Re: Your moldy pal

July 25, 2001

Hi everyone! Thanks for your support, I have read a couple of posts regarding

our situation, though I'm very very behind.

We just moved to an extended stay type of hotel and they have a computer for

checking e-mail, but it's busy a lot. I may do that periodically instead of

coming home to check mail.

We blew out of the last hotel because came down with terrible hives.

She was on Cefzil for middle ear (and possibly sinus and throat) infection,

plus drops for pinkeye. Two days after starting the meds she had terrible

hives. At first I thought they were bug bites?? And made the hotel change our

bed but soon realized there were wayyyyy too many and too recurring. She had

about 75 on each leg, approx 50 on each arm and also some on trunk and face.

Didn't take her to doc because they would come and go, but a pharmacist saw

them and said it looked like an allergic reaction. We feared it might be the

Cefzil, which would be terrible because Cephalosporins have been a Godsend to

us. But I hear that type of allergy is not that common (Autumn, isn't

allergic to cephs?) so that's reassuring. We thought maybe it was something

in the hotel but had already been there almost two weeks when that happened

and they SAID they didn't change any cleansers or detergents. So we just went

somewhere else.

She's getting maybe a handful of hives after her Cefzil, but nothing like she

had the first few days. Of course she breaks out again with heat or sun and

the like, but that's to be expected. Ped says we may never know what caused

it.

I'm having terrible trouble with our insurance adjuster, the man is a pig

from hell. He has no empathy whatsoever, could not care less about our

situation. I've never encountered anyone so unprofessional and unsympathetic.

If this drags on much longer (environmental tests on our air should be back

by Monday and then we'll have a protocol) I'm going to ask for a different

adjuster. If it's almost over I'll bite my tongue for now and then fire off

some letters and speak with his boss about this. I've never been treated like

this in my life and I'm not going to start now. SO THERE!! Heeheehee. This is

all disrupting and stressful enough without adding insult to injury.

We went out of town this weekend, my sister threw a party for my 34th

birthday and now has diarrhea and a low grade fever. The two kids we

saw while there both have diarrhea but no vomiting or anything looking too

severe. These kids are NEVER sick, so I figured it would all be fine! HA!

still has her cough, gee I guess that's been since the end of June but

her lungs are still clear.

She's still swimming in the hotel pool, it's the only fun thing to do in a

hotel, so I'm gonna perservere unless it gets too suspect regarding some of

her illnesses. This whole mold foray is the first time she's ever been in a

public pool. I think all the restaurants and exposure to all the people is

making her more sick than the pool -- the pools she's been in have been

simply reeking of chlorine. Though the hotel we just left had pool water the

temp of bathwater, which our immuno says is a no-no. She says the water

should be so cold you don't want to swim in it and so full of chlorine it

hurts to swim in it. But I'm trying to balance that advice with practicality

in the interest of all our sanity!!! So far, so okay! By the way, she drinks

tons of it, it's very hard to police that. I've noticed some wierd, loose

stools after doing that a couple times, but nothing so bad as to make me

think she's really sick.

Okay, my book is done. But hey, you've missed so many individual long-winded

posts from me, this one big one is probably a bargain! Haha.

Hope you're all managing well and the pumpkins are healthy--

Autumn, I'm sending Mark's card late and I hope that's okay.

(mom to , age 2, polysaccharide antibody def, IgA def)

July 25, 2001

Hi , I am missing your posts very much. Our family went through the

same scenario 3 years ago with mold, leaving our home, hotel, apt. and

finally another house as well as surgery and 6 weeks of IV antx with a PIC

line in the middle of it all. Not to mention all of the the other infections.

Anyway we were told by the immuno and the EPA that we could not return to

our home because the kids were sensitized to the molds that grew there in

that environment. I know one of them was Cladisporium which is fairly but is

toxic to humans. I know this is not what you want to hear. Our insurance

paid for us to live in another location so we could put our house up for sale

(which ended up taking a year) and then we got a lump sum to pay closing

costs etc. BUT....... I spent many hours collecting reports and doctors

letters etc. etc. . I also renegotiated what they were willing to pay me

because I thought it was too little. It may be worth finding an attorney if

you do not get what you need.Just make sure there is not an exclusion in you

policy. So feel free to contact me if I can be of any help. BARBIE

July 25, 2001