In BIG trouble - furniture rampant with mold, not allowed to remove it. HELP!

[Guest guest]

The length of this post may be misleading. I am feeling very exhausted

due to a problem that at this moment seems insoluble, and cause I was

exposed to a lot of mold during the past 5 days. However this morning

I managed to tak a shower and change clothes... and after a few hours

I got a little better so I decided to explain my situation

chronologically, in detail, however painful it is, so that good people

from this group might be able to have as much information as possible.

I already mentioned some things at the beginning of this post during

past months. If you are in a hurry, please skip to the paragraph

PRESENT SITUATION.

I'm sure many of you have been in a similar (or worse) situation,

there may well be posts in the archives but I have no energy to find them.

As some of you might remember from my earlier postings, in 2002 while

I was passing through a street (for which I know was renovated about

that time), I got hit with a cloud of an *extremely* strong mold.

Ironically, it was a beautiful and hot sunny day, July I think. While

I was going back home I had high hopes my usual handy decontamination

techniques (such as rubbing salty water and bleach into my clothes)

would resolve the problem. I was very wrong. Despite my attempts not

to give in to the mold hit and intentionally avoiding taking shower,

eventually, after 2 or 3 days, I had to give up and quickly

decontaminate, change the clothes etc. Had I not done so I would have

ended up puking my guts, having severe diarrhea, not to mention loss

of coordination and a general feeling that I was being eaten alive!

(Curiously enough, the trainer I wore on that occasion, which was most

contaminated and the primary source of all other cross-contaminations

was the only clothing item I managed to decontaminate - after washing

it numerous times with salt, various herbs etc. It was made of plastic

though so that's the most likely cause)

Anyway, my reluctance to decontaminate as quickly as possible (partly

due to the fact that I had never encountered such a strong mold

before) I cross-contaminated a lot of furniture and other clothes.

Luckily, the furniture in my room is made only of polished wood so it

was possible to wipe off the mold and toxins in several washings.

However, I still did not realize what monster I brought into my house.

There were some clothing items that at that time seemed to me only

mildly contaminated. I thought I could salvage them. Again - a big

mistake. One such item was placed onto one of four upholstered chairs

in the dining-room (near the kitchen). Eventually I discarded the item

and although the chair couldn't be washed, it did not spread too much

toxins and basically I thought I " tamed " it, and didn't pose a threat

to other chairs and the dining-room table that were in its proximity.

(My parents had agreed not to sit nor touch that chair until I

delcared it was safe.)

So everything was mostly fine with it...until last August (2005). One

day my father needed a chair so he could get onto it and change a

broken light bulb... I was sleepy and didn't notice what he was up to

(I'm usually very careful that such stupid mistakes never happen)...

but this time I wasn't careful and he took the moldy chair. The mere

stepping of his feet onto it released huge amount of spores... I felt

the mold hit while I was still sleeping in another room, so I rushed

to the bathroom and was in for an unpleasant surprise. I immediately

tried to wash the chair with salt and bleach in order to at least

prevent mold erruption but it was too late. It started spreading

living mold and mycotoxins like a broken nuclear reactor would spread

radioactive particles. Of course, I was the only one who could feel it.

To cut the long story short.. I tried everything imaginable to

decontaminate it but all ultimately failed. So I finally persuaded my

dad to allow me to scrap that one chair. And finally he agreed. That

was in November last year.

That was not the end of my troubles. The remaining 3 chairs got

cross-contaminated too. I washed them with everything but to no avail.

In fact they even became worse after applying this:

-Borax, Salt, Bleach, Grapefruit seed extract, Garlic, Vinegar,

Oregano Essential Oil, Basil Essential Oil, Tea Tree Essential Oil,

detergents and lots of water... nothing worked.

A few days ago, despite great opposition from my parents, I managed to

persuade them that there would be no life for me unless I scrap the

remaining chairs as well. They finally agreed under the condition that

I promise that that would be the last thing to be thrown away, and

that I buy the new chairs. I said " ok " ... because I truly hoped that

the table will be relatively easy to decontaminate, and because I have

the money to compensate the loss. Again, I was wrong. I am not able to

decontaminate the table.

PRESENT SITUATION:

The chairs are gone now. When I threw them out, I washed the table

with mild solution of bleach (cause that worked on my furniture in

2002). At first it seemed to have worked, but after a few hours it

started spreading spores and toxins (I could literally inhale them and

feel them quite perceptibly as a form of dust). It didn't look good at

all, and soon I was very sick again. Diarrhea, nausea, but this time

also severe brain fog, inability to concentrate, afternoon sleepiness

and nightmares, lack of energy, heavy breathing... I quickly applied

concentrated dilution of lavender oil and at first it seemed to have

worked. As if the fire in the " mold reactor " subsided. I hoped for the

best because I could also decontaminate my clothes with lavender to

that degree that I didn't feel *any* contamination at all.

But, in about 4-5 hours the table started to emit mold again. Not as

much as before but nevertheless quite a lot. I also tried vinegar but

it just worsened the condition (though at first it also seemed to help).

