrome (he hadn't really, but we had no idea at the time) and referred us to "one of the best allergists in Michigan", Dr. Chad Mayer. He got us in quickly and said that Noah had "idiopathic anaphylaxis" so we should keep a diary of all his reactions to try and narrow some things down. At this point I had already been researching Noah's symptoms and the internet kept pointing me to a condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) which in turn introduced me to the number one trigger of MCAS: MOLD TOXICITY.

I'll talk about MCAS later...

When asked if Noah's symptoms could possibly be from mold in our home, Dr. Mayer replied that "mold could not make an entire family sick". I was putting my trust in doctors, praying for someone to help our son and finally give us some solid answers, so I believed him and stopped researching mold at the time. I continued to believe that these types of reactions could just randomly happen to people for no apparent reason, so I just kept documenting his reactions and giving him medications while Noah continued to get very, very ill. Never any real answers, just more medications and bunk diagnoses with no focus on root causes.

During this time, we were still seeing his pediatrician just about every week as well as making regular trips to urgent cares, ERs and would even have to call the ambulance a few times for his terrifying reactions. Noah was also having frequent fevers and would have extreme cold spells where I would wrap him in blankets and he would just sit there and shiver terribly. He was also suffering from very painful eyes and super itchy and painful nasal cavities. I remember shining a flashlight up his nose when he slept thinking maybe he had polyps or something. His nostrils were so red and inflamed, he had a really hard time breathing from his nose most every day. The tops of his lips would crack and bleed and be so painful for him.

Doctors would run labs and tests, make guesses on what it could be, give him more medications and send us on our way...

Noah was also having issues with his vision. Not only would his eyes constantly hurt and itch, but he would also sometimes wake up screaming that he could not see anything at all. I was absolutely horrified. He was now seeing his second neurologist who was treating him for migraines and an ophthalmologist who could not find anything wrong with his eyes other than the fact they were severely dry. Which was weird because I was also seeing an ophthalmologist for vision issues and all they could find wrong with me was that, coincidentally, I had severely dry eyes also. Go figure.

But we'll get back to my mold issues soon. Hang in there and keep reading. It gets even better...

So, one of the times I took Noah to urgent care due to severe eye pain, they were shocked because they had never witnessed anything like what was happening with his eyes before. His eyes looked perfectly fine and they couldn't find anything wrong, yet he was having excruciating pain and irritation. They recommended I take him immediately to the ER and even called an ambulance for us. 

Still no answers from anyone. Just some guesses and more medications; eye drops, ointments, nasal sprays, steroids, antibiotics.

Certainly, never once did any doctors question the air quality in our home. 

Warning for some loud crying in these next videos...

So, we definitely knew at this point that Noah was having some wicked headaches. He was so young; it was difficult to make any sense of what was happening to our baby boy. I remember the day after Thanksgiving 2021, he woke up and all morning he was talking and moving extremely slowly. Then he was playing with his cars on the couch and his body began moving like it was in slow motion. Like if you literally put a movie in slow motion, that's how it was watching him move. Next thing I knew, he hit the floor and was screaming and acting like he was in horrific pain. I honestly thought he'd just had a stroke. I truly can't put into words what this felt like. As a mother, I can honestly say that watching my son go through this and not being able to help him made me literally want to die.

 Have I mentioned yet that we thought Noah was also having some sort of seizures? Sometimes he would stare off into space and I would call his name several times, loudly, and he wouldn't hear me. Like he was stuck. I'd have to clap or go give him a little shake to get his attention. Then there were the times he would just start screaming and his would body stiffen up, then he'd kick his legs and arms out straight, then stiffen up again and repeat this cycle. I really thought it was some form of a seizure because I began reading about the different types and how they don't always present as shaking and foaming at the mouth. I really had no idea, but it was horrifying either way. 

My son was losing his vision at times and having wicked migraines as well as stroke and seizure-like episodes, but no one knew why. The worst "episodes" were not caught on video because they'd always happen in the middle of the night or early in the morning just after waking up. Oh, and he had random horrific pain all over his body. I took pictures and videos as best as I could and showed them to many doctors, so unbelievably desperate for help. But no one ever had answers.

Noah would hate for me to touch him or try to pick him up during an "episode", so I'd try to calm him down and tell him it would be over soon. When the "episode" was done and he felt better, he'd finally tell me to hold him. I tried to stay so strong and calm for him, but inside I was absolutely dying. 

Trigger warning again...

