Allergies & Asthma

Hi I'm Shelley, I normally post on the migraine board but I just had to post here after what I have been through.  I started having horrible migraines 2 years ago after we had moved into our church parsonage.  We lived there 3 years & the first year it was gradual.  The next 2 were I was so sick & just plain dibilitated.  I have always known I have allergies but never been tested & migraines run strong on all sides of my family too. 

There was one closet in the house that I couldn't open because of the musty smell. It finally hit me their has to be a problem even though it was not seen in that house.  We decided to leave the house & see if I would get better.  We moved in with our music minister & family (they have a big house, we have 3 kids) & after 5 days my constant migraine broke!! I was SO excited. We lived with them for about a month but nothing was being done at the house & I felt like we were intruding. As much as I hated to we had to go back home.  Of course I got bad again, finally the church hired someone to find the problem.  There was a leak in the roof leading all the way between a wall right where that closet is.  We took the panel off in that closet which went to the bathtub plumbing & there was literally water standing in there!!

We we able to move to a furnished house in town. And church members did the work to fix it.  I was SO scared to go back.  Because I know not just anyone can do that kind of work.  They did the work in the house & talked about the attic & it never got done!!! The heat & air also needed to be changed out & it wasn't done!! We lived in a OLD house which I love but mold was there too.  My DH found it but my head already knew it.

After 6 months or more we moved back in.  They had it ozoned but not hepavaced so all those dead mold spores where all still there. Which are just as dangerous to me.  Needless to say I was sick another year. 

The parsonage is part of the pastors salary & most church members didn't believe Mold would do this to me.  So they asked my DH to leave because of my illness!!! But it was obviously what God wanted because 6 days after our move I am a new person.  I feel SO much better. 

I tried allergy reg. allergy shots but they made me worse.  I ended up being tested the old way & giving myself shots taylor made for me.  I am SO allergic to mold now 8 or 9 to all kinds out of 12 on the allergy wheel.

Most doctors don't believe allergies can do this to someone.  I had to prove it to all of mine. 

I just wanted to tell my story about Mold & Migraines.  That house all most killed me & I lost so much time with my family. I just hope my allergy to mold will go down instead of getting worse with age. Hope this will help someone here.

Congratulation Shelley,

Mold can be a huge problem even for those not allergic as such. I lived in the attic of an old appartment building house for 3 years, it was a tiny Studio flat, but was very cute and I fell in love with the old charm it had. A year or so after moving in I was a bit less thrilled about it though, I noticed the air inside the apprtment would get very damp the minute it started raining, and I blamed it on the fact that my windows weren't double panned widows and had the worst kind of insulation ever but one Day I came back from work for lunch one a day that was as wet as can be (it rained contunously and heavily for over 24 hours) and noticed that the low wall at the end of the slending roof was glowing, I remember finding that wierd since the paint had a mate finish and looked closer to notice that it was water running down the wall...INSIDE my appartment! Obviously the first thing I though was "opps the roof is leaking" and I called the real estate agent who is in charge of comissioning those repairs and he told me "But ma'am we did some repair last months already" and I screamed my head off telling him that I didn't care what repair of improvement or whatever has been done because clearly it wasn't fixed my flat was wet, and I pulled my dresser away from that wall to notice a huge streak of black mold and a very very damp carpet on the floor with a very mushy wooden floor underneat, and told him I would harass him every hour until I got that fixed, cancelled work in the afternoon to keep an eye on things as I was affraid to see the wall colapse and alerted to superintendant as well who lived in the other studio appartment on the same floor as me (in the attic as well) who started checking his roof wall as well and proceeded to harass our landlord in the same way.
Those idiots took their time because at 5pm we both waited for something to be done, my super was the first one to blow and insult the agen, by 6pm he came with a guy with a de-humidifier (and it was still raining cats and dogs then) saying that he thought this issue could wait a day or two as no one would come and check the roof in such a rain, when we took him to my apprtment he dismissed the black mold as "no big deal and a charming feature of old houses" My caretaker added "And you forgot that it's a health hazzard as well" and for me to add "I already have astham and you want me to stay in a place that has about 95% cold humidity because you people never bothered to fix the ventilation system in the house and inhale black mold?  Here is what the agent said "Well ma'am when one has asthma, one doesn't move in a old house" I snapped back at him that I didn't know I was asthmatic when I signed the lease, and that it was still his responsibility to make sure the house was a safe place to live in anyway, with that the de-humidifyer guy set up a HUGE box in my already crammed Studio forcing me to move all my book shelves and stuff in the shower and asked me to keep it on as much as I could, and if possible all night long though the noise might be a problem, and he wiped the black mold of and left, with the landlord/agent sheepishly adding that someone would fix the roof in a day or two.

