150: Real Mold Stories Told by Real People with Dr. Jill Crista (Part 1 of 4)

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to today's episode. This is a one of a kind, first time ever kind of episode. It's never happened before. And of course, for all of these milestone first time ever episodes, it's like an obligation now at this point for Dr. Joe Christa to be a part of the episode. So let's start out real quickly. Dr. Jill, what's going on? How we doing?

Hey, how are you? It's so fun. Congratulations. Your podcast is rocking it. Yeah. And I'm so excited to do this one.

I know this is 150. I think this is gonna end up being 150. So the, the move is that you are every increment of 50. Dr. Jill, Christa comes on. This is now her third time on. She was on 50, 100 and now 150.

Congrats. That's. That's amazing.

Oh, I appreciate it. I'm excited. I'm really excited for today. Like I said, it's very different. So Dr. Jill, myself, obviously, this podcast, you listen to it, it's a lot of. Lot of me talking. When Jill does her stuff, it's a lot of her talking. It's a lot of us sharing stories about clients and patients and different things. But there's not always the connection of hearing what's happening with somebody straight out of their mouth and being able to maybe connect with somebody who is going through a similar situation. You know, my goal for, for this episode specifically is for whoever's listening, we're going to be talking. Well, let me set it up. We are going to be actually speaking with individuals who have worked with either myself or Dr. Jill or gone through this process and have stories to share.

Successes, things that were difficult, just kind of what it's like. But ultimately, the purpose of what we're doing today is to give those who are listening, hopefully something that they can attach to something they could resonate with and a real example that can show them that, like, this is possible. I say all the time. I see it happen all the time. I know it's possible. I know you, Dr. Jill, see it happen all the time.

Yeah.

Hear us say it. It's something else to hear someone who's actually gone through it talk about how they were feeling and the roadblocks and the different things that happen, but ultimately persevering. And that is the format for today, the first time we're ever bringing people on in this format and having conversations like this. So I'm really, really excited for this. Is there anything you want to add, Dr. Jill, before we get going?

I guess just thank you for using this amazing platform that you have to give us a chance to hear success stories. Like you said, it can come right from us, but that's not as believable as hearing it right from the people who've been there, done that, even though you and I both have been there and done that. But how many times our story, you know, so, yeah, thank you so much for. For this opportunity. And thank you to all the people in advance who wrote in with their stories. And it was very hard to choose who to bring on. So, you know, you want to talk about that, about why certain people.

I do, actually. I wasn't, but you brought it up, and it's a great idea. Do you want to talk through, like, what you did to try to. To so we can try to get people on and even understand who we were going to be bringing on?

Yeah. So I have a newsletter that I send out once a week, usually a little sporadically, and it basically invited everyone to share their success story here with you and I. And again, thank you for opening up this amazing platform that you have to do that, because I've been hearing a lot from people that I work with, and when I had a membership, people saying, I need stories of hope when I'm in my darkest moments, I need to hear that this is possible. I need to hear what worked, what didn't work. And that's gonna be different for everybody because every building is different and everybody is an individual as well. But I just heard it over and over again, where do I go to get the good news stories? And I thought, wow, where do you go? You know, we don't really have. I have cases in my book that I talk about, but we don't have a whole lot of those. And so, yeah, so I reached out to you and was like, okay, 150 is coming up.

Yeah. So the background on this is you actually texted me, which was awesome. You're like, Hey, 150 is coming up. Should we do something? I was like, actually, yeah, we should do something. That's cool. And then we went back and forth on this idea. I Was like, oh, this is such a good idea. I'm going to give credit where credit's due. This was not my idea. This is Dr. Jill's idea of setting up a recording in a show like this. And it's a great idea. And I think you're right. I think it actually mimics real news. Like the real news only really shows the bad stuff that's going on and doesn't show the good stuff. And I don't know, this is like just a random thought. When Covid was happening at the beginning, what's his name? John Krasinski. It was Jim from the office. He set up a. In his house, like a new studio and it was called like good news only. And all he did was get people to submit into him things good that were happening during this like really weird, awful time for people. And then he was like reporting on just like people's, you know, iPhone videos and stuff like coming in of like good things happening. And I was like, ah, this was so cool. I was like, I really. It stuck with me. And that's kind of what this is. And maybe this turns into a thing that's more than just a one time thing. It would be great. But you submitted out to your lists. We did the same on our end. We had a whole bunch of submissions and we tried to select ones that were kind of a cross section of different things that went on. Some people that worked with. With my team, some people that worked with you, and then just different overall situations to try to. Hopefully the majority of people listening could kind of catch a piece of something from all of there, all the stories that we're going to hear and maybe, maybe see that light a little brighter at the end. So that's. That was the background on this.