After 3 days I was so exhausted and disorientated I couldn't even

watch TV. I wanted to come here and post a message but couldn't type a

thing. I suppose I might have killed some mold but the mycotoxins

remained. Then again, maybe the mold is still alive.

The table is circular in shape, very massive, and is made of beech.

The top plate is polished with some transparent lacquer, but on the

flip side (below) it has a lot of crevices and interlocked ordinary

wooden planks which are not polished and are porous to some extent

(like ordinary wood). I suppose that's the main reason why it's so

hard to decontaminate.

I have a similar table in the living-room (though much smaller) but

it's also polished only on the top while below it's porous. I slept

next to it while I was contaminated in 2002 and it was relatively easy

to decontaminate - it took me 1 or 2 washings and the mold didn't

infest it again.

Now, how is it possible that almost the same type of furniture becomes

so heavily contaminated. Is it because those chairs stood beside the

dining-room table for .. about 5 months whereas the living-room table

was exposed for only 3 days? Maybe the time of exposure is the key.

Anyway, now I am in a BIG BIG trouble. My parents will not allow me to

throw away nor to at least remove this table to the basement. They

insist that the chairs were " the last straw " , that " nobody sane throws

away good furniture " , that " I should go to a doctor and get tested for

allergies " , and other encouraging stuff. Basically I can feel that

this time I won't be able to get rid of the problem by trashing it.

Not anytime soon. This is the first time I am faced with the problem

of such magnitude - a massive moldy object that is impossible to get

rid of. Until now it was mostly smaller things - papers, clothes,

smaller stuff.

So what can I do? 1) I have either the option to thoroughly

decontaminate it or 2) move from this flat.

Option 2) can be achieved but only for a limited time. I can go to a

cousin of mine but I can't stay there for too long. I have no enough

money to afford apartment or motel room or anything like that.

Option 1) seems so repulsive now because with every next mold hit my

defences will be broken more and more. But it is a viable option if

there is any chance of satisfactorily salvaging that table.

Before I scrapped the chairs, I thought it would be helpful to educate

my parents a bit about mold. I translated this page of ph P. Klein MD:

http://www.stachy.5u.com/posts.html

into Serbian (my and my parents' first language), so I could show it

to them. I printed the translation but after they read it the comments

showed everything except understanding. Their comments included:

- that " the man is clearly insane, and probably not a licenced doctor

at all "

- that " he tortured his family "

- that " his case, even if true, is far more serious than mine "

- that " if I pick up such nonsense from the Web, I will soon be

finding sites about suicide and that is something they can't condone "

- that " there are very few similarities between my case and his "

(whereas in reality there are many similarities - it's just that my

main symptoms are related to digestive tract and his to respiratory)

I also translated my short email correspondence with which we did

via email a few months ago, and the reactions were the same:

- " He is totally mad. "

- " Ok just follow that man's footsteps, and the 'doctor's' - live in a

camper instead of a normal house... Good Heavens what the Internet has

done to you! " (as if I didn't have very similar problems even before

1995, before the Internet came into existence)

- " Do not translate any more trash like this, we want to see you

healthy and happy. But you concentrate only on bad stuff. You must

change your Attitude - think positively! There is nothing wrong with

the table! Even the chairs were perfectly fine! We just scrapped them

so that your hypochondria might be alleviated.. but the table? NO WAY! "

etc. etc...

I ordered Mold Warriors and I intend to translate it. I don't care if

nobody publishes it. If my parents want to read it, fine. If not I

will show it to any doctor if I take that road (official medicine) so

that I'm not victimized by their 18th century notions about mold. Btw.

what should I bear in mind if I go along that track, i.e. official

medicine? I can do the standard allergy tests but I don't think it

will help. I am almost 100% certain I am not allergic to mold but

suffer from mycotoxicosis. How to explain that notion to someone who

is trained only to treat normal allergies?

I wanted to do mold testing, but in my country (Serbia) it seems that

nobody does that. I asked about it at the main organisation for

prevention of infectious diseases, but they just stared blank at me.

One woman told me " We do that type of thing only if someone tells the

inspection that another appartment is clearly in bad condition and is

a health risk to others. " Another one told me " You can ask at this

number... (where nobody answered) but I don't think we do that type of

testing. "

I would greatly appreciate all suggestions on how to decontaminate the

table. When I recuperate I can put on some plastic trainers and try

again with something else, some other substance or other method... and

then quickly decontaminate afterwards. Though it will be tough, I

think I can stand that, especially if there's some chance of success.

I'd also want to ask a certified doctor or a remediation professional

(I think we have several here) to write me an email in which he/she

will just confirm for my parents that my health can really be

seriously compromised by that table, despite the lack of visible mold,

because I my symptoms are typical for mycotoxicosis, not allergy. I

think that would be of great help.

Also, other suggestions on how to stay alive thru this mess are all

very welcome. Right now I am very desperate and confused. This hell

can last for years and years, and I have been poisoned too much

already. I want some normal life, not only a miserable, hellish

imitation of life.