That damed dehumidifier not only was nosiy but dried up the air blasting a dust mix baxk in the room, the first few days I could empty the water tank 4 times a day, and withing 2 hours of having it running I felt like suffocating, so I ran to the hardware store, bough a pack of face mask, and lived with one strapped to my face the minute I steped inside my appartment...for about a week and a half! I had to switch off the machine at night because I didn't feel like sleeping with a face mask on (I wasn't sure it was safe to do so). And the first night all hell broke loose, not helaht wise, as I've been careful to sleep on the far edge of my bed away from the wet zone, but at 3am I heard a creepy crack sound inside the wall and switched on the light to see a bump in the wall and watch running down, I decided to take several sanitary napkin, paste them to a plastic bag, wipe the wall and tape the plastic back with the napkins facing the wall to absorb the humidity and sparing the already old wooden floor and rug the agravation, but just pressing the wall gently made the bump burst and water gush all over the place making me first rush to my  cupboard and fill sauce pans after sauce pans, and then run to the super, wake him up and ask for a bucket, poor guy he was as stunned and sleepy as me LOL and even more angry at the real estate guy than me, fortunately I was practical and knew that there was a studio appartment that was vacant directly under mine and that no one would have noticed a leak there, but since the floor was spongy, I was sure the ceiling in that flat would be soaked with the plaster coming off, so the super took his spare keys and we headed downstairs to check things out, turned out I was right, not only the plaster crashed to the floor leaving my wooden floor visible through the ceiling, but water was dripping freeling on the floor, menacing to destroy yet another floor, after that my super  had about enough, and told me to go to work as usual the next day as he would see personnally that the landlord took his responsibility seriously. I spent the rest of the night, with the de-humidifier on again, and though a face mask while sleeping for 2 hours more wouldn't hurt, by noon the next day my super told me proundly that by9.30 he succeeded in having the agent guy have a look in the inner wall hole in my apprtment, and a guy repair the roof, turned out that one roof tile got broken about a month ago when they last went on the roof to do a little restauration work, and that broken tile had the edged point inward, in a way that with the hevy rains it acted as a funnel, directing gallons of water straight to my wall.

I had the de-humidifier for over 3 weeks, though the last couple of weeks I didn't feel as suffocated and didn't need the face mask, then a painter came to clean my walls and treat it for mold and apply fresh clean paint on it. And 2 weeks later it was the carpet people doing their job, after we really  made sure we had to have a rug since the dooden floor was old and a real menace if left exposed. But id didn't really feel better until they fixed the ventilation 6 months later (after I negged the landlord and thretened to have the sanitary inspector come over)

Mold is one of the worst allergen I think, I know I kept testing negative to it, but my allergist explained that people with asthma and no allergies like me tend to have more problem with mold than any other substance, and that it was a wise thing to keep the bed away from an external wall of an old house, or away from a wall shared with a bathroom in any house

Wow that is terrible! Our youngest DS has asthma & I feared for us all being in that house.  My white count had gotten so low I had to wear a mask every where it was it was embarrising but I did it so I wouldn't keep catching everything.  I was getting one stomach virus after another. 

