In 1995, my husband and I bought our first home and moved in with our children, Ryan 13yrs, and Jade 21/2. Six months later, I began developing some very unusual symptoms. I had huge skin lesions on my legs, scalp and sores inside my mouth. My speech began to slur and my face and hands were numb. Tissue, muscle, nerve and joint pain were excruciating. I lost my memory and it became impossible for me to work. Within a year or so, Jade began complaining of similar symptoms. When my husband and Ryan also began complaining of these symptoms, I went to an infectious disease doctor because I was convinced that I had given my family some sort of disease. The doctors tested me for every known infectious disease; all were negative. Jade was a special baby, even her day care teacher commented on how bright she was. By the time she was 31/2 however, her teacher confessed to me that Jade was changing. She was lethargic and regressing – her doctors offered no answers.

In 1998, we noticed a dark spot on our ceiling. We hired a contractor who tore off the ceiling in order to find the cause. We found that over 750sq ft of the ceiling was mold infested and wet rotted.

In 1998, I unexpectedly became pregnant with Taia and although it was a difficult pregnancy because of my weaknesses, we were blessed with our baby girl. As time went on, I began to watch my family transform, depression and mood swings becoming a big problem for all of us. The pediatrician had no explanation. Not until late 2000, thanks to a family member who watched a program about a family being exposed to toxic mold, did we understand what was happening. We had no idea that mold could be the cause of our health problems. We also learned that the problems are long-term and there are no cures. We had no choice but to leave our home. We were told we could take nothing with us that was porous because it would contaminate our next residence. All the furniture, toys, books, stuffed animals, were left behind. Jade and I have both been diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy.

Mold exposure has changed everything. We have lost our home, our jobs, health insurance and worst of all, our health. Our family appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in July 2002. I am also working with the Consumer Attorney’s Office at our state capitol in California on new legislation regarding toxic mold. There are over 100,000 types of mold in our environment, only a few are known to cause the damage we experienced.

— Written by Joni Spiers

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