Effects of Mold, Have You Ever Experienced It?
Mold is almost everywhere in our environment, and many people take it for granted or don’t notice it at all. If you are among those unfortunate enough to have a mold allergy, however, the effects of mold can be rather serious. When I was growing up, I would always get a runny nose, itchy skin and other symptoms when the weather was rainy. Occasionally, these symptoms would precipitate a cold or flu, but other times I would just feel lousy until the weather cleared up. I got no idea what the cause was, since no one else in my family had similar symptoms. Then one day, a leak in the roof showed me the source of my allergies.
I woke up in the middle of the night with something cold and wet dripping on my face. I got up, turned on the light and looked up to see water running along the top of my ceiling to a low spot right above the bed. I don’t know how many hours it had been leaking for – I was a heavy sleeper back then – but the ceiling was clearly sagging in that spot. I was already feeling kind of sick since it had been raining for a couple of days. I was suffering the effects of mold spores, which turn active when the weather gets wet. I didn’t realize that things are about to get much worse for me.
My dad was a handy, do-it-yourself kind of guy, and the next day he got up on the ceiling and fixed the leak. At that point, he pronounced the matter finished; we moved my bed, put the bucket under the spot with the leak, and waited for the ceiling to dry out on its own. The weather soon changed, but my symptoms didn’t get any better. If anything, they got worse as my damp ceiling began to grow discolored.
Looking up and seeing black growth gathering on it, I finally put two and two together: my ceiling was moldering, and my symptoms were the effects of mold.
I had my dad come into the room and look at the ceiling. He didn’t know what to make of the black spot, so he scraped it. Underneath, the ceiling was much darker with black mold. Apparently, the leak had been going on for some time, and mold had built up in the ceiling. I got a headache as he started scraping away at the ceiling, And I actually had to leave the room. I convinced him to let me sleep in the living room until he could clean out all the mold in the bedroom. Even in the living room, I was miserable and sick for the next month or so, suffering the effects of mold he had stirred up into the air. It was a long time before I could go back into that room without feeling sick.
