191: From Mystery Symptoms to Mold Recovery: Kathleen’s Story of Taking Her Home and Health Back

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. I guess it depends when you're listening what day it is, but it's today for everyone somewhere. So today. I'm gonna say today 40 times. Now, I have Kathleen on with us today, who's actually one of we inspect clients and I like to bring folks on when they're willing. Not everybody wants to chit chat on these things, right? So, but Kathleen, you know, fun fact about her, she used to have her own podcast, so she likes chatting. So it's going to be fun. And I wanted to have her on to just kind of like talk through her path to how, how she figured out or even realized that I need to be thinking about mold being an issue to the point of like, what happened once you realize that, at what point, you know, did we inspect become a part of that? You know, how long was that? What were the steps? Talk through maybe some of the highlights of, you know, what we found and what, what your feedback and feelings were of the process. Would love to talk a little bit about the prioritizing of remediation because yours was, was like a classic case, which is what I try to preach all the time, but a lot of time people don't hear it, so I want them to hear it from you and then how you're doing now. So, like, that's the map basically that I would love to hit on for the day. So everyone. Okay, I know everyone. Meet Kathleen.

Hey.

Yeah, I'm so thrilled to be here. And before we hit record, I was just telling Brian how like, what a blessing his company was. Just incredible. But yeah, high level. Let me just first address, like kind of like skipping to the end a little bit was the fact that because if, if you're dealing with mold or you think you may have mold, let's be honest, it can feel, as the client, it can feel overwhelming. One of the major highlights, blessings was when, when we had our inspector come in and you get the report, it's kind of like, oh, my gosh, what is going on? We've got mold everywhere, basically. But what was so nice is to have that prioritization list of a. It's lettered A, B, C, D and E. A is like, okay, red alert, red alert. Danger. This has to be done right away. And then everything else is, you know, second, third, fourth from there. So that part was amazing. It helped with the level of anxiety and overwhelm. Right. The fear, which I know you talk about too, because it's real. But one of the reasons I wanted to come on is that I feel like my story is maybe not super unique, but unique in what I hear a lot of people talking about with mold illness, mold exposure, in that, like, my journey started six years ago, back in 2019. All of a sudden, my legs went completely weak, could barely walk, could barely walk up the stairs. Just all of a sudden, over the course of a year, I saw 10 doctors. No one knew what was wrong with me. Ruled out, you know, ALS, MS, all kinds of things like that. Then I finally found a functional medical doctor who found that I had Lyme and Bartonella. We addressed that. Still wasn't getting completely better. Then found out I had an autoimmune condition called myasthenia gravis, which affects your muscle strength. That got maybe 80% better, not completely better. Fast forward again. This has been over the course of six years. My doctor we tested, did some different testing, found out high levels of mold in my system. And if I.

Talk about shock, my jaw was on the ground like mold. I don't have mold in my house. What are you talking about? Never saw it, never smelled it, never would, never, never in a million years. I thought, this can't be right. This has to be wrong. Spoiler alert.

Questions? A couple questions real quick off of that one.

Yeah.

Did the. Did the symptoms with what you were feeling with your leg, did that coincide with, like, you moving into the house? Like, what. Where was the connection there? Had you been in the house for a long time or when you live there?

Great question. So we had been in the house at that time for about six years. So, no, for me, it just came on very suddenly. I didn't have any of the typical, quote unquote symptoms you think of when you hear mold illness. I wasn't having extreme fatigue, wasn't having sinus issues, wasn't having the headaches, wasn't having, like, the typical, like, maybe top 10 mold symptoms. I didn't have any of those.

And I think it's really.

That.

Yeah, I think it's really important to. To like, just clarify that for. Because a lot of times it's like, oh, I've been in the house for a while. And I was fine until, you know, today when I'm not. So it can't be the house because I had been in the house for so long. That variable did not change. Right. And it's a very linear way of thinking, but your body is not a linear system. So as exposure and consistent exposure and stress on the body builds and builds and builds, the body at some point in time turns into the straw that breaks the camel's back. And something you might not, you know, you start manifesting systems, symptoms and things like that, that happen. So that piece of what you're saying I think is really, really important because a lot of people would dismiss the house if it's like, oh, well, I've been here for six years and I was fine. And then all of a sudden I start feeling something. Must be something else. Right. So anyways, that, that was something that really specific that stood out when you're, when you're going through it. So. Yeah, continue.

