JuliaFaith

You are an amazing person doing all the things you are doing! Our ERMI test came back much higher than yours! I did cheat and dust the all-house heater filter which probably threw the results off. I really did not think anything would come back. Just learned that on the sheet that lists all the molds, the top portion are indoor molds and the bottom portion are outdoor molds. They subtract the outdoor from the indoor to get your ERMI reading. After talking to the chemist, he pointed out one that did not look good. It was the 'Aspergillus restrictus' that was the highest on our indoor. My limited research turned up: Most toxic, cause liver damage, cancer, and damage vital organs! We had removed mold in our basement a few times over the last 12 years, so the chemist recommended that we clean house top-to-bottom (vacuum/wash/vacuum walls/floors). He said there could have been cross contamination. This went on forever, and we did a bit of long-needed remodeling upstairs and found some mold around the kitchen sink and a small amount in the bathroom. We are going to re-do the ERMI in another month. Doctor recommended an air-cleaner in son's room, but knew it would not get all the mold out of the air. Anyway, a few of son's tests are coming back looking much better (MSH, TGF-1, C4a, C3a, etc.). Only the VIP and MSH are not normal yet. Still have other viral issues he is dealing with as well. This is all very overwhelming, but our health is more important than anything (hopefully we can still afford to eat!). We are not sure if we can stay in this house and may have to do something about it later, but just taking one day at a time and moving along with these health issues as we can and as quickly as we can. Best wishes to you and your family! Keep posting so we can hear how you and your family are progressing.

Son's doctor sent us to LabCorp. asking for 'Human Trans. Growth Fact. beta 1' test on her script. It looks like Labcorp sent it to Cambridge Biomedical Inc. This is all the info. that I have. You could call LabCorp. and ask them for a number. Good luck!

Hello Christianmom: Just looking at this chart again to see if I understand it, along with the instructions in Dr. S book. In a nutshell, here are the instructions: 1. On your test results themselves: DRB1 translates into 'B1' DQB1 translates into 'DQ' DRB3 translates into '52 (A, B, C) DRB4 translates into '53' DRB5 translates into '51' 2. Write down only the first two numbers in each line (of your results) 3. When you see 03 for DRB1, rewrite it as '17' 4. Record entries in B3 by converting the 01 to A, the 02 to B, and the 03 to C; This will give you 52A, 52B, and 52C, respectively. 5. B4 is 53. 6. B5 is 51. So my son's results showed numbers in DRB1 (01, 15), DQB1 (05, 06), and DRB5 (01) only. So this translates on the chart, according to the above instructions to: Under 'DRB1' 01 & 15 (so I circled these in the chart) Under 'DQ' 05 & 06 Under 'DRB5' - 51 (per instruction #6) My son's doctor called and talked to Dr. S to get the results and their meaning because she was not familiar with how to read them. So son's results shows the following: Under DRB1 - Borrelia, post lyme syndrome and low MSH Under DQ - Multisusceptible, Borrelia, post lyme, and low MSH Under DRB3 - Nothing in this column for my son Under DRB4 - Nothing in this column Under DRB5 - Borrelia, post lyme syndrome My son's doctor also said that everyone will have things come back on this test and that it really does not indicate for sure that you will have problems with any of it. That is her opinion anyway. It was right on for my son and his ART testing results. Good luck with all of this. Hope this makes some kind of sense.

Thank you for the viral info. Really appreciate it!

Following is the company I ordered the vaporizer and the air capsules from. Just keep it going in the room my son spends his out-of-bedroom time in (have a HEPA air cleaner in his bedroom too). It has a rather pleasing scent as well. Just remembered that son uses Viressence by BioPure that is probably for viruses as well. Has been taking this with other things the entire last year. Doctor just prescribed Berberis Formula by Seroyal (contains Goldenseal, Barberry & Oregon Grape). Not sure if this is more viral support? http://www.beehealthyfarms.com

Originally had this under just 'mold' but he touches on lyme as well. This guy has some very good articles on lyme and now mold illness. This is a very shortened version of what Dr.S and others talk about in terms of biotoxins. http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/blog/251-biotoxin-illness-conference-2011

After ds has been on treatment for 1 year: C3a/C4a are both testing normal (53/139) (Range: C3a 0-940; C4a 0-2830) TGF-beta 1 is now normal 2000 (Range: 344-2382)(was 9860 during mold remediation) VIP is still LOW MSH - 17 (Range: 35-81) (was 11) Good to see this increasing! (maybe propolis vaporizer, getting rid of MARcons, & mold removal is helping this number??) So labs are showing improvement which is great. Doing more labs for HHV-6; EBV; and CMV. This HHV-6 virus, however, is not showing improvement after at least 6 months or more on Valtrex, doctor is recommending 'Valcyte.' Anyone know about this med? Insurance is wanting some pre-authorization because of the amount requested (plus, I believe it is really expensive). Son seems to have a cold virus right now with a cough and it is very minimal which is amazing. A year ago if he caught a cough it was horrible and had to give him abx immediately so the PANDAS reaction was not too over the top. Even though he is not feeling well, this is good to see. Have not given him anything for this just continuing on prescribed med./herbs. Any ideas on the viral end of this would be greatly appreciated.

