Hendrix Family Medical, housing and mold fund

Rebecca Hendrix is organizing this fundraiser.

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Have you ever had a nightmare that felt so real that you wake up with that tight throat, tears welling in your eyes and heart beating out of your chest? You open your eyes and breathe a sigh of relief because you’re safe at home. You take a breath and calm yourself because everything is ok.

Imagine waking up and living your nightmare. Walking around all day with the tight thoat, teary eyes and racing heart. You literally can’t wake up from the nightmare your life has become? I live this reality every single day.

It all started, or so we thought for a long time, on Thanksgiving Day 2019. Our middle son, at 4 years old had a convulsive seizure lasting about 1 ½ minutes. Fast forward 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 2 ½ years and NOTHING has stopped his seizures. Every single day I see him slipping away and I feel like there’s nothing I can do abut it. NO medications have worked, we have tried medical keto wtih the help of a dietician for 18 months and it did NOTHING. We have done extensive genetic testing and have no answers. But, that mom gut… it continued to nag at me telling me that there is something wrong, some reason this is happening.

During this suffocating rollercoaster I start taking note of different odd behaviors of the people in our house. I start having a hard time finding words during conversations, and find myself pretty short tempered. My husband is frequently sick, has to miss work and says he doesn’t feel like himself. My oldest son starts showing signs of anxiety and has a horrible time falling and staying asleep, and has little bags under his eyes. In my head I attribute everything to PTSD from dealing with the all consuming hold epilepsy has on our lives.

I start researching alternative methods and tests and find out about one specific test called the Organic Acids Test(OAT), reached out to a functional doctor and thankfully he takes Walkers case for a consultation. He asked a thousand questions, we ran some tests including the OAT and waited. Meanwhile we started a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free diet and add in some supplements. 6 weeks pass and the doctor reached out to go over Walkers results.

I was floored.

Walker is dealing with mold toxicity.

We finaly had some concrete answers, but here’s where the nightmare takes a turn. The doctors exact words were “you likely have mold somewhere inside your home”. Gut punch. Our house is doing this to him? No way!

I got instructions to test our home(home tests, inspectors etc), but totally ignore them and start looking in every nook and cranny, hell bent on finding the “source”. I simultaneously join mold groups on facebook, and follow mold literate doctors on IG, intent to learn everything I can.

In a conversation with my husband just after I got the news I blurted out in what I felt was full on inspiration form the Holy Ghost “what if it’s in the couch?” We did indeed find mold growing between the foam and cotton lining underneath the cover(totally invisible) in a couch we got second-hand.

I thought we found the thing that was causing all of the issues, but the impending problem was that in finding and removing the couch, we also could likely get a false positive on the mold test we needed to do. So, I started to clean and dust and wipe and vacuum. Trying to be as meticulous as possible beause my son’s livelihood depends on this test being accurate. I contact a few mold inspectors, trying to guage what the cost would be to have a professional test our house… the quote was $6500, not including extra tests like the HVAC and specific areas I would be concerned with. “Well, that’s not gonna happen, we don’t have that kind of money!” I think to myself as a hang up the phone, more overwhelmed and disappointed.

During the almost 3 years we have been living with epilepsy my husband, hardest worker I know, has been unemployed for 9 months, got shuffled around at a temp agency and just in the last 2 months has been working a steady job. We have burned through savings trying to make up for when he’s had to miss work from being sick, put food on the table, pay for doctors and tests and supplements and have even cranked up some vomit inducing debt on credit cards. Any jobs I’ve pursued have been a bust, not enough money for my time or that Catch 22 of I can’t focus on a decent paying job because I have a special needs kid, but need a decent paying job to help care for my special needs kid. I have tried securing emergency funding from different agencies and even contacted habitat for humanity. Nothing has panned out.

As soon as the couch was gone our son started having less seizures, speaking more clearly, doing better with homeschool and just so much more present. I was elated!! That lasted a glorious 6 weeks then he got sick and has not been able to recover, that has been months ago. The doctor warned me that trying to treat for mold while living with mold would not be a good idea. He equated it to trying to bail out a boat with the hole in the bottom instead of fixing the leak. I thought we had the problem taken care of, but clearly there was some reason he started crashing again.

In educating myself, I have learned 5 important things.

Every house has some mold in it, the problem is what kind and how much is there, and it’s a real kicker when you have a mold sensitive person who has major reactions.
Mold cannot be killed, it has to be removed…magic sprays aren’t going to fix anything.
Mycotoxins(think mold off gassing defense system) are tricky and can’t be killed either because they’re not alive
Stirring up mold spores and mycotoxins can have dire consequences if not done properly, under containment.
Building material that comes into contact with water has the potential to grow mold, quickly.

When we moved into our house a new roof had just been put on. We thought it was great, but in hindsight and from inspecting our whole house, there was likely leaks and water damage resulting in mold.

In our kitchen we have a funny patch on the ceiling, which now makes me think there is mold, under the kitchen and bathroom sinks always smells musty, probably hidden mold. 3 weeks ago we had a 10 hour inspection done by the best mold inspectors around and I told them every place I was concerned about. In fact I JUST got off of a video chat with our inspector confirming my worst fears…almost every wall in our house needs to come down, every single window, the bathtubs, vanities, kitchen cabinets, fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, the whole garage and the entire attic space!

My life has turned from warrior mom to mold inpector mom, to holy crap how are we supposed to keep our family safe, fix our house and HEAL when we have burned through every cent we have while not completely losing my marbles, mom.

Our faith has been tested. Our marriage has been tested. Our physical and mental capacities are tapped out and I’m stuck wondering where to go? We are all likely dealing with various forms of mold toxicity(all those weird symptoms I was noticing are linked to mold).

First and foremost, please keep praying for us!! We are ready to break free from this nightmare and prayers are strengthening us bit by bit!

Second, please consider donating.

We will be using funds to continue treatments for our kiddo with epilepsy and start treatment for the rest of us. We will need to secure safe, clean temporary housing during remediation because of the sensitivity our family members have to mold. We will also be using funds to gut and hopefully rebuild our home, and maybe replace some of the belongings we will inevitably lose during this process.

If you want more info on mold, and if it could possibly be affecting you or someone you love, here are some great resources:

Change the Air Foundation

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