All right, well, let's get into it. So the first person that we are going to bring up. So I'm going to do this now. Like I'm running producer at the same time on this. So we're going to bring up Casey.

Hi, Casey.

Casey, what's going on?

Does that work? Hey, I don't want to wear the headset. All right. It's fine. All right. And I only have 40 battery in my headset. I actually teach online, so I'm like, I'm like, no, I am not muted.

So pivotal. And how me and my husband and our family got healthy. Like the work that you're doing is such good work. And the integrity that you're like that your company has Brian and that your books have, have Dr. Christa is like, it's so important and it's so rare in this field. Unfortunately, we found that out the hard way, and it was so helpful for us. So thank you so much for the stuff that you're doing, and please keep doing it because it's helped us so much.

Thank you. Thank you for saying that. I know. I know Jill and I talk offline about all of that. It's. I. I don't know if it's like a selfish thing or what it is, but I like when people tell me that they appreciate stuff. It makes you feel like what you're doing is actually helping. Sometimes I feel like I'm just spitting into a camera for hours and.

Is it doing something you're not? You're not. Yeah.

Thank you.

Well.

Well, thank you for that. It's. It's always very nice to hear that. So why don't we start. Why don't you kind of give us the background? So I think if we go. What was sort of the trigger point on. On you understanding that you had to go down this road and then, you know, kind of get into some of the, you know, how it went for you. If there were some challenges, what's working? Well, kind of like that we can get into it.

Yeah. Okay. So I just want to start by saying that I am a. A nurse and an educator by trade and also a life coach. And it's. It comes back in the story of why that matters. But in 2013, I had my first child and things were great. And then 2015, we had our second things were great. 2017, I had my third kiddo. And I never actually recovered from that postpartum season. I was still super fatigued. A couple years later, I was having neuropathy set in. I was having night sweats after Epsom salt baths, and I was doing Epsom salt baths because I was sore. Like, muscle wise. Excuse me. I didn't. I wasn't detox or anything. I didn't know anything about that stuff at that point. I was even, like, short of breath, just going up the stairs, like, going up and down the stairs in my house. And my bedroom's upstairs, so I was like going up the stairs all day long. Right. I would also get, like, really bad ice pick pains. I didn't know that they were called that at the time. And it would be this, like, stabbing pain in, like, my thigh, and three seconds later it was gone. Or the next day it would be, like, in my cheek, and then it was gone. And the next day it was my head I'm like, what is happening? So I was sharing this with a lot of family members, and they're like, you know what? You should just start seeing, like, a new doctor. Let's go. Go find a new doctor. I'm like, okay. So.

By the time I had set the appointment, I had a whole new set of symptoms in place. I was getting all kinds of crazy neurosymptoms. So as a nurse, I'm like, okay, I'm really concerned now. I would be driving to a very familiar store, one that I frequent often, and I would forget, like, where I was going or where I was. I would forget. I mean, this one time, I forgot where my house was. And I was down the street from my house, like, two blocks away. And then, okay. I'm like, okay, like. Like, this is not just getting old. This something is really wrong. And I would start to forget the children's names in conversation. And that's the part where I was like, am I having a stroke? Like, what is happening here? And then I'd be totally fine, right? And so when I. By the time I saw this story, doctor's poor doctor, I had, like, a long list of symptoms. And she was like, okay, I got a new hyp contract patient here. So she did. She did lab work. She was great. But everything came back normal as sneaky, sneaky mold symptoms do, right? And so she's like, you know, I just think you're a new mom and you just need to get some rest. I was like, okay. At this point, like, My youngest is 2. My oldest is 7. I'm not a new mom anymore. Like, something's wrong. Like something's really wrong. Especially with, gosh, that sensation of driving, and all of a sudden you have no idea where you're going. And it's like, okay, but I know how to drive. Just. Just keep driving. So scary stuff like that. So a year later, I was, you know, doing scrolling therapy, just scrolling on social media, and I came across a post that someone had put up about their husband's Sears diagnosis. So chronic inflammatory response syndrome. And I, again, as a nurse, like, I'd never heard of this before. And as educator, I never taught on this before. And so I go to look it up, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, like, all of these symptoms is me. And so, you know, boom, this opened up this evening. Sessions of research for the next week solid, right? And obviously with Sears, you're going to learn about mold pretty quickly. And then a week later, kind of by the same circumstance, I just came across information about pans, which is pediatric acute onset neuropsychiatric syndrome. How many words can we slam into an acronym? Right? But that one was. That one hit a little harder to home because I was like, oh, my goodness. This describes my oldest to a T. And I was so sad, but at the same time, like, so encouraged that the. The boogeyman in the closet finally has a name. So now that we have a name, we can make a game, right? Like, a game plan to attack it. So at that point, we were like, okay, we need to find somebody that can help us figure this stuff out. So we started trying to find holistic providers that could handle mold exposure, possibly Lyme, because I wasn't sure if I had it. Turns out I did, um, and then also pans, and we found a person pretty close to our house that does test for those things. So we did all the tests. The mycotoxin test. We also did the expensive versions of the, um, limes testing, like Igenex and Infecto Labs. Um, we also did, um, the cutting hand panel for my son. And of course, everything comes back positive. Positive for mold, all kinds of molds. Um, positive for Lyme.