Exactly, exactly. Well, one thing I do want to mention, this may or may not be that important. I think maybe one of the reasons, or I know one of the reasons why we never smelled the mold, never saw the mold, and of course we don't have the expert eyes that your team does. Right. But it was in our, our attic throughout the whole entire. We have two H Vac because we have a big house, a two story house. It was all over the HVA system. So what does that mean? It's pumping through every single room of the entire house? Like, no, no, it's not. Oh, well, it's just not. Well, just not stay in that room. It's. No, it's everywhere. Everywhere.

And what's interesting about that is that there are definitely times where it's one or two or three things that are really the main exposure piece of the puzzle in a space. Right. So like you're saying H Vac is pushing everywhere. So if the H Vac has a problem, you effectively have a source in every single room of your house. When it turns on now, you know, switch that around to every room I walk into. There's mold everywhere. Right. So like that's kind of the equivalent of what that is. The attic is really similar. The attic covers an entire upstairs of a house. And if there's a problem up there, it's literally a shared floor slash ceiling to all the rooms down below. That's no different than a wall, a sidewall. It's no different than that. Right. So there are these kind of like secondary areas that aren't like where the interior of the house where you live, that could have really, really big impacts on the house, where. While the core interior of the house is doing relatively okay, which is really what. What the situation was here on your end, too.

And if you think about it, I don't know where you live, Brian, but I live in Southern California. Everybody has attics. We don't have basements. How often are you. Are you in California, too? Okay.

Yeah, I.

There's no bas. Okay. Okay. That's cool.

We don't have basements. How often are you in your. You're never in your attic. And we didn't really store much stuff up there because it's kind of a pain to get up there. But most people, if you don't pay for a storage unit somewhere else, you've got your attic crammed with stuff. So, like, you would never. You would never know it's up there 100%.

You're completely right.

Crazy. And then I was.

I don't go attic nearly as much as I should, and I know enough, and I still don't go up there enough. I probably go up there, like, once a year.

Yes. And even if we did, we. Yeah, we wouldn't have known. We. Mold was not on our radar at all. But one thing I. I do want to say is that I was very fortunate that my husband has been very, very supportive. I have been. I have my. My two kids. They're now 20, 24 and 22. They had been, you know, living with us when they moved. When we moved in. They were, you know, 12 years old. 10 and 12.

I had. It seemed that I was the only one that was being affected. And what I've learned over time was maybe yes, maybe no, maybe not to the degree that I was being affected. And I would tell my husband this, right? I said, he's like, I don't. He's. I. I totally am on board. He said, you know, I'm. I. Like, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little skeptical, because I'm fine. I said, maybe you are. Maybe you're not. Like, maybe it's something that's been so gradual, and you think, oh, it's just, you know, I'm getting a little older. Maybe I'm having some aches and pains. Oh, that's just how it is. And then so I'd say, well, maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe you just don't know yet. I think it wasn't even two weeks after that conversation, he found out he had Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is like a top autoimmune condition. I think probably you can clarify this. It's like one of. One of the top autoimmune conditions caused or triggered by mold.

