Some Good News (and maybe some bad news)

First of all, a few weeks ago we received the results from Stephen's mold toxicity test. This was going to tell us what mycotoxins were in his body. We were anxious to see the results, so when the test came back, we eagerly opened it and began scanning. What was hard to grasp was that every single mycotoxin that was tested came back as either 0.0 or within the normal range. (if the range was <25, Stephen's result was <25) How could this be?? Our house was full of mold, so how did he not have any in his body? We were very ready to talk to Stephen's doctor about the results and see if he had any ideas as to why his numbers came back null. Once we talked to Dr. Randy, we felt more at ease. He told us that all the test measured was how many mycotoxins his body was excreting. So it looks like Stephen is holding on to ALL of the toxins. Dr. Randy told us that he has had another patient that took this test and also got the same kind of result. After 3 months of taking a mold binder, she took the test again and her numbers on several molds were high. After another couple months, she took the test again, and the numbers were going down. So we aren't looking forward to having to pay for a test again, but at least we have a probable reason for why his results were the way they were.

Another note, I found this graphic that explains a little bit about how MTHFR mutations work. As I mentioned in a previous post, Stephen does have two partial MTHFR gene mutations, which means that his body cannot detox properly among other things. We thought that since he just had partials, he wasn't as bad as it could be as if he had the full gene. Well, thanks to this info-graphic, we found out that he is actually the very bottom mutation. Which means that he is only able to detox 20% of all toxins that come into his body. Yikes. Take that info plus the fact that he was spending 24 hours, almost 7 days a week in our house that was full of mold, and you can imagine that his body is completely full of mold toxins. Annd according to his mycotoxins test, none of them are coming out.

More good/bad news, Stephen found out from a friend that no one prints the exact Bible that he uses anymore. Both our friends and Stephen have verses and chapters memorized due to their location on the page. So it would be a LOT of brain work to memorize all of that again! I had done some research on all of the different Christian book stores, plus Ebay and Amazon, and I couldn't find the exact Bible anywhere...

But I should've known that if anyone could find it, Stephen would be able to. He actually found two listings one on Ebay & one on Amazon of not the exact Bible he's been using for his whole life, however it looked like the page layout was the same!!! He was able to see a few of the pages in the pictures, and it looked like they matched up perfectly. He went ahead and ordered both Bibles, just in case. One has arrived so far, and guess what, it's laid out exactly the same, plus has Vine definitions in the back to boot!!

More good news is that the new camper that we are able to stay in for the next few months has arrived!! It is literally the nicest camper I have ever seen, and we are SO thankful for the opportunity to borrow it for the time being!

The new axles that we need to start reinforcing the trailer are here as well! The trailer bed, as is, is not heavy duty enough to put a tiny home on it. So we will be doing quite a bit of work on it before we can actually start the process of building our tiny home. We have also decided where we will be putting the tiny home at my parent's home. My great-grandmother used to live in a trailer in the same place, so there is already a water line and sewer in the ground. The only problem is that my dad had begun to fill up the slope in the land with concrete and large rocks. The land will also need to be leveled. Plus, my family has some meat chickens stationed there, so we need to wait until they are butchered before we can start most of the land work. All that to say, we have about a month and a half before any of the real work can begin. But in the meantime, we have been busy trying to clean what possessions we can take with us, fogging our house and car, and selling the items in our house that have been fogged, and therefore considered "mold free".

Now that the house is fogged, we are able to test the house again for mold, and see if the fogging actually accomplished anything. The first time I went back to the house after the fogging happened, my throat got itchy (which seems to by my instant reaction to mold, after I've been away from it for any length of time). But after we cleaned and vacuumed, which is what you are supposed to do after fogging the house, because fogging brings all the particles down, the next time I went into the house, I didn't get an itchy throat!! So hopefully that means that the mold is gone.

I have also been getting an itchy throat when I get into our car after a hot day and turn the AC on. We're thinking that fogging the car needs to be our next priority, especially since the weather will only get warmer from here. We're assuming that after the heat of the day, the mold gets activated, and once I turn the AC on, it just stirs it all up. Car AC's can be very problematic for mold if it's been exposed for any length of time.

The last little bit of maybe bad news, is that last night the vent for the AC in the camper started dripping water on the floor.. We aren't sure yet why it was doing that, but it makes us a little nervous. The last thing we need is for us to have mold creep in to this trailer...