And a positive Cunningham panel. And so it was. It was like a. It was hard. It was a hard conversation to have with her. That one was over the phone with the diagnosis of getting the pans. But we're like, okay, like, we're gonna. We're gonna do something about this. So when we had picked her home, it was our forever home. Like, we were gonna be there forever. And so we really didn't want to just make the decision if it was my work that was making me sick or my husband's job or whatever, Right? So we decided to do the house testing. And at this point, I think I had listened to, like, every episode that you had posted this through the podcast, Brian, but you only had, like, 80 episodes, so it was kind of easy to binge them back then.

It was only had 80, way back when.

Only 80. Remember that Dr. Krista was on one of them, and I found her through a different source. So I was like, this is awesome. These are my favorite people. Anywho. But so I was like, you know what? I did not want to invest because we had so much money at that point in an inspector that might not do it the right way. And we were really nervous about getting wrong results or false negatives. That's what I was concerned about in a. A community that we really liked that did have mold. But at this point, we Were able to, we knew how to test. So we were able to test the home. And we knew which types of molds we were working with, this aspirals and penicillin. So I felt like, felt pretty confident that we could do it. So we buy the house. Turns out there was a massive.

Rotted out wood underneath the dishwasher. And I was like, we missed that. And I was like, oh no. And I was so upset. I was like, this is going to be stacky, I just know it. So we sent off the test and it was still just aspergalis. And I was like. And so we tested it twice. I was like, I don't trust those results. And I was so thankful. It was just aspergalis. But it was devastating. It's just like all the wood was rotten out. It's a 55 year old home. Like it's old. It's from 68. And I was like, but you know, like, we can do this. We've done harder things at this point. Like we can do this. And so we did. Well, I say we. I gotta wrap my pocket. It's my husband. It's all my husband and his friends and our family. Like I did nothing because I get so sick, you know, so he, he just remediate, he took it out. We actually did get rid of that dishwasher, got a new one, redid the floor. I mean, he's such a great guy. But anyways, so he, he fixed that. And then, you know, a couple months later, the same thing. I'm in the basement. We had cleaned the basement, doing laundry. I'm like getting a mold hit and I'm like, what is happening? We fixed this. And I was, oh, it's the rafters. We didn't clean above the rafters. Like we only cleaned below it. So, you know, we had, at that point we had decon, 30 wipes. My husband took care of it. And then two weeks later it was fine. And so I bring all those small details up because the thing that I wanted to bring to the table today was to remind people that there is one. There is life after mold. Mold does not. Mold is not the end of the story. It might be the beginning or a big chunk of the middle. Like it feels for us because there's like a two year process, but it's not the end of the story. And that there's always hope. Like you can get better molds everywhere. So we, we can't just run from it. Like we have to learn to keep going forward when we have those setbacks, like a, like a crazy dishwasher situation or a little bit of mold that was in the laundry room that was totally fixable.

Right.

I didn't have to run away from my, my basement that time. And there's times that we have to leave. I get that. Like, we had to do that hard part. It was so. It was really hard. But you can recover and you just have to find the right resources. And I. It's really important to find, as you guys know, your support system. Like, who are those people that are going to come help you remediate to kind of, you know, be that shoulder to cry on when you're like, I didn't want to throw with this thing, you know, but yeah. So there's hope after mold.

It's.

Yes.

Awesome story. It's actually your husband. Good for this guy. Because it is not easy to do everything that you just described that he was doing. And I don't know if we. If I missed or not. Was your husband symptomatic at all or did he just actually believe you? Because he's a good husband.