After 4 weeks, I asked doctor's office to call them. They called and immediately were faxed the results. It does sound like they do the test themselves now. Our recent results were in line with treatment.

Can I do ERMI testing myself, or do I need to get a professional involved? Should I wait until further mold tests (MSH, HLA, etc.) are run on my son to make sure it is mold and not lyme or something else causing the elevated c4a? Yes - you can easily do the ERMI test yourself. I did not know that and spent a bunch of time looking for someone to do it only to eventually find out from Mycometrics that it was very easy to do yourself and send in the test results. If you are not sure about mold exposure/illness I would wait until more tests are done on your son but in the meantime start looking around at your home very closely to see if anything is noticeable. Energy testing was our first indicator and then we used petri dishes from Home Depot (house looked o.k. with these), then when mold kept showing up in ART testing, we did ERMI, found a higher mold count, then did MSH, HLA, VIP, etc. tests on son.

Not sure if I would have used the same wording "warm and fuzzy-ew! sounds like mold! lol But I feel the same way you do! We will get thru all of this you know.

duplicate - sorry

My son's symptoms have been different from a lot on this forum and I finally figured out why. He does not seem to have Bartonella. You can see the list of his diagnosis on the signature line. It is only common to have lyme and mold if you have lyme and mold. Not everyone has mold issues and not everyone has lyme issues, just ones who are living/working etc. in a moldy or water-damaged environment have mold issues. It just seems that if you get lyme, for example, it can affect your immune system, which in turn, lets a lot of things in your body mutliply etc. Lyme and mold have similar symptoms. My son's symptoms are flu-like (got rid of cough and tic earlier in treatment). They are getting less and less but he is not fully there yet after a year of treatment. We only found the mold issues (although dr. kept mentioning them) 5 months ago after blood tests, so started more treatment for mold at that point. Have read (somewhere) that mold illness can be worse than lyme. My son is very warm most of the time so asked dr. and she said it was the lyme so not sure about your son being cold. Just posted a new topic on mold which is a short outline of Dr. S's ideas if you are interested. Hope these answer your questions.

This guy has some very good articles on lyme and now mold illness. This is a very shortened version of what Dr.S and others talk about in terms of biotoxins. http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/blog/251-biotoxin-illness-conference-2011

Thank you for the info. on Labcorp. We used Jewish Health the first time and this time we used Labcorp. Labcorp took forever and the doctor's office had to call them to get the results sent. Now doctor wants to meet with us over them so not sure what the numbers are. The first time son's C3a was in the normal range and C4a was 2,632 (0-2,830). The most recent C4a is 139 (5 mos. later) so treatment is doing a great job. His doctor thought the C4a was probably quite a bit higher before the testing because of mold but had been lowered with treatment. The 'DNA portion' of the test revealed a low MSH (which we already knew), Borrelia and post lyme. Will look at the new test results (5 mos. later) on these tomorrow. CD57 was 24. Body mold testing. The tests that son's doctor ordered were (will be looking at results of all of these again tomorrow): 'HLA DR by PCR+MSH+VIP; TSH+T4F+T3Free; Human Trans. Growth Fact. beta 1; Venipunture.' You can find info. on these on-line as well as in Dr. Shoemaker's book (I believe he has some added to this list). Son has been in old portables at his school for 6 years and there was some removed/found in our house so not sure where all the exposure was coming from. Asked the doctor if mold removed years ago could be part of the problem and she thought that was possible. We also found a bit more (not large amounts) after doing some remodeling and found some on the back of an artist painting that had traveled to S. Africa, a bit in the kitchen and bath. Home Mold Testing. The first and least expensive thing to do is a thorough investigation of your home. Bathrooms/kitchens/crawl spaces/attic are hot spots for mold. Make sure area is completely sealed off before removal and cleaned thoroughly afterwards before opening to the rest of the house. A very good respirator is also necessary when doing the work. There are a couple of books for this on Amazon.com but we did not order them. Could have used them years ago when other mold was removed before we were more educated about the process. My dh did all the work and did a much better job this time around after the education. Then, once you are satisfied that the house is in order (or before, if you want to find out quickly) is order an ERMI test for $300. PM me if you need more info. but there was a recent thread that had the website on it. My son's ND is treating him for the 'mold exposure/illness' and ordered some of the tests recommended by Dr. Shoemaker. She had a phone consult with him to decipher the test results since his research is pretty newly published and is some of the most up-to-date info. that you will find. My son's dr. did have a few different opinions about Shoemaker's info. but was impressed with his overall research. Maybe, Familyof5 will chime in (or you can look at some of her threads on the forum) here as she has actually been to see Dr. Shoemaker and has been a valuable source of information for all of this. (Thank you Familyof5 - you are a gem!) Best wishes on recovery!

