The story of the worst move ever

We are moving. YAY! We move in two days and I am a busy bee packing and cleaning and planning. We DID NOT want to move again. We love the floor plan of this house. It is awesome and we planned on living here until one of our kiddos had to move us into a home. But, sadly- we had to go through the horrible experience of a "sick" house.

Does this house look "sick"?

No, it looks like a wonderful place to live and raise a family. However, here is our story beginning to now...

June 08- we move in and could tell that this house had been for sale for a while and sat vacant. The air was musty and it felt like the house was a "tight" house. Imagine getting into a mason jar and closing the lid. We completely ignored any inclination that we felt bad in this home.

July 08- Funny pants starts getting really dizzy to the point of almost blacking out and it happens frequently. We both suspected blood sugar issues. We now start to worry that he has diabetes. He tests for diabetes and thankfully all is well, but what is making him dizzy/ he is referred to a neurologist. The neurologist tells him that he seems fine and that it could be his vision, stress, etc...makes a follow up appt. I had cold like symptoms off an on with a bad cough and just felt tired. I completely ignored my own health as most moms do when it isn't serious.

August 08- Smarty pants has an episode where he is coughing/barking and has trouble breathing. Funny rushes him to the doctor and he is prescribed pretty hefty meds and an inhaler. He has never had to breathe in an inhaler before. Cutie pants has stomach issues and colds constantly. I start having excessive bruises all over without any cause.

Sept 08- Problem is noticed with Sassy pants so I make an appt with her pediatrician for Oct. Funny pants now is having muscle spasms all over his body constantly and his right leg is very weak. His maternal grandmother died of ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) so we are concerned when we look up these symptoms and learn that these are symptoms of ALS. So, I am completely stressed out/exhausted, worried about Funny Pants and Sassy Pants because what we suspect with both of them is so serious. I start feeling really sick towards the end of the month and I start having "female" issues, yet another stressful concern. Funny's appt with another neurologist is scheduled a few weeks out and we are so nervous. Cutie pants is so laid back during this time and wants me to hold him constantly. I think to myself "wow- he is so different from sassy. She was so active at this age, but he is so still". We start running the heat in Sept. Sassy starts having behavioral problems at school every day. These successive behavioral problems end in Dec.

Oct 08- I go to the doctor with chest pains/ breathing, barking cough, sinus pressure, sore throat, headache- told that it is just sinus/cold... Sassy goes to the doctor and they have to take a blood panel. It takes two nurses, Funny pants and myself to hold her down. It ranks in the top 5 of my most stressful moments of all time. I have constant muscle cramps in my calf muscles for no reason. It is very hard to carry a baby and go up and down stairs and just function in a normal way. I also have developed arthritic symptoms in my hands and feet. I also have regular muscle spasms, but not as bad as Funny pants. Our eyes are red and itchy every day.

Nov 08- I am convinced at this point that this house has a problem. I look up environmental issues and bingo- found that mold can cause several of our problems. Funny finds an independent, non-biased guy to come test our home. He finds penicillium, aspergillus, and chlodosporium (sp) in our air ducts and claims that on a scale of 1-10 the levels are a 7. He recommends a duct cleaning company and we have it remediated. However, the night before remediation (we spent the weekend at a hotel since we didn't want to be in the house once we knew what it was) Sassy starts running a fever of 102-103 with a bad headache but she is so sick for four days. We have the ducts cleaned and we start visiting an allergist. We test positive for allergies to aspergillus mold. We are so hopeful that all will be better. Funny pants goes to the neurologist for a horrible EMG test where they have to probe his muscles with needles. It is a horrible experience and I sat in a chair crying because he was in so much pain. Praise the Lord that he doesn't have ALS. They diagnose his constant (and I mean constant) muscle spasms as benign fasciculation syndrome.

Dec 08- We are still sick. bruises, red eyes, headaches, stomach issues, rashes, muscle spasms, bloody noses, nasal ulcers, cough, tremors, and so much more. I want to move. I cannot stand it any more. We have the environmental guy come back out. He tests and there is no mold in our air ducts and no visible signs of it anywhere else. We test our water- it is fine. What is it? We move some things into our basement and Funny notices a huge pan of water under our heating unit. He calls the HVAC company and on Dec 16, our angel arrives. The HVAC tech (whom we have met several times since the a/c unit was always on the fritz- yes, once again - this home is only a year old) finds that the heater was installed in the opposite way and the good air was pumped to the outside and the combustion and carbon monoxide was filling up the basement and coming into the home. It is fixed and we are so happy to know the cause and think that now we are going to be on the mend. Um, no. We learn that chronic carbon monoxide poisoning is so different from acute poisoning. acute poisoning is more recognized than chronic. We still feel awful. We feel brain damaged and we are. I cannot think of words and cannot remember easy things.

From then until now- we treated ourselves with oxygen therapy, vitamins, organic juicing, brain supplements and still feel bad. We have had atmos energy out twice to re-test b/c we were concerned on how we felt. Shouldn't we feel better now? We have since been told by two environmental companies that the carbon monoxide could be in some of our possessions like couches and soft items and so now we are using special cleaners on the couch, bedding, mattresses and most of the kids stuffed animals will be tossed out unless it is their absolute favorite and we are going to pay BIG bucks to have them cleaned by a company that cleans up after fire damage. The house is now a sick house as the carbon monoxide is most likely in the carpet, walls, etc... One company told us that no one should live here until it is fixed. It is important to note that we feel better when we are out of the environment, but we are still not 100%. Dunno if we ever will be. We don't know what implications this will have on our children. Our three children that have other parents might have been spared from the serious damage as they go back and forth and are at school during the day, but what about cutie pants? Is he okay? It is so sad b/c my sweet baby couldn't tell his mommy that he was feeling bad. He just wanted to cuddle up for comfort all the time.

So, after going through the painful closing of Funny pants' business last year, moving into this home and hoping that we could plant our roots finally and make it a home, this is our painful tale. I know that God has a plan and this is part of it. I am prayerful to never move again after our move on Thursday. I am excited about the new house (in an older established neighborhood with TREES and lots of kids) and making it HOME! Please pray for us during this time and pray for our children who are having to adjust again so soon after moving. Thank you for your prayers.

That is the short-story to our saga. There are so many symptoms, incidents that I had to omit because of time, but I think that you get the point.