Have you ever wondered if your house was making you sick? What would you do? It’s certainly not possible to pick up and move every time you discover something unhealthy about your home. Fixing the cause of mold, bacteria or other toxins could cost you thousands of dollars and sometimes, the problems aren’t fixable.
When researching Lyme disease, you’ll read much about making sure your home is a clean and safe place to live. It’s critical to avoid mold and other toxins if you want to heal. It is certainly possible to live a green and chemical free life but what about those things you can’t control, like neighbors spraying toxic chemicals on their yards or farms. Worse yet, what if you have toxins in your home and it isn’t safe?
I’ve shared before that as soon as we moved to our new to us home my health began to decline. Oddly enough, everyone else in my family began to heal more quickly from their tick-borne infections. I discovered that we have a bacteria that comes in from the foundation. We spent thousands of dollars to put in french drains, sump pumps and to seal the basement floor.
photo courtesy of Unsplash & @AnnieDowns
Air Conditioning and Mold
Yesterday we had our AC unit inspected and serviced to get ready for the hot temperatures to come! We’ve only lived here in our “older-new” home for two and a half years and we’re slowly but surely getting things repaired and replaced.
We had no idea that when the AC guy came out he would give us such bad news. Not only is our Geothermal AC unit almost older than Methuselah, the bottom is completely rusted out and the whole entire inside is filled with disgusting, gross stuff that could potentially be mold. The inside is made of fiberglass and because the unit is Geothermal, which runs on water, there’s a ton of moisture inside.
My heart sank because I know that wherever moisture resides so does mold. I’m more than a little frustrated, after all, we had three mold inspectors come to specifically check the basement and we paid a home inspector to check the entire house before we purchased it. Each one of them told us there’s no mold! Wouldn’t you think the first place they would check would be the AC unit? Now, it’s entirely possible that what we’re seeing inside the AC unit is not mold but I doubt it and I plan to have it tested.
I have to take a moment and brag, I have the best husband in the world, just saying! His first response was to call the AC company and get estimates for replacing the unit. He also told me to go ahead and get it checked for mold before they rip that thing out.
Testing for Mold
If you’re looking for where to get good mold tests check out Mycometrics. I’m not an affiliate but have read this is the place to go for mold testing.
Whether we truly have mold or mildew, doesn’t matter. They are both toxic, especially to someone with a sensitivity to it and someone who has been recovering from Lyme disease. Since moving here, my health declined in a big way. I found out last year that I have the MTHFR gene mutation so I don’t detox!
Living in a Toxic Environment
After we moved in I kept smelling something gross. Of course, no one else smelled it but to me it was overwhelming! I’m not even sure how I would describe the smell to you. I often smelled it when it rained or was humid. I began to notice it more when I would leave the house for awhile and come back in. I always call it the “The Granny Maude” smell! I’m sorry if your name is Maude, I don’t mean any offense, I just happen to name inanimate things, like my house and my car. What I’m trying to express is that this is an old smelly house.
I diffuse Thieves essential oil, especially on raining days. Whenever we would turn the air conditioning on the smell would get worse but we always thought the AC unit was blowing up the stinky smell from the basement, now we know it was coming from inside the AC unit.
Do you have any idea what it’s like to live in a house you think is killing you or at the least causing your pain and fatigue? It’s pretty much horrible! Sometimes it brings about anxiety and I’m not usually an anxious person. My worst personal experience with anxiety was when I initially got sick with Lyme disease.
Potential for Healing
On one hand, finding out there’s possibly mold in our AC unit is causing me to panic, not to mention panicking over the expense of fixing it. On the other hand, I think I’m relieved to know that I’m not crazy and hopefully, we found the possible cause of my misery! I pray this is the only surprise we’ll have and that once we get the air conditioning system fixed my health will improve.
So here we go, another huge, expensive project hoping it’s the one that will help me to start feeling better! But isn’t that the life of someone who has or has ever had Lyme disease? We’re constantly searching for a way to heal completely and have the best life possible.
Have you experienced any shocking discoveries in your house? Was it something that negatively affected your health? How did you deal with it? If you’ve been treated for chronic Lyme and co-infections, and you’re not getting better, explore the possibilities of mold in either your home, school, or work environment.
Oh, Tricia, I’m so sorry. I know exactly what you are going through. I’ll try to tell our story without writing a book! My 19 yo daughter, who has had Lyme since she was 11, became very sick Feb 2017 with seizure like symptoms. Our wonderful doctor figured out that she has CIRS. At the time she got sick, we were cleaning up mold in our home. My husband and 12 yo son have also gotten sick. We moved out of our beautiful log home for three months last summer while our home was completely remediated by a company that worked with mold-sensitized people and then was put back together (new AC ducts, new floors, etc). Our mold-sensitized folks did okay from Sept through Dec and we thought our home was safe. Then, they started getting worse again. We went away to Florida for a week in March and they did so much better there. Within 48 hours of coming home, they were so sick (my husband especially) that we had to move them to a hotel for a week.
We have a little cabin on our property and we were just finishing remediating that (it was also moldy), so we moved them there from the hotel (after buying them new clothes and toiletries and cleaning anything they HAD to have from our home). They have been there for a few weeks and we can tell it’s not completely safe for them. We are still trying to do things that may make it better, but we are sadly coming closer and closer to having to move. We love where we live – close to our church and many other families in our church, in a beautiful log home on 64 acres with a creek, in-laws live in a beautiful log home next door, and other in-laws own the cute little cabin by the creek as a second home. It’s absolutely beautiful here right now as spring is here and everything is blooming. I also homeschool and my library of about 1600 books has to be sold. This has been and still is a very long and difficult journey. Our family can only eat together now if the weather is nice and we can eat outside since three are living at the cabin and we can’t go in without tyvec suits so we don’t contaminate their cabin.
In all of this, though, God has taught us so much. This is the hardest thing our family has ever gone through and I am so thankful that we all completely trust in God’s will for our lives. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know God does have a plan that will be for our best good and for His glory.
It is very hard to feel that your home is making your family sick. Home is supposed to be safe. I will be so happy when we are all in a safe place and can again enjoy meals around the table, hanging out in the living room, and just being able to say good morning as people sleepily come out of their rooms in the morning.
Okay, this is almost a book 🙂 I’ll stop. I hope you can again find health and peace in your home.
Wow, Tina! I’m so sorry you are going through that. Your story is becoming more common as people and doctors are learning how deadly mold really is. I’ll be praying for you and your situation. xoxo Tricia