Working With A Mold Illness Patient-My Perspective As the Husband, Primary Caregiver, and Doctor.
In part 1 of my mold journey which you can find here, I spoke about the health struggles my wife was experiencing after a water leak caused multiple sites of mold growth 6 months into moving into our first home. I elaborated on the vast array of symptoms she experienced and how they progressed over the years before I discovered she was suffering from toxic mold illness. I got into our experience navigating the conventional medical system over 1.5 years and the constant failures, gaslighting of her symptoms and medical specialists simply chalking it up to anxiety and stress. After that year and a half of trying to find answers in the medical system, I knew I was going to have to figure out her declining health on my own. My wife was no longer the same person, deteriorating slowly in front of my eyes.
The Different Mold Illness Treatments and Protocols
The Shoemaker Protocol
At the time of writing part 1, I had just completed Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker’s practitioner course on treating CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome) due to toxic mold exposure. It was light at the end of a tunnel I had been trapped in for more than 2 years, searching for answers to get my wife healthy again. I learned a ton from that course, believed in it 100% and hired a Shoemaker Protocol trained physician in Colorado to work with my wife. After 6-8 months and thousands of dollars in consultations, supplements and diagnostic tests…she was not feeling any better. Even though my wife did not get any better, we did discover a number of issues that were still contributing to her failing health. Testing of our home showed there were still mold remnants in the house even after remediation. I just didn’t know where and since the treating doctors were in another state, they were limited in how they could help with testing and remediation of our home. She also had a co-infection of bacterial overgrowth in her nasal sinuses, directly caused by the mold, that needed to be treated.
In learning the Shoemaker approach, I was also able to take what I learned and help other patients struggling with CIRS and mold illness. I helped a patient’s Parkinson’s tremor completely resolve using the principles of the Shoemaker protocol, yet he continued to suffer with debilitating fatigue and brain fog. The protocol steps and diagnostic tests are unfortunately very expensive and hard for most to comply with. This was a big barrier I experienced in working with other patients.
My Myco Labs and Dr. Andrew Campbell, MD
After exhausting the Shoemaker approach, I discovered Dr. Andrew Campbell, MD an immunologist and toxicologist by training who does medical consults for My Myco Labs, the first ever blood antibody test for mold mycotoxins. He has been studying mold illness as it related to breast implant illness since the 1980s. He offers a variety of free training materials and lectures on his website. I had the opportunity to speak with him personally and learn his method of treating mold illness. And so we began using an antifungal Itraconazole for her treatment along with a few specific supplements. He recommended continuing the treatment for 6 months but expected to see symptoms improvements in 12-14 weeks. At 13 weeks we started to finally notice improvements in symptoms and in her follow up testing for mycotoxin antibodies.
Acupuncture Treatments
In addition to Itraconazole, my wife started working with an Acupuncturist that was recommended to us. We had already tried working with 2 other Acupuncturists with no improvements, but either her body was not ready to receive the treatments at that time, or this new Acupuncturist was very different, I do not know. Either way, after the first session, my wife felt immediately and incredibly WORSE!!! I saw this as a positive sign that something was changing in her body and its response to the treatment. We were able to manage the flare up with natural anti-inflammatories and she was back on track. After her second treatment she noticed a significant decline in her body aches and by the third treatment, even more improvements in her pain. None of the previous protocols recommended nor encouraged Acupuncture as a possible treatment for mold illness. I believe stacking these therapies together was a game changer in her symptom management.
More Remediation
The other major change in treatment at this time was undergoing another round of remediation. By this time, we had already undergone 3 different remediations on the house. I had finally decided to remove all the carpeting and old tile in the house and replace it with brand new materials. I suspected cross contamination of mold and mycotoxins into the carpet and no matter how much I vacuumed it, there was no way to tell how clean or dirty the carpet was. I worked with an environmental mold specialist for a while by the name of John Banta to try and discover other possible sources of mold contamination in my home. He advised that it was very difficult for mold illness patients to get better when carpet is in the home. I decided to bite the bullet and invest another $20K in replacing all the flooring along with two full doors and frames that were showing signs of water intrusion and dry rot.
This may have been one of the best decisions I made because underneath the tile in one of the upstairs bathrooms, the sub flooring had completely rotted out from water damage. It was so extensive that the bathtub had to be removed and replaced to repair the subflooring. We never would have discovered this additional source of mold and water damage if we hadn’t decided to replace the flooring.
Dr. Jill Crista, ND – The Mold Doctor
By far the most comprehensive and integrative mold illness training I did was that of Dr. Jill Crista, ND. Her mold literacy training for medical providers program was extremely extensive and spoke about the role nutrition, movement and exercise as well as food has on recovery. In addition, she thoroughly educated on the use of binders like Cholestyramine, activated charcoal, antifungal medications like Itraconazole and incorporates the use of natural plant medicine for those patients who are too sensitive to use prescription medications as part of their treatment.
Incorporating more plant medicine and specific tinctures to help fight against the mold and mycotoxins as part of my wife’s treatment has also been a game changer. She has struggled with extreme sensitivities to medications, chemicals and supplements throughout her entire illness, so being able to use isolated plant tinctures in conjunction with other medications has proven invaluable.
Final Thoughts on Our Journey and Working with Other Mold Illness Patients
Every person’s healing journey is unique and different. There is not one protocol that will help everyone with mold illness, despite what all of these mold illness experts claim. I have experienced it firsthand both in my wife and working with mold sick patients. Working with a provider that has learned the various approaches and is open to being adjustable when something doesn’t work is very important. Sometimes the body is not ready for a specific type of treatment until other variables have been addressed and treated first.
Don’t jump into any random mold illness program. Before I learned everything I did about treating mold illness, I struggled to find good resources and providers for my wife, especially here in the Austin area. I couldn’t even speak with the doctors unless we paid 4-5K upfront for a full program without knowing any details about the program. This frustrated me. Because of this, I offer a free 20 minute consultation so we can meet and chat about your journey, what you have already tried for treatment and how I can guide you to the next step. Maybe you’re not even sure if you have toxic mold illness. We can discuss that as well.
Stay healthy my friends.
-Dr. Ernesto Medina