Yeah. I mean, I hear Hashimoto's more than anything else. There's so many autoimmune conditions and there's so many that have, like, these names you've never heard of and this and that. But, like, Hashimoto's is always, like, top of the list when we're chatting with people. And I love that you brought that up, by the way, because you. You hear this a lot. It's. I'm. There's only one person in the house that's affected. And what you're saying, like, I sometimes try to have this conversation with people and it doesn't land because they think I'm trying to, like, I don't know, they think I have some ulterior motive for having a conversation like this with somebody. But the reality is every person's body reacts differently to things. This is why someone in your house can catch the flu and your spouse doesn't catch the flu. That is an airborne thing that your body reacts to that you breathe in, and one of us is sick, throwing up in the bucket on the side, and the other one is here wrangling the kids, feeling totally fine. That is a perfectly acceptable thing to happen in the world for people. Like, that framework of thought. Like, oh, yeah, that's normal. That happens. Replace a virus in the air with mold that you're breathing in, and it's still impacting bodies. And for one person to be hit hard where the other one is just like, maybe a little bit all of a sudden, there's no way that's possible. Right. And it's not true. And we have so many examples of how it happens all the time. And so it's just not tied to mole. I love that you brought that up. And I. For anyone who's Listen, listening, sometimes your partner, your spouse isn't on board. And this is such, like, a key thing that you can bring up in conversations that might be able to help open up the mindset a little bit of your partner as you're going through this. Right. And it's them, it's your kids, you know, just specific little things like, hey, yeah, this is weird. This is how it used to be. So anyways, I keep cutting you off. I'm sorry.

Yeah. And like, now looking back, my.

Yeah, so my. It affected my daughter differently now that I know. Oh, this wasn't probably Just allergies. It was more the typical, like the sinus, the congestion that didn't seem to, to clear up very easily. So every, like you said, everybody's different. Everyone has different body burdens of whatever it's viruses or toxins or whatever that they're going through life with and then it's going to attack. You're the weakest part, you know?

Absolutely, absolutely.

Okay, so we have gone through the point. You identify lime, you identify autoimmune, you start making some progress, you hit the inevitable peak that you can't get any better. Sometimes people even regress after that point a little bit, depending on where you are. And then you do mold testing real quick. What did you do clinically for mold testing?

So clinically, and I know this pros and cons to this, the mycotoxin test, which is it, which is a urine test. And I know a lot of times that can tell a lot of foodborne molds. But for me it did, it did show some foodborne molds, but also, and I don't remember, I can't pronounce them anyway, um, so there, there were some definite, very, very high level molds in my system. Another one that he ran that I know this isn't really mold specific, but I think it's kind of a proxy test for your level of inflammation, which is TGF beta 1 trans growth factor beta 1 test that was like sky high. So those, those were the two main ones. But then him also knowing, you know, everything else that we've done, like, you should be better. The lime is in remission, the bartonella is in remission. Like you, all your, your other markers are low or non existent. So he's like, okay, let's, let's go down the mold rabbit hole. And I'm so, so thankful that he did.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so now you said, all right, molds the thing. Got to figure this out. What's next? Where did you go? What'd you do? How'd that go?

Yeah, so the first, so the first thing I did was. And it's funny too, you know, probably like a lot of your clients, I've learned so much about mold in the last six months that I've never wanted to know about. But one of the, one of the first things we did was so obviously, okay, we've got mold. What do I do? Where do I start? I did an ermi. A dust test. So what is it? E, R, M I. Environmental, Whatever. It stands for something.

It's environmental.

E, R, M, I.

Right.

Okay. So it's like this little Swiffer dust cloth you take. So I did two of them. I did one for the upstairs, one for the downstairs, thinking like, I wonder where this is. So this is before we called your company. Long story short, sent that in. It's like, oh, my gosh, we've got mold upstairs and downstairs. And then I came across you had one of your inspectors come in several hours long inspection. I mean, it was extremely detailed. Taking pictures, doing the. Was it uv? UV light. What are the different.

Infrared cameras?

Yeah, and the infrared and. And the moisture levels and the in the. In wall air samples. Like, very, very detailed. So, yeah, I mean, he was here for. For a few hours, and then we got the results, and it's like, yeah, glad we were sitting down, because it was a lot. But so I think our. Our whole entire report, I just went back and looked at it. Just unbelievably detailed. I want to say it was like 200 pages long.

I say don't scare people how long it is.

No, but if you're in. But if you're into the details, it's.

Yeah, it's.

It's so important to know what you're dealing with. And then.

And I've heard you talk about this on. On a recent podcast is about the overwhelm and not. When you get this report, you feel like, oh, my gosh, we got to burn the house down, but we got to sell it.