MIA'S STORY

Mia was five months old when we moved into the house. Previously, she had been rolling over and babbling up a storm. You know those sweet little coos and mama, baba, yayas and so on. I have the cutest video of her right before we moved just chattering up a storm! But shortly after we moved into the new house, her babbles turned into weird grunting noises, and she began grabbing her head and crying as though it was hurting her. It was so weird because Noah was having horrible headaches and I had also developed daily headaches as well. She couldn't tell me her head hurt, but I just knew it did. She also developed a terrible ear infection shortly after moving in and even after that healed, she would still constantly pick at her ears and tilt her head side to side like they were bothering her. Her ears bothered her the entire time we lived in the home, but I'd take her to the doctor thinking she had another ear infection, and everything would check out fine. I'd also take her in for rashes and eczema and tiny bumps all over her body and was told she was "just an allergy kid" and given medications to treat symptoms.

 But no one would ever try to get to the root cause of my children's issues...

She also quit trying to roll over and seemed very fatigued most days (she did eventually pick back up with rolling over and eventually hit her milestones, thank goodness for that. Not all kids do in toxic mold). But it was just odd that she had regressed so much right after moving into the home. She would sleep 14-15 hours a night on top of one or two naps a day. It may be difficult to tell from the photos, but she would wake up and her body would be burning bright red. She would cough terribly and wheeze upon waking. Many times, she would wake up screaming and seem to be in pain, but we had no idea why. She would arch her back on the changing table with her face bright red and appear to have terrible stomach pain, which was so odd since Noah was having horrible stomach pain as well...and so was I.

Mia began seeing the same GI doctor as Noah and many times, I'd take both kids to see her at the same time. I would lay Mia on the doctor's table and she would cry and arch her back, but they couldn't find anything wrong with her. At one point they thought maybe she was having issues with her back or limbs, but luckily this eventually improved and didn't require x-rays. 

At the same time Noah was having weird "episodes", Mia also began to have very alarming tremors, twitches and peculiar body movements. Her body would tremble at times and she would have these huge shivers. This would happen several times a day. One time on the changing table, her face began to move awkwardly: it's difficult to describe. Like her lips started to twitch and her eyes began to roll in the back of her head. I shouted her name and picked her up off the changing table then she "snapped out of it". I still have no idea what happened, but all these odd movements eventually led me to believe that maybe she was having some type of seizures as well. I seriously had no clue, but watching these things happen to both of my children was so terrifying. I never did catch any of Mia's twitches or giant shivers on video because they would happen so randomly, but I wish I would have. I'll talk more about it later, but apparently, it's very common for children to have "seizure-like episodes" while living in toxic mold and many go on to have actual seizures as well. It's also very common for people to have tremors, spasms and twitches while living in such high levels of mold, thanks to those neurotoxins as well as nutrient deficiencies (mycotoxins can wreak havoc on the gut and affect the way we absorb nutrients).

So just as Noah was reacting to random foods, Mia also began reacting to things she would normally eat before. The reactions in the photos below were from things like fruits and vegetables and baby food packets. She would break out in rashes around her mouth and sometimes hives all over her body from fruits like pineapples and blueberries. So, we had her tested for allergies to these foods and of course, they were negative. Not only did the kids react physically to foods, but their reactions were neurological as well. They would cry and scream and act completely insane. They would experience horrible pain and start to lose their minds. There was absolutely no calming them down. My husband and I listened to so much screaming and gut-wrenching crying in this house, we're lucky we didn't completely lose our minds.

 We were starting to, though...

JEN'S STORY

I've told you my children's stories with mold illness, now I'll tell you mine. Shortly after moving into the home, I became very short of breath and noticed my legs were becoming weak, especially when walking up and down the basement stairs. It became increasingly difficult to make it to the top of the stairs. I thought I was run down from the move and everything going on in our life. But I'll never forget the Saturday I woke up and instantly felt like something was very wrong. My body felt plagued and my arms were so weak I could barely lift my daughter out of her crib. I immediately called my husband and asked him to hurry home from work because I needed to get to an urgent care or ER. At the time, I thought maybe it was Covid, I just had no idea. So, I went to urgent care and they tested me for Covid, a UTI and a few other things. All tests were negative. 

At this time, I was also starting to have horrible pain in my neck and at the base of my skull. It was a sharp, stabbing pain and my neck would grind and crack with every turn. I also began to have headaches every day and especially when waking in the morning, I could barely lift my eyelids to open my eyes. It was the oddest thing; it took so much effort just to get my eyelids to work right. Then the urinary issues started and horrible abdominal pain. Long story short on this, but I actually did have a kidney stone stuck in my ureter that required surgery and a stent for a week, so when that was discovered, I thought that was going to be the end to my issues! That I had just been sick from the kidney stone, hooray! I quickly healed from the kidney stone, but unfortunately my problems did not ever go away or stop there. 

