It has been a whirlwind since I last posted about my health! If you want to catch up, you can go to read this, “Finally Got Some Answers“.
That post was way back in December, and so much has happened since then!!
After the diagnosis, I was put on Cholestyramine (CSM) and told to take it 4x a day. 2 hours after food and 30 minutes before food. What a task! Trying to do that and eat 3-5x a day! Most days I got in about 3 servings. I eventually had to put a timer on my phone to remind me to take it. The first few times, I just mixed it with water and it tasted like sandy water. Got stuck in my throat and was hard to swallow. I thought to myself, “there is no way I can take this 4x a day for months!!” But I did. 🙂 I eventually learned you could add it to some form of juice, so I opted for OJ. It helped TONS! BUT I was supposed to stay away from sugar, so it was about 3 TBSP of OJ that I used every serving, just enough to mix it and allow me to swallow it.
I started the CSM back in December, before Christmas. I am still taking it, 6 months later. 🙁 I was retested in February and the tests came back that I was still being exposed. We thought that with all that we had done in the home we lived in that was “Moldy” that it was safe for me to live in now. We were wrong. So we found a place a few blocks away and moved into a clean environment. We did testing before we moved and found it was safe to move into. I tell you the move was insane! We had to clean EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING with ammonia before it was allowed in the house. It was a hard process for everyone, but in the end it was so worth it to KNOW that my environment would be safe for me to heal in. We got rid of so much stuff that was unable to be cleaned. We had to wash every article of clothing and anything that could be washed in the washing machine with special soap. I was still washing stuff a month after we moved into the new space and things had to sit in the garage until we were able to wash it. THEN spray the laundry room with ammonia in case any mold spores spread when we brought them in. I kind of started feeling like a crazy, paranoid person!! I even convinced my husband to fog the entire house, just in case we didn’t get something cleaned well enough.
In the end though, it was all worth it, as the house came up safe, as we had it retested again after the move. Phew!! In April, I went back to get tested again. All my numbers had gone way down, except for the exposure number. It had gone WAY UP!! What?? How could this be? My only answer was the place where I ran my business. It had concrete walls and the outside walls were bubbling, which indicated some form of water damage. It was enough to continue making me sick. Bummer….
So I had to find a way to get out of there and soon! I was TIRED of not getting better! I found a space, with NO mold and we moved in before May. Again, it was a long, hard process, as I had to explain to my clients and instructors who helped me move, how everything had to be cleaned before we could move it. But of course, they have all been so understanding in this whole process, they were all about doing what the could to ensure the cleanliness of the new studio.
Now, 4 months out of the “moldy” house and almost 2 months out of the water damaged studio, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! My energy has improved, my sleep has improved, my life is improving!! When I look back at pictures of me when I was in that house, it makes me sad. To see how sick I actually looked. Even my mom mentioned to me recently how she was worried about me last summer because I looked so sick. The circles under my eyes were awful! Even in my wedding pictures, they looked bad.
Recently I have had a few clients mention to me that they were a little worried about me as well, especially the last few months. They said I just didn’t have my “spunk” and energy like I normally did. All the moving and the exposure of moving really tanked my body. I tried hard to push through it as best I could, but running a business on top of everything else, really made it hard. I remember a few days when I was teaching and I was just standing there in the middle of a class and zoned out. Felt like I could honestly have fallen asleep standing up. Thank GOODNESS I am out of that funk!!
Last week I went in for another blood draw. They are running the 3 mold marker tests again to see where I am at. I am hoping to move on to the next phase of healing when I get those results back. I am ready to get back to being ME and feeling amazing!
I hope that from sharing my experiences, it will help someone else to discover that maybe what is going on with them, could be mold exposure. It’s the last thing I would have thought was making my body all messed up.
In Vegas last October. My eyes look awful!
This was in Omaha after it rained. Moldy bodies do not like humid and rainy weather. 😉
The morning of my wedding when I was getting ready, I remember being sad because of how dark the circles were under my eyes. Glad my hubby decided to marry me anyhow! 😉