But no pause on this piece of it. Can we do a quick pause? And we'll come to this, because this is like a whole. This a whole thing that we're about to get into. When you were. So you do your ermi. Or you could do the dust test, which is our version of the dust of an army that we created that gives interpretation from our inspection data on top of that raw information. So we have a different version. So it's called the dust test. Either one is fine.

Awesome.

So you get that. So then you say that you came across us. Were we the first people you came across? Did you start looking?

Yes.

Locally for stuff. Where did you start looking?

Okay, so. Okay, so. So this is kind of a very weird aside, but my functional medical doctor actually recommended. And you've probably heard of this, a mold dog.

Have you heard of. Have you heard of mold dogs? Okay, they. Oh, I've heard of them, and I'm brand new. I'm like. I'm like, okay, sure, we'll do a mold dog. It's a dog that's trained to sniff out mold Just like they could be trained to sniff out explosives and drugs, they have dogs that can sniff out for mold.

The major con of that is this dog will pick up to the billionth, teeniest, tiniest particle that maybe not could not be an issue. So there were, I don't even know, so many different areas the dog alerted to, but it wasn't helpful because we didn't know what type of mold it was. And, okay, is this serious? Is this a problem or is this not a problem? You know, he was alerting to dirt in our potted plant. Like, well, I don't think. I don't think that's where the source of mold is coming from. So then it was. Then we, like, we need to get somebody in here that's, like, very reputable, somebody we can trust that we know is gonna walk us through this. So then we contacted you guys.

Yeah, you know, the mold dog thing is interesting, and I've actually been seeing more and more people do it. And it's, you know, it's not expensive, right. It's like a. It's a easier access way in, in the grand scheme of things. And you can wrap your head around the concept of exactly what you just said. If it can train a dog to smell cocaine, I can train this dog to smell mold. Right. The thing that I have come across with the mold dog stuff is one.

Molds don't always produce an odor, and so they have to be trained on an odor. So if the mold issue is an older issue that has since stopped, the colony itself is no longer active and no longer creating the off gassing that would create even a subtle odor for the. For the dog. So I've seen a lot of times where we'll go into a home and, yeah, whatever the dog flags. I mean, generally there's something going on, right? Like, that part's there, but then there's like, other stuff that the dog doesn't flag that we then point out because it's something that's dry, or there's a historical thing or something like that that goes on. But then the thing that you just said again, is, like, 100% the issue. It's like, great. It's almost like having a local inspector come in and be like, okay, here you got mold in this house. What do I do? Gut the whole thing? Like, what do I do next? Right? And so mold dog points to five areas. It's like, I guess you have to rip all this out. Like. Like, what do you do? So every time someone has a mold problem, they Then will try to find another inspector to come in and validate stuff. Right. And it's like you end up actually spending more money that you wouldn't normally spend by having stuff.

Yeah.

Wow. Anyway, so I just.

Yeah, but you know, we were at the beginning of this journey, just brand new. I'm like, okay, sure. Yeah. The mold dog was. It was fifteen hundred dollars. So knowing what I know now, wouldn't. This is just me personally would not. Have. Would not have done the mold dog. I would have for sure done the dust test. Because that way, you know, what type of mold do you have to some degree, A little bit quantity, you know, quantity, sort of.

Yeah, yeah.

And then, and then, then the inspection. But you know, hindsight's 20 20. It just now it's all part of the process.

This is why I like to like, dig into like every step that happened so we can talk through it and then people can hear like, oh, this is that. What did you learn from that? Oh, like, right. So I think it's like helpful to talk through this stuff. So.

Yeah.

Okay. So you go through that. So you find us. We come in, spend hours. How did you feel.

After we went through the house before the report, but after we went through the house, like, how did you.

Scared. I was like, wow, that was really detailed. What the heck are they gonna find? Well, and then I think knew after.

After the, the inspector was here, he's like, yeah, I'm definitely seeing some. Some visible mold up in the attic. We're like, okay, this is. This is not going to be great. So. But we felt, we felt good in that it was so thorough. We knew we were going to have answers. And from the answers we could. We can make a plan.