I continued to have issues with incontinence and was peeing ALL THE TIME including several times throughout the night. I would also have excruciating, stabbing pains in my abdomen. How odd since both of my children were experiencing severe abdominal pain also. One time I sat on the toilet and just screamed in pain and thought I was passing a kidney stone or something, but nothing came out. So, I headed back to the urologist for another CT and bladder scan, but nothing was found. Everything negative. After this, I start to forget the timeline of everything that went wrong but at some point I started having horrific back pain and my spine would crack all over, especially at night. Then my hips, groin and pelvic area began hurting terribly. I stopped sleeping at night because the pain was so unbearable and I would constantly toss and turn trying to get comfortable. My shoulders were also hurting tremendously and I remember some nights, I literally could not move. Dave would bring me in ice packs to lay on my back and shoulders in the middle of the night. I was so weak and in so much pain. Ugh, I'll never forget that kind of pain!!!!

Then my menstrual cycle changed drastically and also turned to a greyish color (sorry TMI) but it was extremely frightening.  With all the muscle and bone pain I was having and with my body cracking head to toe, I thought I was surely riddled with Cancer. I had extensive bloodwork done including testing for Lyme disease. The only thing that showed up was low vitamin D. So, I then had an MRI of my head and entire spine. My doctor suspected MS or Lupus at this point, but thankfully that was all negative. I was lucky because many people living in toxic mold do go on to develop autoimmune issues. My son may not have been so lucky as he now has a high ANA, but I'll talk more about that later...

Oh, and I was also having horrible vision issues at this point. This was so incredibly weird because Noah was having issues with his eyes as well! My vision went completely blurry and at night I would see flashes of light and floaters all over. I also could no longer tolerate bright lights and was very noise sensitive as well. My body had also started vibrating like I'd lay down at night and feel like the bed was shaking underneath me. Absolutely horrifying! I had a hard time gripping anything. I would grab the milk or yogurt out of the fridge and just drop it. There were so many messes to clean up from this! My fingers and arms were hurting so bad also. 

I was also running low grade fevers all the time and stopped tolerating the cold whatsoever. I would sit on the couch wrapped in blankets just shaking so bad that my teeth would literally chatter. Again, this was so odd because the exact same thing was happening to my children (frequent fevers and trembling chills). My hands and feet would also go numb and tingle all the time. The nerve issues were insane! I also started to flush really easily where my cheeks and ears would turn fire red and burn intensely. This was very interesting, since that was happening to both of the kids as well. I would also wake up every morning shaking in a pile of sweat. I felt like I was dying, I truly did. I was then sent to a rheumatologist for more blood work to check for autoimmune diseases again. I was still suspected of having Lupus or possibly Sjogren's disease and was so terrified, but thankfully everything was negative again! This was when I finally received the only thing close to any type of a diagnosis...Fibromyalgia. Which in my opinion is basically an "I don't know what the heck you have" diagnosis for most people. I can't imagine how many people with Fibromyalgia are actually just mold sick (or have Lyme disease)!!!! But we'll talk about all that another time...

In the almost year we lived in that house, I had seen my family doctor on several occasions, was sent to an ophthalmologist, urologist, pain management doctor, rheumatologist and was getting ready to see a neurologist, allergist and start physical therapy. I was also seeing my OBGYN regularly for the issues with my menstrual cycle (more things were happening but I'll spare you the details on that). I was also reacting to most everything I ate where my mouth, tongue and throat would burn after eating. I could barely tolerate any spices and one time I had a near anaphylactic reaction to eating Chinese food. I could not stop coughing and my throat became very tight, then my left eye started to swell shut and I developed a migraine immediately. I'd never experienced anything like that before! How weird since my kids were reacting to random things as well!

So, I'd had two CT scans, a bladder scan, MRIs, ultrasounds, extensive bloodwork checking for Lyme, autoimmune, rheumatoid, hormonal issues, etc. I was seeing every specialist known to man with no answers on top of what I was going through with my children and how sick they were. Between the three of us, we had several doctor appointments each week, sometimes five days a week! Everything kept pointing to mold even though no one (except my husband) believed me, and I knew that doctors, family and friends were probably questioning my sanity, thinking I was making this all up because "mold illness can't happen to an entire family", right????

