For the longest time, I did not know I was living in a moldy, water damaged building…

In October 2019, my family moved in to a beautiful townhouse, nestled at the top of a lush green canyon in north San Diego county. It was a dream come true! With a light and bright open air layout, the 3 bedroom/2 bathroom floorplan was the perfect size for myself, my husband, and our then 2 year old daughter. I immediately fell in love with the neighborhood because it was so kid-friendly, and there were many families with young children. We spent LOTS of time in the beautiful shared yard, getting to know our neighbors and doing things most families with young children would enjoy like blowing bubbles, coloring the sidewalks with chalk art, having impromptu picnics, and playing with our dog.

We purchased the home just before the housing market exploded and the whole world came to a screeching halt in early 2020. When the mandatory stay at home orders were issued in California, I had no idea of the health nightmare that was about to begin for me and my daughter.

Who could have imagined that staying home to avoid a potentially deadly virus would result in daily exposure to high levels of toxic mold in our home? It was something I never suspected.

In the 4 years that followed, I began to develop unexplainable health issues. First it was just trouble focusing and feeling exhausted/depleted more than usual. I chalked it up to being stressed from the global pandemic. Then, both my daughter and I started having new food allergies and a resurgence of food intolerances. This was seemingly random to me and I figured we would just avoid those foods for a while, as I was already keenly aware of the power of elimination diets from previous life experiences, and already familiar with living a gluten-free lifestyle. It was no big deal.

Then I started noticing behavioral changes in my daughter, which started around the time she turned 4 in late 2020. There were regular occurrences of uncontrollable screaming, daily meltdowns of the most epic proportions, and concerning OCD like behaviors. We had already assessed that she likely had some unique neurodivergent qualities, and assumed this was just part of her developmental growth stage.

We NEVER suspected that mold could have been an issue.

I also noticed behavioral changes in myself, often experiencing overwhelming feelings of rage, confusion, deep sorrow, and frequent episodes of anxiety/panic. Migraines were increasing in frequency and I often felt nauseous, having periods of emotional overload that would build up for a day or two then culminate with a massive headache, vomiting, and then ultimately needing to sleep it off. My menstrual cycles were really intense and I since I had previously been diagnosed with PMDD, my mindset was that these symptoms just needed to be managed. I also had regular flare ups of severe joint pain, so I sought support from a chiropractor and a naturopathic doctor.

During that time, we also experienced grief around the passing of 2 grandparents on my husband’s side of the family, and were in extreme isolation due to COVID restrictions.

I was concerned, of course, but simply assumed this was all stress related… and with the global pandemic, there was little to no support available from friends, family, or professionals.

We were quite literally trapped in a moldy house that was making us very sick, but we had no idea what was happening

In late 2020, I started working as a nature school teacher, which was incredible because it gave me and my daughter an opportunity twice per week to be outside in the fresh air & sunshine, socializing with other families, and a much needed break from the stress of being trapped in our home.

At this point, I had completely normalized having chronic illness and had started becoming an expert at holistic living in order to manage all of my symptoms and give my daughter as normal a life as possible. Being surrounded by other “crunchy moms” in the homeschooling community added fuel to my fire, and I felt fully empowered to take on this new wellness-centered lifestyle.

I learned how to use homeopathic remedies, learned about holistic health concepts, and bought all the best supplements to support our bodies even though I had no idea WHY we were experiencing these mysterious health symptoms. I even started selling CBD and zeolite detox products!

I fully accepted my new identity as a chronic illness warrior and holistic living expert

I thank God that I was introduced to all of these holistic health practices because I can’t imagine how much worse we would have been had we not started taking specific supplement protocols!

The protocols were working quite well, and we were able to get back to a mostly normal, happy life.

My daughter was doing SO much better being in nature school, and I was happy to have a new job doing something I loved. For all of 2021 and most of 2022, life went on like this and we did our best to find the joy in each day, and to persevere through the challenges we were facing.