Yeah, that period in between, like when we come in and then you have someone who's combing through your house for four, five, six hours and you see that. You see like just all the places they're spending time and stuff that triggers that, that four weeks or three weeks or whatever. That's where the overwhelm is at its most. Because you don't. You assume the worst because that's what normal human nature is. It's. I assume the worst of everything and you start spiraling down. What's the worst case scenario that could possibly happen? And everyone does it. And it's a normal thing that you do. But the reality is, and it's much easier said than done, is most of that stuff that you created in your mind, these fears that you created, they don't actually happen most of it and so that's like the hard part is that time in between. And so we try to have conversations like, hey, listen, remember we're going to talk priorities. We're going to help guide you through this. It's not going to be every single thing, but the question is, which of the things is it going to be? Right? And start kind of working through this and, and then you get to when the report and the results come and then you have, you know, your follow up, you know, consult with us. Can you talk a little bit about how like that conversation went and what were some of the questions that you had and what was some of the information that were shared with you that you found helpful or not helpful or whatever?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, this was back, this was at.

4.

But almost three months ago that, that was a remediation that was done. But yeah, this was in November. I think it was the middle of November when we had the call. Here we are like the middle or third week in April. But yeah, I just remember again feeling, feeling a little overwhelmed. But the person that we talked to just was really, really good about again reinforcing. Yeah, we do, we did have several places in the house that do need attention, but the biggest one for sure was the H vac and then having, you know, to remediate all that. But just the care and the handholding that we got like working, working through this. I can't even really literally can't even imagine trying to do this on our own. Figure out where do we start, what do we do, what are some steps we can take now. So here we are, you know, again, knock on wood. Being in Southern California, it gets a little chilly here at night, like during the winter. But it's not crazy because I'm originally from the east coast. So we, you know, didn't, didn't turn, we didn't turn on. We basically, okay, we have no heat, no AC until this is done. So we didn't have heat for, you know, a few months during the winter until this was all being done. But it was just like going through like answering our questions, you know, what, what do we do first? And then okay, but what about this? Just because you have, and I do recommend as you're planning to have an inspection and you're waiting for the results and even when you get the results is write down the questions that come across because you're, you're going to have a bunch of questions. This is like if you're like me, like all this is all brand new, like, okay, so. So what does this mean? And how do we handle this? And what about, you know, some of the items? Okay. What are there some things we can salvage in the house and going through that, too.

Yeah. And you, you should have those questions. Everyone's going to have a lot of questions. A hundred percent. I always personally try to encourage people to come in with your questions because I could only, you know, everybody has different questions. Right. I could be looking at the Same report for 10 people and 10 different versions of what someone understands or needs clarity on. So that's really important. I do want to shout out Zach. Zach was your consultant. He is awesome. The feedback that you gave is what he gets all the time. And I want to say that just for people listening, like, I'm not the one that does all of it all the time. Right. So we have a team that have been trained under our philosophies and our processes and our knowledge bases and all that stuff to be able to have a call that allows you to feel the way that you did coming out of the call that isn't just Brian's head. And I think sometimes you're like, I only want to, you know, like, who do I. Who's this person? I don't know this person. Right. It's like, if I'm putting a person here, they belong in front of you. That's all that. That's all that. I will say.

Yeah. Super knowledgeable, like, genuinely caring person. Because I assume maybe he has been in a similar situation. I don't. I don't know. But if you've ever been through this mold journey. Mold fiasco, it just gives you a different appreciation for. For what people are dealing with.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think it comes from just seeing, like, working with so many people. Right. You know?

Yeah, I had.

