Starting last November (2024), Elijah started getting really sick. He felt super depressed and couldn't sleep. He had weird symptoms he didn't understand. He went to the hospital three times in the next month because he felt like he was shutting down. His labs were not too far out of the normal range, but they kept him at the hospital overnight. After the first visit, they would check him and then just tell him to see his primary care physician, psychiatrist, and therapist. He did, and they began some treatment, but it wasn't helping enough. He could hardly eat anything, and everything made him sick. We finally guessed it could be mold poisoning, so we had his place tested. The mold count was really high. We had someone come and spray while he stayed at a motel overnight, and we (family) did some cleaning up. He got a little better, but not much.

So began the journey into mold sickness and remediation. One thing Elijah found very helpful was to get red light and PEMF treatments at a local spa. He also did some internal mold detoxing and seemed to be doing better for a while. It has been almost a year, and things have gotten worse for him again. We found out, after a very rainy, windy night last spring, that the roof leak in his condo that had started this mess had not been properly repaired. While he waited for insurance and contractors to fix things, mold was continuing to grow in an upstairs bedroom. Insurance didn't cover anything, so his family stepped in, doing what seemed to make sense. We sealed off the room, tore out the ceiling and carpet, and did mold removal, more spraying, and eventually removed carpets, furniture, and many other belongings in the entire condo. Each time we did another project, Elijah would have to stay at a motel (which adds up quickly), since staying at other people's homes made him sicker. We have a little more cleanup to do, but it will take more money and time. Likely, Elijah will have more motel visits as we work on replacing flooring with low VOC vinyl plank and doing more repairs, cleaning, and painting. Our goal is to help make his home as clean and safe as possible so he can focus on healing. (And so his family can rest and recover too!)

As you may have guessed, Elijah has not had any income this past year, and so we (his parents) have helped with costs that insurance didn't cover. We were able to find volunteers to help with much of the labor, but all this has been very costly! Not counting living expenses, the total cost of medical bills, therapy and treatments, equipment, mold remediation, contractors, motels, air filtration, bins, and storage so far have been around $18,000! We expect to have more costs of about $6,000 - $10,000 to replace furniture and flooring, and for temporary housing while we get more cleaning and repairs done. We are looking for a good functional medicine doctor to help with Elijah's recovery too. And we hope to reimburse at least part of what has been paid out. We've come this far on the journey! Will you help us get through to the end? Thank you for anything you can do to help!