MOLD INSPECTION

April 9, 2022

At this point, I'd become very aware of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and was once again researching all things mold. We were recommended to a company called 1-800-WATER DAMAGE, so we scheduled them to come out and take a look. We were so ignorant at the time and had no idea that not all mold and water damage companies were created equal. Basically, just about anyone can become a mold remediation company and most of them DO NOT do a thorough inspection and even more so, they DO NOT perform a proper remediation. But that's something I'll talk about later...

So, they sent two young kids out to take a look around the house. They went into the attic and said they found a small amount of mold up there. Then they proceeded to the basement where they told us there was a little bit of mold around the sump pump, but that everything else looked good. However, the area that I was most concerned about was a corner of the basement where the previous homeowners had put up new walls and you could tell they had painted with KILLZ behind and around it. So, I expressed my concerns with that area, but the workers assured me that everything looked fine there. They also told us we had a beautiful house with no serious mold issues to be concerned about.

Then they gave us the spiel that they would spray the attic really good with chemicals that would "kill the mold" and also spray all around the sump pump. Being completely ignorant, we agreed and believed once again that mold could not be the cause of our health issues. So, they sprayed all over our home with toxic chemicals, leaving all the mold still in the house and led us to believe we would be fine because it was now "dead". 

But we all continued to get sicker...

SPRING 2022

Warmer weather was upon us, and I thought the fresh air would certainly be the cure to our ailments. We went outside every chance we could get, but I still didn't feel good enough to take the kids many places because I was so ill. Interestingly, I began reacting to the warmth of the sun where I'd sit outside and begin to flush badly and I was also reacting to my flip flops. My feet would burn, itch and turn red where the straps touched my feet. That was all new for me! Some nights after we'd finally get the kids to bed, we'd go outside and have a bonfire, trying to find any kind of normalcy and fun in our life, which was extremely difficult. But now my legs would burn terribly and itch when sitting around the fire, something that had NEVER happened to me before. I'd become extremely intolerant to heat. I was trying to enjoy any part of summer that I could, but we just weren't getting any better.

The kids were having more reactions than ever. They were increasing in frequency and severity. With still no answers from any doctors, I'd found myself going down the rabbit hole of "corn allergies". I spent several hours and way too many late nights reading about the symptoms of corn allergies and what all it involved. It was truly spot on with all the things my kids were reacting to because not only were they reacting to foods at this point, but they were also reacting to environmental things. Many products in our environment are made with corn and corn-by-products, so this was the only thing that made sense to me why they were having so many reactions.  Noah would lay his head on a pillow and his cheek would immediately react. Or he would put on a pair of shoes and suddenly develop a rash on his heels and all up his legs. One time, we bought a new rug and Noah was near anaphylactic for two days before we realized what he was reacting to. 

You see, what really happened was that our toxic load was just too much and if you've ever heard of the "bucket theory" you'd better believe that it's real. Except with us, they weren't all true allergies. Not only were we having mast cell and histamine issues, but we were also reacting severely to chemicals as we'd developed a condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). When our family would go into stores, me and my children would all immediately start to flush and our cheeks and ears would turn bright red. I just couldn't understand why all the same ailments were happening to me AND my children. The urinary issues, stomach pain, headaches, vision issues, facial flushing, red ear syndrome and the reactions to foods. Honestly, it felt so demonic and truly unreal. 

But it was all very real...

Anyways, July quickly came, and me and the kids were unbelievably sick. Notice how I don't really mention my husband a lot because he worked two jobs at the time: his civilian job as a delivery driver and his job in the Army reserves. He was gone a lot, while me and the kids were home nearly ALL THE TIME. It was so unfortunate because the house was making us so sick, yet we were too sick to ever want to leave. 

FINDING THE MOLD

JULY 5, 2022

Dave was preparing to leave for his two-week annual Army training, and I was terrified. I was becoming even weaker and my mind was very unstable, I didn't know how I was going to take care of the kids by myself. At this point, the mold was affecting us mentally, not just because we were so stressed out but because the neurotoxins were literally attacking our brains. Now my anxiety was absolutely debilitating as I'd developed PTSD and was in constant fight-or-flight mode. I hated going to sleep because every single night I woke to my kids screaming bloody murder. I was always terrified waiting for the next reaction. I was plagued with depression, horrible sadness and rage (it's very common for people to develop rage in toxic mold as well as hallucinations and crippling anxiety). My three-year-old little boy would tell me just about every day how sad or angry he felt. The kids cried nearly every second we were in the house now.

At this point, I knew deep down what was happening to our family. I didn't care what doctors, mold companies, family or friends were telling me anymore. We had mold toxicity.