I had my thing, but in the grand scheme of things, my thing was not a severe thing. It was a short term, acute thing. It got fixed. I was lucky enough to be tied into the person that basically changed my life and set me on this path. And that's, you know, that's the reason that all of that happened. But until you work with, you know, thousands of people and you see it over and over and over again, you just. You either develop that empathy or you're a psychopath. Like, you're one of the two things. And so, you know, as you get through this, you just. You just see and understand it's not just one person. You know, this is all the stuff that you always hear all the time. Oh, it's just you, oh, you're the weird one. You're the crazy one. Oh, you're this, that or the other. It's not that. And the more that you work with people, the more that you see it and you don't have a heart if you don't go into this and are empathetic. Right. And that's why like everybody who, who is in our, who's in our ecosystem, they've been, they've been doing it right and they see it and they understand the people. And I think that component of it, like you know, we, we. My mark, my father in law, who's the one who, who, who kind of opened me up to all this forever ago, he used to call it bedside manner. He's like, you have to have a good bedside manner for people because, yeah, they're going through a lot, right. And you can't just run in there pointing at all the stuff because you're so excited you found all the stuff. Like, you know, that's when I first started, I was just really excited that I was finding things. I'm like, I'm good at this. Like, hey, hey, this is here and this is here and this is here. And then imagine you sitting on the other side like, oh, you're crushing me, like, while you're doing this. So.

That bedside manner is incredibly, incredibly important and it helps people to process some of this stuff and to be able to take the key information that they need so they can do the steps and do what they need to do to move forward. So really glad to hear that.

Yeah. Because you figure pretty much everybody who's coming to you, they're doing it because they or a family member has a health issue. If mold didn't cause health problems, I know would feel like they needed to have it remediated. So, and I know just from. There's such a, a wide spectrum of how, how it affects people. Everybody's different.

Everyone's different. So let's talk about now. So you did your remediation a little bit ago. Not too long ago. So you've been in the house for, for, you know, six, eight weeks or so. So for. Well, let's talk about this. How much did you actually remediate? Let's dig into that a little bit because we found, I don't know, there's like 20. Then how much did you actually.

So there, there were a lot.

Oh, wait, hold on. You just cut out. What did you say?

I say like, how many areas did you actually end up remediating? Did you Just do a portion of it. Did you choose to do a whole bunch of it? Like, I know we prioritize it out for you, but, like, how much of it did you actually do?

Good. Good question. So we took care. Again, amazing to have it prioritized. We have taken care of the level A. That's the highest priority. The A's. And there were two B's. Those were smaller. One was a very, very small issue in the laundry room. One was the water heater platform out in the garage, and then a couple of Cs. So we're just kind of like chipping away. The. The ones remaining are definitely lower priority. We're going to get to them over the course of this year. But so, yeah, the, the H vac.

That was the big one because we had to replace both of the units, all the duct work, all the vents and all that. So it was, it was big. It was, it was a big job. But you. You don't have a choice. Like, you. Right. Otherwise you'll. You won't be able to turn on your, your AC or your. Or your heater again.

No, you're right. Do you mind if I share how many things that there were? Because I want, like, people to have context for, like, how many. Like that. So there was. There was 17 things that we found. There was one tier A, which, outside of the H VAC system, so just like kind of structural living stuff. There was one tier A. There was. And then the H VAC system, you would lump into that. So let's call it two tier A's, fuel tier Bees. And those were your top tiers. So out of 17 things, there was four that fell into tier one and tier two. That's 25% of everything that was found where there was actually stuff that was going on. So for people listening, I really want them, like, kind of put that piece together. It's. And, and if I'm looking at this, you know that. Let's say, for example, there was.

Oh, let's see. I'm trying to find a place that would have been like, an expensive fix that you didn't necessarily. That fell further on the list. And it helps you, like, adjust and reallocate the money a little better. Right.

Okay.

So, like.

Yeah, So I would say the bath, the, The. The primary bathroom is a potential issue behind. That's like if when you walk in the primary closet, you can see behind the wall, the closet and where the, the bathtub is. So there is a potential. Potential issue there.