He believed me. And he, he, he. He was totally fine. We even got him checked for mold and he was fine. And then when we were in our, our safe house, our clean house, he came home from eating out with some friends and he's like, oh, I just got one of those ice pick pains. I was like, you have Lyme. Go get tested. So he went to the holistic practice that we see. We see Mid Atlantic Health Institute. They're amazing. They actually specialize and focus on Lyme recovery and mold detox. They're amazing. Anyhow, so he went there, he got tested, and sure enough, he was not only positive for Lyme, but positive for rocky spotting, mountain fever. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. As a nurse, like, you're gonna die. He's like, well, the doc told me it's actually really common. And so they detoxed him, and then he showed up negative on their test after that.

And.

But yeah, so, like that he had a little bit of that experience, but I was like, if we had not experienced this mold stuff, like, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint that, you know, and, and he probably wouldn't have believed me, you know, So I, I was just thankful that it was taken care of right away instead of. But yeah, so, no, he's not really sensitive. And he, I mean, now he can. Now if he goes into a building that has like, really bad mold, he can get a Mold hit. But he's not as sensitive as I am.

How many, how many sources did we find in your. In the first place?

Oh, I don't know. I lost track. I was like half tears on that day. But there was, I mean, every floor, there's three floor, three layers of that house, and every layer had it. Which was frustrating because we thought only one floor had the mold. But yeah, I mean, you guys did it all. You did the army testing for both locations, which was super helpful because then we had a baseline for the house that we ended up redoing. And then you did the swab testing and also the tape testing as well.

Yeah, I think it's important. What you just said is like you were in tears that day. I mean, we're looking at you now. Like look at everything that you accomplished both in the house and also with your health and with your family and you know, the knowledge that you have as a nurse, but also this, this breadth of knowledge that you've gained that you're not only helping your husband, but I'm sure, you know, a lot of the people that you work with that you're able to identify these things faster. But it is really important because when people are hearing you now, you're very optimistic and, you know, positive. But we all had those days when it was just all tears, you know?

Yeah. I think the hardest was when we, when I had to throw away my kids toys. Like, that still makes me sad. I'm like, oh, I remember all the toys. But you know what? My children don't remember those toys, but they know, they remember having a calmer home and they remember like being able to be more control of their emotions because they're not so dysregulated by the neurotoxins that, you know, that mold has that effect. So I, you know, you, you get over the stuff. You really do. I mean, I'm, I can be sad and I can be like, I'm okay with it. Like I would, I'll, I'll do it all again if I have to. Like, I'm ready to like, you know, I'd like this home to be our forever home, but it might not be. And that's okay. Like my kids health and my husband's health and my own health, like that's so much more important. And I mean, you guys were just so pivotal in the work that you do and helping us get to that point. I can't thank you enough, seriously.

Well, thank you for coming on and sharing your story and selfishly telling me that you enjoyed my podcast.

I still listen to it.

Me too.

Oh, man, it's adding up.

High pressure, high pressure now.

Now I have a face. Every time I'm recording, I'm like, is Casey gonna like this? Like, what am I saying?

Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. Again, it's like a slightly different approach on what happened, but it's. It's. The through line is. It's overwhelming at first. It's not ever going to be easy when you first realize that there's this whole thing that you didn't think existed. But for people who are at that point, there's like a turn, there's a fork for them, you either just give up and say, this is life. And I guess I'm just going to slowly rot away in this place for whatever's going on, there's nothing I can do, or there is stuff we can do. And the path is different. Some it's, hey, I'm going to get out and just leave and go figure it out right away. Other people, it's. I'm going to figure out how to remediate this place. Other people have super husband, and he goes and does it, like, whatever it is. So. So the big tip on this, everyone go find a super husband to handle it. You guys, let him know that I think he's amazing, because I think what he did amazing.

I will.

All right. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Casey.

So this was a really good talk.

I'm glad that we got past the initial difficulties. I don't know if anybody heard it, but it was like, how do I make my voice sound come through here? Anyways, the. Some of the things that I kind of pulled out of this conversation, one of them was this idea of a forever home. And I actually don't think anyone should ever think of a home as a forever home. I think if we do that, we're putting so much power and weight into the home. It now has, like, power over us, where if something happens, well, we can't because it's our forever home. Right. And, you know, I think this whole thought process needs to shift. I understand why people say it. I get it. Like, we've been working towards this. It's exactly the kitchen. I want this and that, and I get it. I understand where it came from. And then we all get kind of brought up with this concept in our head of, like, you know, we're getting our. We're building our forever home. I kind of feel like every. And I think it's with everything in life is that you can't, like, lock yourself down to one thing definitively and never change. Right. Because if you do and something changes, and it maybe requires you to change as a result of that, but you're not doing it now because you're like, well, this is forever. I can't do anything.

So that.

