Florida Mold Effects

Kevin and Alice have been hit by the Florida Hurricanes. Their home had serious water intrusion and they were unable to get to their home when it was first hit. Five days after a strong hurricane they moved back and they had serious water. After drying out the home, much of the dry wall and some their ceiling was still moist. In fourteen days they had significant mold on different home areas.

They are sweet people and yet as I talk with them they are showing all the classic signs of mold fogginess. The are blowing up in terms of weight, they have poor insight, they are not able to get as much done. They have slower thinking abilities than past years. Their memory is reduced. They seem to be walking around in a fog. One of them has slightly red eyes.

Insanely, they are moving visibly moldy drywall around, and likely breathing in massive amounts of toxic mold chemicals.

What is the lesson here?

Indoor toxic mold can drop your insight, judgment, awareness, common sense, mood, and rationality. I find I have to remind patients 5-20x to have their home evaluated by an expert. They walk through this junk in space-land and cannot get themselves to make a call. And if they are going to call a mold evaluator, there is always some cheap ignorant relative who thinks they know everything, quick to say, "Agh, mold is everywhere, you are wasting your money." Of course they dopey rocket scientists have no cure for the patient's medical problems and are mere sideline mockers who know nothing about indoor mold. And stunningly, they will not read about it. But they are experts.

Such friends or relatives or untrained MD's are worth nothing and offer no solutions. Indeed, the patients getting to mold experts have been to see 5-30 previous MD's or DO's and are still ill.

Sincerely,

Dr. J