Yeah, yeah. So there's like There was like a wall that backed up to the shower, for example, from your primary bedroom, which is these areas. So if you're actually going to, like, if there's an issue there that needs to get done, like you. Maybe it's just the wall and the shower can stay, but a lot of times if there's an issue behind a shower, the shower ends up being something that needs to be addressed. Right. That is a big cost thing to do. You know, you're talking 10, 15, maybe 20 grand to rip it out and then put a new shower in or redo the bathroom or whatever that is. Right. That fell down to tier D or Tier 4. Right. This is where the value of the tiering list comes in. Because one way you could have looked at and be like, well, it's in my bedroom, so I have to do it because it's in my bedroom. But it was so low on, like, the level of issue that was there. Technically it's a problem, but, like, what was the severity of the problem that you effectively save $20,000 on something that technically, yeah, could be remediated and there's nothing wrong with doing it. But is it going to have the impact that is in line with the amount of money that you spent to address that area? And the argument there would be probably not. So I reallocate that money to the H vac system, which was a big thing to do. And now you're using the same budget in a way that's getting you a much better result without saying, I have to do every single thing that's here. And like, that is the formula, right? The formula is figure out where it all is and then try to do as little as you can by maximizing the impact that you get from the things that you do.

And I'm glad you said that too, because I. I listened to one of your episodes that was so incredibly helpful, and it had to do with insurance and whether or not to use go through your insurance. So what some people may or may not realize, if you've never been through this mold remediation journey before, most insurance will not pay for remediation unless it's due to an active leak.

So what we paid for was all out of pocket. However, when we go to remediate our bathroom, we're going to get an estimate on that and then we'll decide, okay, do we want to go through the. Because if it's. If it's in the bathroom, if there's a leak, okay, it's an active leak. Insurance will most likely Cover it. So we'll just have to determine based on the cost. If it's $20,000, we're probably going to go through insurance. If it's like, you know, 5, 7, 8,000, we'll probably just pay for it. But that was a really helpful episode because you do have to decide, okay, am I willing to have the insurance cover it with? Okay, is there a possibility they could cancel me? I don't know. But, like, you kind of have to weigh the pros and cons of that.

Yeah. I mean, that's. Anytime you submit something, you're now riskier. And now they're like, we either cut you or we raise your rate. So you really have to decide if it's worth. For different people. There's different dollar thresholds for that. One thing you can try. One thing you can try to do with. So I would get a public adjuster first and like, run this. Run this strategy by them. Right. But if you know that there's an area, like, opposite a shower. Right. Like what we were just talking about the wall on the backside of a shower. And we know that insurance companies are going to be more about active, like moisture issues that are going on. If that wall gets open. If you open up that wall and then have somebody come in and there is like something super minor, they can kind of point to the fact that, oh, yeah, there is like a little something here that now gives you more ammunition to go and say, hey, I want to have this looked at. Right. And then the, you know the thing about insurance, they write you the check and then they never talk to you again. And so, you know, one way to work through this, even if you have, like, your plan. Right. Like, one thing that you could have maybe tried to do is we're gonna. We're gonna hit the A's and the B's. We're also anywhere that's opposite a plumbing line that that was identified, we're just gonna open it just for investigation. We're not gonna do any crazy remediation. We're just gonna, like, cut the wall open around it. If I see any staining or water damage in there or any indication that there's some sort of active thing, I'm gonna claim that for my insurance so I can get the money to fix that. But I know that it's a tier D on my thing, so I don't really care if I fix that in priorities. But I'm going to take that money and now I'm going to go fix the H Vac and I'M going to go fix the other thing or something like that. So these are like, like little ninja hacks that you can start doing, but I would definitely get like an adjuster in and say, hey, listen, I want to try to, like, figure this out. Like, how do we do this? Right? And it's like these little. These little ways that you could try to maximize the money on the back end, too.

Yeah, that's so helpful. Yep. Yeah.

So anyways, but how are you doing.

As far as going? So I'm, I'm doing really well. I. I see my doctor again the next couple of weeks, we're gonna rerun tests, see where I am. But I, I feel like I have improved. I feel like my, my energy level is back up. My leg strength is, is much better than it was. So things, things are, are improving. I am working with him on.

Detoxing from, from the mold. And, you know, I think it is important to work with the practitioner because it depends on what type of mold you have, what type of binders will work best for that. So I feel like I'm in really good hands between working with. We inspect with your team. Having a really good doctor who is very, knock on wood.

Very mold literate. He's very. I think that's important, too, is to find a practitioner.