I laughed when I read this but am totally with you on this. Maybe we can get a 2-person(family) discount to Bora Bora! lol

Just have a quick moment...my son has been on valtrex since the beginning (1/2 morning - 1/2 night) and another, I believe, just by the name of it is: Viressence by BioPure (liquid - also since the beginning of treatment). Has not tested worse as far as I know but not sure if any better in this area either. They are listed as "microbials" on treatment sheet which includes other herbs as well. Have a quick appt. today, will ask about it. **Went to doctor today and she thinks that HHV-6 is a continuing viral problem for my son. This is after ART testing for the past year. Son will be doing a blood draw and she has them checking for HHV-6; EBV; & CMV. Interesting to hear about the XMRV too. Thank you for sharing Wendy.

Even tho a lot of information it is a great path to healing. My son had several of the same issues. Sounds like you have a great team to work with, 1/2 the battle! Best wishes on treatment and healing. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much for mentioning this! We bought a new washer about a year ago that came with 'cleaning tablets' to use whenever the 'cleaning' light goes on. Well, ran out of the tablets and have not cleaned it since! Will definitely pick some more of those tabs up.

Just heard a quote in a seminar today that may or may not help. "Crisis is an opportunity for us to act in new and innovative ways." Best wishes on your new and innovative ways and getting through this time in your life. Focus on the future and how much you will appreciate it after what you are accomplishing right now. Sending best wishes your way.

We ended up doing a free public school at home of which a certain percentage is done on the computer. It is thru K12.com. They have a paid program and a free program for certain states. They send you the books/science lab equipment/art supplies everthing. You are the 'coach' and have to input hours spent on subjects every day. We often work on weekend to get caught up for days when son is not feeling well enough to do school work. We go on the exact same schedule as his local jr. high so there is no arguments about subjects and when they are done. They are very flexible and son's 504 was transferred to them as well. Tried his local jr. high this year but he just kept getting sicker and sicker so we switched back to this school. The public schools are just underfunded and overwhelmed they really could not do much for us. We have a new anti-bullying law in our state (WA) so schools are very pro-active, as much as they can be. PM me if you want any add'l info. Best wishes.

We tried it because my son's ND recommended it and is easy to use. She usually covers every possible scenarios with her prescrip./supplements. Just a habit now every night and my son even likes the scent.

Yes - water with some lemon juice added. Apparently, lime does not work per someone else on this forum.

Hello dear dear Wilma. You have been in my thoughts quite a lot lately. I only hope that what you daughter is going thru right now is because of healing. In terms of detox, I had forgotten, but my ds uses Detox Deodorant from Herbalix Restoratives. He started out just using it on the bottom of his feet and slowly added his underarms and neck. This along with lemon water and epsom baths are just some of the detox things we have tried (along with chlorella/ibuprophen). Best wishes on your next appt. and healing.

JuliaFaith -- Did you have your son's methylmalonic acid levels checked? Just wondering as my son's were normal, but I thought on the low side (91 -- (reference range 73-376)). Naturopath feels my son doesn't need B-12 shots, and he does already get B-12 as part of KPU supplement. But part of me says give B-12 shots anyway as it can't hurt (can you tell I'm desperate ). Do not see this testing done (on lab reports). Apparently, the methyl B-12 has many uses, i.e., fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, there are many more... The injection version lasts 4 days where, the tab. form lasts about 4 hours. We are going to try for 2 months and see if son feels any better. Have gone a week so far and the only thing I notice is son is sleeping in more in the morning. Have maybe seen a bit of adversarial reaction as well, i.e., became very argumentative when time for school work one day. Apparently, this is not uncommon in the beginning of treatment. Hope this helps. Know what you mean about being desperate! Best wishes.

Interesting information. Thank you for sharing. We have a whole-body type of chiropractor that I may try. Ds is at least 1/2 way through treatment so wanting to work on his physical body as he becomes more active. He already pulled a muscle on his leg running. On the emf's, we turned off the electricity to my son's room but had not done anything else until recently. Ordered the tester and stetizer (sp?) filters and found the room he hangs out in most of the day was the worst, by far! After installing them (plugging them in) I could feel something refreshing in my sinuses - go figure! We are hoping it will help with healing as well. We are trying lots of 'weird stuff' and hope it is helping. Last visit the dr. shortened his treatment from 2 yrs. to 18 months and said it was because we were doing everything she suggested. She also uses ART testing. Herzing has been minimal for son (except with Artemisin) and he takes 20 Chlorella 3xday (with 3 tabs salmon oil), epsom salt baths, and ibuprophen if needed. We have clay to add in if needed (can also use charcoal but I heard from dr. it is harder to digest).Have also done 2 hair tests. The 2nd one showed higher amts. of heavy metals which initially scared me, but dr. said it was great because it showed he was getting rid of them. On the vitamin end of the test, it showed more vitamin absorption which was also good to see. Gluten-free really brought the inflammation load down so has been really helpful for my son as well. During the teenage years it is difficult to tell if the behavior is from meds., illnesses, or puberty! It very frequently is a toss-up. Also, just started doing methyl B-12 shots.