That was just an interesting concept for me. I've. I've never thought of anywhere I lived as that. I've thought of it as, this is where I live right now. Right. I'm sure there's memories here, and it's awesome, and it's great, but that's just kind of odd. That was one just kind of interesting concept when they were talking about building the place and kind of everything.

Yeah. And I think the pandemic, the gift in that is that it taught us that things can change rapidly and profoundly. And so, yeah, I think you're right. There's a. Assessing the attachment to space I think is really interesting.

Yeah. It's the emotion piece of all of this. I. You know, obviously the money is real. It's a thing.

Oh, yeah.

You know, all of that. Right. But a lot of the decisions that we make are emotionally driven. And if you could. If we. If you could turn yourself into AI Casey. Robot, and you were emotionless, and then this whole situation happened again, and all that you're doing as this AI being is evaluating everything that's happening, it would pop out a solution that is probably. Probably right, because, you know, AI knows what it's doing and is probably very different than what. What a human would do. It's really interesting how much emotion plays, you know, in the role of the decisions and everything, you know, that we make.

I love that she talked about what she called the rebound effect. And I, I, Casey, I'm gonna take that term and use it. I'll give you credit because I love the term. I usually use the term unmasking, but then, you know, it gets me in trouble with the whole mask conversation. It's not about masks. It's about uncovering. So let's call it rebound effect, which is when you leave the. The sick building, your body may need to have a detox, and you can feel worse for a little while. And that makes it really confusing to know, is this a safe place for me to heal or not? So do give it a little time if you're a slow responder or if you have so much toxic burden that the body has to kind of clear that before it can feel better. So I just love that she Brought that up, that they. Some people then will stop the process and say, well, then. Because it's easier to not have it be mold. Right. So, oh, well, then it's not mold. I feel worse in this other space, so we don't have to do anything. So I'm glad that she brought that up so that we could just bring it to light that this is a thing that we see not with everybody, but that you may need to give it a little bit of time. Because if your partner who's not on board is seeing you get a little worse, that makes it a harder argument to convey.

It is because you're looking at. You're trying to look at logic. You're like, well, if this happened, this happened. The body is a very complicated thing that we don't even fully understand yet. So how could we look at it as if we know everything? Me as some random guy knows exactly everything that's happening in the body. And this must be true if that's what's going on.

And I love that you mentioned being empowered, you know that. Empowered with the information, really being able to understand those results and having a good team member, you know, a good, good building inspector and advocate is so huge.

Yeah. You know, one thing she said on the. On the home front, which is super important, and I'm glad that she said it. So she mentioned that she was still feeling like hits when she went in the basement and then realized that they didn't clean like the top side of the rafters in the basement. Dust, basically, dust collected up there, held the mold, fragmentation. If there's toxins in the house, whatever was going on and then that circulates down, you breed that stuff. Right. It's very real. People. I want us to understand that, like, when you're like, oh, this little bit of dust over here, that can't be think it holds everything and it gets circulated through your house nonstop. And so that is ultimately what becomes like a secondary source of. It's like a secondary. It didn't grow there necessarily, but it collected so much that it is a source at that point. And the importance of cleaning the house, the whole house, after you remediate the source is so, so, so important. And to hear somebody say it, that isn't me that beats this drum all the time to say that they went through and did all this remediation and. And was feeling better. And then I felt something here and lo and behold, oh, as soon as I just wiped all the buildup dust over here, that was quite holding out everything that happened in History of the House, I felt better, is very real and it's so important. So I want to make sure to, like, highlight that piece because I thought that was a big thing.

Yeah. And to. To stay curious, because that didn't involve another big remediation. You know, some people will have the symptom, get scared that's going to mean more money, more whatever. Stay curious. Because it just could be something as simple as that. Yes.

And then the last thing, which maybe I'll throw to you is she mentioned her doctor was minimizing things because she's just a new mom. Right. And I feel like this is a very standard doctor who doesn't get it kind of practice. So, like, what advice do you have? What commentary do you have when you hear something like that?

Oh, it's just so common. And it breaks my heart. And I did it to myself when, when mold hit us. You know, I blamed perimenopause. I blamed puberty on my kids having their stuff. And so I think it's, it's. It's okay. It's common. But still, if you know it's not right and you've done all the reasonable things, like in our other conversation, you know, they did all the reasonable things and there was still symptoms. Know in your heart you don't have to get permission from anyone. No one. Not a doctor, not an authority, not your mother, not your partner, not your best friend. You don't. Permission from anyone else is not required to listen to your own heart and your own intuition.

So that's it for today's show, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment and subscribe and give a rating wherever you get your podcast, it'll help spread the word to those who really need it the most.