Help Angie and her children escape toxic mold

As hard as it is to admit, I need help. I know there are so many people who are suffering and that need help right now and even necessarily believe that I deserve it. But I don’t know what else to do now.

2 years ago when my daughter was 3 months old me and my children moved to my parents house to escape a physically abusive relationship. It was so incredibly hard to move from a place I lived so much and come back here to my parents house, but I hoped that it would be the best step for us, so that I could heal from birth and the trauma of being assaulted, and move forward with my life with the support of family.

Shortly after being there I started to feel a decline in my physical health. I assumed it was just postpartum, stress, and trauma. I had a very difficult postpartum with my first baby. And I had been used to being unwell because of suspected Lyme disease. But fast forward a few months and I’m feeling worse than ever and having weird symptoms I’ve never had before. Last summer it became really bad. I was having unexplained abdominal pain, weird sinus and breathing issues, constant lump in throat, visual hallucinations, disassociation, memory loss, debilitating fatigue, etc. I could go on and on about symptoms. Needless to say I knew something was very wrong. I saw an allopathic MD, functional medicine doctor, and doctor of homeopathy. Plus a couple trips to the ER. I was not satisfied with any of their diagnosis, by this time I suspected mold was in the crawl space for the bathroom that opens into my room. But I didn’t know why, it was just a feeling. By the fall I started to feel like I was dying. I would wake up every morning and brace myself for whatever weird terrifying symptom would appear. I began having chest pains, tachycardia, and irregular heartbeat. I couldn’t catch my breath going up the stairs. I remember telling my mom on the phone “If I stay in this house over the winter I will die” I made plans to go out and visit her over the winter and I did see some improvement while in the desert which reaffirmed my suspicions about the house having mold. While visiting her I started seeing a naturopath but I was still not getting answers despite all the blood and other tests I was doing.

When my trip was over and I made it back home I immediately regressed and felt worse than ever. It was during this time that my son also started having weird symptoms. About a month or so ago, I figured out how to test for mold and I immediately ordered an ERMI test. The results showed extremely dangerous levels of deadly mold. I was absolutely shocked, I didn’t think it would be that bad.

Once I found out I immediately started learning everything I could about mold. It turns out it’s extremely difficult to safely salvage your personal belongings from a toxic mold situation. It involves multiple stages of cleaning with different solutions and many things just can’t be saved. Anything porous has to go. I began throwing so much away. I have since thrown away 99% of our belongings. Including all of my dried herbs and medicine making materials. I so desperately wanted to be free of this horrible thing that has been making me sick. Me and my children left and have been staying away as much as possible.

My parents did go through with a remediation process, unfortunately since they don’t think that mold affects them (it does) they did not do a thorough job or take it seriously and the remediation was not successful. Which I anticipated. I have tried multiple times to go back into the home and unfortunately I become ill almost immediately. It’s impossible for me to live there ever again. I refuse to feel sick like that anymore.

At the same time, we have no where else to go. We have been staying with friends a bit and mostly camping. Which I don’t mind, but soon it will be cold. Everyone in my family is gaslighting me and telling me it’s FINE. Even though I know it’s starting to affect my children as well, which they are in denial about. They tell me I don’t love my children if I don’t go back. They feel they have done enough for me by trying to remediate and I should just get over it and come back. It’s all in my head. So I am completely on my own in trying to figure out a new situation and it’s incredibly difficult because I had to get rid of everything that I use to make money.

I am asking for help because I truly genuinely need it. Mold is like an invisible fire. It destroys everything you own and makes your house unlivable. But it ruins your health too. It’s terrible. I just want to feel like a normal person and be healthy and alive so I can raise my children. I’m all they have. I really need to figure this out for them. Thank you for reading of you made it this far ❤️