About Mold Madness

Our story 

Here's how our very costly journey went. I (Ronnie) was born in New Mexico and my wife (Linda) in New Jersey. When I met her, she was living in Prescott, Arizona, knowing Jersey had made her ill but at that time doctors and natural practitioners were diagnosing and treating it as Lyme disease and / or lead poisoning. Her constant battle for health inspired her to practice natural medicine, as do I, becoming the foundation of our union. In 2010, we moved to Belize, Central America to open a natural healing retreat and tropical superfood farm. Life and our health was good at first, especially for Ronnie, but we now know due to Linda having a lifelong battle with her childhood mold exposures, the hot, humid, and moldy tropics were causing her condition to worsen. 

In 2013 my father-in-law (Alex) died of cancer and Parkinson's disease. My mother-in-law (Andrea) was also very sick with her 20+ year, mostly untreated, diabetes and inflammatory disease. Numerous studies have now connected all these diseases with mold exposure. A great resource and expert that discusses this, whose work has mentored and helped us recover, is Doug Kaufmann - https://knowthecause.com/ 

At this time, we moved back to NJ to help Andrea with the estate and into Linda’s childhood home, built in 1924. We did not know about or understand the hidden dangers of mold at this time. Both homes were in disrepair so being a builder, I remodeled them myself. This included removing some mold from a bathroom area, replacing drywall, etc. Today I am a certified inspector and remediator and would say, given this small area, I actually did a pretty good job. I would have used a full face mask and suit rather than just safety glasses and a N95 respirator. I also would have used a quarantine chamber and negative pressure, etc. I would also say the insulation in the wall, floor, and roof cavities likely was full of mold and mycotoxins.

We lived in NJ for a total of 2 years, Ronnie traveling back and forth to help manage and develop the retreat. Almost immediately after we moved into the newly remodeled guest cottage, Ronnie began having a kidney pain, but no other symptoms at this time. We decided it was a kidney infection or UTI and treated it naturally. I also gained a lot of weight unable to keep it off, even with our very clean diets, which was never a problem before. Linda’s symptoms since her childhood have included horrific migraine headaches, light sensitivity, dysbiosis, muscle cramps, fatigue, brain fog, hot / cold flashes, foot pain and body aches. We took advantage of being stateside and saw several doctors, naturopaths, homeopaths, and a functional medicine doctor. Even with these classic symptoms, none thought to test for mold and mycotoxins. 

Unfortunately, despite us becoming Andrea’s full-time health coaches and caretakers, her condition was too advanced and coupled with her grief for her lost husband, she also passed away in 2014. It took us until the early 2016 to sell the estate so we could return to Belize full-time. Ironically, and while it was sad to us at the time, we ended up selling to a developer who demolished both homes to build new condominiums! Looking back now, this could not have been a better fit and assures nobody else will go through our Amityville house of horror experience. 

Returning to Belize in 2016, Linda began to really struggle with her symptoms increasing both in frequency, duration, and severity. We visited doctors there who ran tests but never got the right diagnosis.  

In 2018, I too began to develop the splitting migraine headaches Linda had suffered off and on most of her life. The heat and humidity made them almost unbearable for us both. We knew we had to do what had thus far been unthinkable, and placed our retreat for sale. It took us until the end of 2019 to find a buyer so we could move back to the states and seek respite. We also quit practicing natural health as a profession, seeing we could not help ourselves, much less others. As we approached the Mexico border with our belongings, staying at a friend's seaside hotel and retreat while getting the paperwork in order, the Covid Crises hit, closing the border for one year! Luckily we rented a cabin from our friend even installing air-conditioning so we could get some relief, which helped but by the year's end we were both suffering greatly and wanted to get to a cooler climate asap. 

We had purchased another retreat property in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina in 2016 just in case we had to return given Linda’s possible inability to live in the hot tropics. We chose to buy a new rv and go there, and if that made the difference for us both, we would build a home and retreat and continue our natural health practice. 

Long story shortest, and so those reading along will see relocation, upending your entire life, and at great cost, is often crucial, let it suffice to say we got sicker and sicker there too. In fact, we soon learned that it was the cold, wet and humid winters that also made our symptoms flare up worse. We all remember our elders, especially those in the South or back East, complaining about their arthritis etc., getting worse during the winter and storms. That's the case with all inflammatory disease which we were beginning to realize we now suffered.  

Clearly, we knew we had to now sell again and leave the South. I also want to point out because we are often asked if living in a Rv is a good option for mold sufferers either while in transition from a mold infected home, or temporary while remediation is taking place, or even as a permanent solution, the short answer is NO! I actually discovered our mold illness while on Rv forums researching what to do about the humidity in our Rv which at times in NC was like waterfalls running down the walls! I saw so many temperature control issues in these groups, as well as one mold case after another, including symptoms like ours. At this time we found a private lab and took a micotoxin test which revealed off the chart levels of Ochratoxin A and Citrinin, both carcinogenic and connected to kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, CIRS, and more. This is when our entire focus shifted to mold illness. We studied (still do) like fanatics! 

We loaded up the rv, and another trailer of all our belongings, deciding to move West to my homeland of New Mexico or Colorado. We stopped for a month in Hot Springs, AR, taking advantage of the healing waters and hoping to heal more there while trying to figure out what to do about this mold trying to kill us. Those pools are amazing and healing, a must visit if you have not, but still the climate is not for those with inflammatory disease. Climate change is only making it and mold worse worldwide. 

We decided to try Colorado first, but noticed even during snow storms there our symptoms were still worse, just like in the rain and humidity of the Belize tropics and southern subtropics. Next we toured and stayed in southern NM and southeast AZ, but those were too hot, and our symptoms were as bad as in the hotter, wetter, climates. It was proving to be much like the three bears, everywhere was too hot, too cold, too wet, etc. This is even while we began treatment protocols by Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, Dr. Isaac Eliaz, and Doug Kaufmann. We knew our studies had stated it would take at least one year, if not longer, up to eighteen months to detox and purge the mycotoxins, that is, if we were not still in a contaminated environment. This is when I began studying mold inspection and remediation, even getting certified myself to test and assure our rv was clear of mold and mycotoxins. We knew we had to buy a new home and get out of the Rv as it was extremely hard to control the temperature and humidity. Of course, after Covid we all know what a buyer's market we are in, right? Lol.  

So in conclusion, we ended up returning here to the East Mountains and Estancia valley of New Mexico near Albuquerque. Learning that construction methods and materials are part of the problem and mold crises, Dr. Shoemaker speaks loudly on this, we bought a modular home that is much easier to remodel from top to bottom, and demo'd it to the framing, using many techniques to restore it to be mold resistant and assure that if any mold had ever occurred, and we found several small areas and dead colonies, it is remediated to the highest standards. We have now also helped several clients remediate their homes in several states. 

We have been on several mold protocols chiefly Dr. Shoemaker, Dr. Isaac Eliaz, and follow Doug Kaufman's work closest, mixing them all together the last two years. Between this and the cool dry climate here at 6000 ft, we are finally feeling healthier than we have been in years. Our tests also show we are detoxing and lowering our biotoxin levels, killing off the fungus, and should fully recover!  

We are planning to eventually build at least a small retreat center where people can come and heal from this deadly and horrific condition. Meanwhile, we offer our expert mold services to assist others in any way we can.  

Please contact us if you would like our assistance, and thank you for reading our story!