It just angers me how uneducated people are on allergies.  They have been in my family all my life so I understand but people that refuse to understand it what just ignorance.  My allergy level to mold increased because of that house & I lost 2 years of my life with my 3 kids. The younger ones are still amased that the migraines are gone.  I did everything to find out what was causing it from going to the eye doctor to a spinal tap. When the allergy dawed on me people didn't believe me. I had proof from the allergist but still they didn't believe it.  That's why they did a half way job on the house.  I am just glad to be out of there. My GP understands it but never once did I have any one else but the school nurse ask me if I have allergies.  I was shocked when she did.

As promenent as allergies are you would think more people would understand.

• As promenent as allergies are you would think more people would understand.

I thought the same until I told my familly I've been diagnosed with asthma, and attempting to eductate them about my biggest trigger : Tobacco smoke. OMG I never thoguht the battle would be that though.

My mom rolled her eyes saying oh yeah whatever, because I wasn't living with her anymore anyway. And she was good about not imposing her nasty habit on everybody. My dad is a non smoker, so is my stepmom, but I swear I thought of murdering her more than once because my sister, and both my stepbrother are huge cancer stick addicts, and every Sunday was Dinner time at my dad's for some reason my stepmom managed to mute my dad's vehemance agansit smoke between meals. And went as far as ENCOURAGING the habit her sons and my sister had by playing "perfect hostes" purchasing their favourite brand and display it in a pretty victorian stile antique silver goblet! And making a show of passing it around between each course. How my dad never blew up on that one is a mystery, sounds to me like love can do very strange stuff.
I however was less diplomatic and told her about a gazillion time that Second hand smoke was bad, and triggerd major attacks for me, and that while I respected the smokers addiction, I didn't see why it had to spoil our dinner, why can't they do like anybody and wait for coffee to smoke, or go outside between courses.
BAD move, my sister started to snap at me that suddenly it was all about me and that I'd better find myself a therapist rather than an allergist, my stepbrother replied that we were living in a free country (but then again my freedom and person choice counts less as the one of a smoker), and my stepmom went at me almost every Sunday saying I made a storm in a teacup, was a drama queen, and that I should stop taking those inhaled steroids and stuff when accupuncture, homeopathy, chinese medicine, ayurveda, yoga, therapeutic candles, massages, could cure me from what was clearly a neurotic disorder. My dad still said nothing which infuriated me considering his own mom has asthma too.

It once went as far as me just standing up in the middle of the main course, take my place mat, plate and glass and sit at the coffe table when both my stepborther started lighting up a cigarette and blow the smoke in my face, this time my dad reacted saying that it was spoiling the food taste and smell and that common etiquette calls for one smoker to wait until the meal is over to smoke in an effort not to impose their choice on all those who chose not to smoke in the first place. My Stepmom lightly protested, and I went back at the table, but she still passed cigarettes around in the next few meals, until,the inevitable happened : I had a huge attack from cigarette smoke and paractically scared everybody at the table and made a mad rush for my inhaler. But being as stupid as she is she started criticising the fact I was using my inhaler (who could have clearly spared my life or at least a trip to ER in this situation) and kept insisting that accupuncture was the solution to everything. My dad then finally blew up telling her that those who decide to smoke made the choice by themselves, but then why deny a person the choice to remain healthy by not being near smoke? He instaured the very diplomatic rule of not lighting a cigarette while eating and wait AFTER dessert when we were serving coffe to do so, so that those who don't want to be near a smoker can leave the table and enjoy their coffee at the coffee table, and reminded the nicotine addicts that the garden was still there shuld they really feel the urge to smoke between the starter and the main course. My stepmom as well as several other people around me never made any effort to understand what I was going through with each attack and that the simplest method to prevent an attack was to not get exposed to triggers.

I told my allergist about my tobacco woes, and she said that as unfortunate as it was, it didn't surprised her, smokers know their habit is bad, but for some reason can't shake it and feel guilty about it, so the last thing they want to hear is that their ill habit could make someone else ill, hence their defensive attitude. But she couldn't see why a non-smoking mom would happily sponsr her kids attempt to ruin their health and make a show at passing cigarettes around for them to indulge denying a healthy person the right to remain so...go figure. My guess is that my stepmom was trying to be a good hostess.