Who knows what they're talking about, because. And you probably hear this a lot, Brian, that it's easy to.

Can't really get emotional. But to go. To go through these things and feel like.

You'Re the only one that, that's struggling with whatever this is, and your doctors running labs and saying, well, you're fine. There's. There's nothing wrong with you. And to have to go through and finally found, like the tenth doctor. I mean, I went to neurologists, neuromuscular doctors, all kinds of specialists, and there's nothing wrong with you. Clear. Clearly there is. I can barely walk. So to be dismissed as a patient because they can't find out what's wrong with you, it's just important to, like, I, I knew there was going to be somebody who could figure out what was wrong and, and you just have to not, like, not give up and keep looking and keep searching and finding someone who, who can help you because there is somebody out there.

Sorry, I didn't mean to get so emotional about it, but I know it's. It's hard for patients when you're in the medical system.

Yeah.

It'S. It's hard. It can be hard as. It can be hard as, as the patient, when you're dealing with kind of like these mystery symptoms and you know your tests are coming back, oh, you're fine. Just, you have to advocate for yourself. And I'm just a stubborn enough person to know that there is somebody out here. I'm gonna, like, I get there's somebody I know. I'm not the only person who's dealing with this. I'm. However long it takes me, I'm gonna find someone who knows how to help me. And I, and I did finally find that person. It took, you know, it took a little over a year. The tenth doctor. But I'm just, I'm, I'm very grateful.

So have a lot of listeners in California. You want to throw out his name?

Probably, probably not. Because he, he already has a six month wait.

He's already gone.

The most important thing is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but, but to, to find. So the first thing is, and this is just, this is my, my opinion just based on everything I've been through with the medical system is if your current practitioner can't figure out what's wrong with you, search out a functional medical doctor. They are the, the specialists, the doctors who look for root cause, not just, oh, let me give you this pill to mask a symptom. And it may take 2, 3, 4, it may take a few doctors, but just find one for sure who is very knowledgeable about mold and, and, and start there. And I, I hope, I hope it doesn't take you 10 doctors. But, but it's, it's common. It, it's really common.

It's very, very common. And it's why I like doing these conversations. So you can avoid the ten doctor roundabout that everyone. And you know, I say everyone, I mean a lot of people, A lot of people, a lot of people do this. Right? And you could, I mean, if, if I personally are just knowing what I know now and stuff was ha. I'm straight to a functional doctor. I don't even have a primary.

Yeah.

Like, yeah, like if something goes on with me, I go to the urgent care, I go do whatever I need to do. And otherwise it's functional medicine. Like that's what it is. Right. Like for me it doesn't even exist over. There's a reason for them for like acute specific things. Right. Like, I don't want to bash it like completely. Right. Because there's definitely like a need for that type, but it's a, it's like a service for a type of need. Right. And so if the need is not in line with what they can offer you. Right. Then it's just the wrong fit. Right. Like. Like if you wanted a, A, I don't know, a plumber to come into your house, but then you called. We inspect. We're great at what we do, but we're not a plumber. Right. So then it's just like the wrong type of, of service for what you need. Right. So I, I think that's really helpful. I appreciate you spending some time and sharing your story. Like I said at the top, my hope is that when people hear these types of stories, it, it counteracts tenfold all the people on social media telling you that you have to burn your house down and go live in the woods, because it's not really true.

But when you don't know who to talk to and you go search for stuff, you know, who's puppy mama? 35, 47. And what does she know about mold and health? I don't know, but she says I have to burn my house down. It's like, you know, it's. It's tough.

No, no.

So I appreciate you sharing.

Yeah, we feel. We feel good. And you know, there we. During remediation, we were out of the house for, For a few days. We call. We considered a staycation. We rented an Airbnb for a few days while that was going on. But it's just a good feeling to be back in the house, to feel comfortable again.

Yeah. And like, thank you so very much for, for what you do, for what your team does, because it. It makes a big difference. So thank you.

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you for sharing. I'm. I'm very happy to hear it. And continued improvement. I'm excited for you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

You're welcome. All right, take care. Bye. Bye.

Take care.

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