Support Katie Moen's recovery from mold poisoning

You know Katie Moen. She's the one that was at your engagement party. Your wedding. Your birthday party. Your baby shower. Your bris. Making toasts, schmoozing with your grandma, showing up early to help you set everything up and texting you the next day with hilarious anecdotes about who barfed in your front yard. If you are lucky enough to have her orbit your world, you laugh 25% more than the average human. And you smile 74% more than the average human. And that's just science. Katie has always been there for you. She's always been there for all of us. And now, it's our turn. It's time for us to support her.

A month into the pandemic lockdown, she started noticing changes — like hair texture change, then hair loss. Cut to four and a half years later, her symptoms have become chronic and overwhelming — flu-like pain, fatigue, muscle aches, blurred vision, nerve damage, shortness of breath, brain fog, recurrent fungal infections, h. Pylori (a bad stomach bacteria) and more. Her beloved pup/son Tater also started having neurological issues and seizure-like events around the same time, and continued to have them until they moved out of their apartment.

After years of appointments trying to determine the cause of her issues, in July 2023, one provider suggested that toxic mold exposure could be the cause of her symptoms. A professional inspection revealed her apartment was filled with toxic levels of mold.

After moving to Bozeman, Katie found a doctor that specializes in Lyme and mold illness who's finally started her on the right treatments to help her get her health back. There's so much more to say, but the bottom line is that toxic mold exposure is not yet widely recognized by traditional medicine in the same way that Lyme disease wasn’t 20 years ago — and Katie doesn’t have 20 more years to wait for traditional medicine to come around, so she has to pay out of pocket to get treatment in order to get her health back.

Katie’s road to recovery has been long and slow. Her cognitive issues and flu-like symptoms make it nearly impossible to work, have a social life, or do physical activities — all things Katie used to be able to do. She spends her days managing symptoms so she can function well enough to perform the tasks of daily life. Being her own caregiver is taking its toll, and much of the progress she’s made has stalled because she’s been unable to take the time off needed to heal.

If you don’t know about or understand mold illness, here’s a recent article that covers it more in-depth. What matters the most is that our friend is facing tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills due to having to pay out of pocket for treatment.

Every donation for Katie will go directly towards her medical bills and her ability to function day-to-day. It’s a truly horrendous ordeal that Katie has been given. She doesn't deserve this, and it's our job to help her come out on the other side — healthy, loved and supported.

Thank you so much for caring for Katie in this time, like she has always cared for you.