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It's Mold Illness, Stupid!
James Carville gets credit for coining the slogan "it's the economy, stupid" for Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign.
Well, for me, it turns out it isn't Long COVID, it is Mold Illness, Stupid!
My journey began in November 2021 when I had my first and last Moderna Booster. Within 2 weeks I couldn't exercise, think, and my fatigue was severe. Thus began my chasing of the Long COVID rabbit.
Figuratively speaking, saw every Doctor in the Charleston, SC area, visited Mayo Rochester, and had every test in the book, and of course all results showed I was a healthy 65 year old.
Never one to give up, I turned heavily to Dr. Google and Dr. YouTube late in 2024. I found Dr. Patterson and went through his regimen starting early 2025. Made some initial progress, but when Dr. Patterson saw that my test results (his proprietary blood test was the first in nearly 4 years showing that I had something wrong with me, yay! Seriously I was happy someone finally found something wrong) and my progress had stalled, he said "hmm, we should test you for Lyme and Mold Illness". Tested negative for Lyme and positive for Mold. Dr. Patterson hypothesizes that the vaccine reduced my immunity and allowed a lifetime of exposure to mold to do its dirty work and cause Mycotoxins to affect me. My body is full of Mycotoxins. Seems many of the symptoms of Lyme, Mold, and Long COVID cross over adding confusion for medical professionals. For me, Mycotoxins are causing my PEM, Brain Fog, Fatigue, and even an itchy scaly scalp that had my Dermatologist running in circles.
I am both grateful and angry. Grateful because Dr. Patterson found the murder weapon, but angry wondering why none of the dozens of medical professionals across nearly 4 years thought to test me for Mold.
I was waiting to write this post, because candidly I wasn't completely convinced I wasn't chasing yet another false hope. But, I am 1 month into what is allegedly a 6 month treatment regimen and I now feel better. Not as good as pre November 2021, but with hope that in a few more months that I will.
I found a local Doctor who treats Mold Illness and have listened to every single YouTube video produced by Dr. Andrew Campbell and am following a hybrid regimen of Doctor Weir and Dr. Campbell.
I hope this post helps some and wish you all the best.
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This sounds quite familiar, I had almost the exact same experience. The only difference is that I had the pfizer vaccine in 2021 (two shots) and a booster. I initially thought it was Lyme, but went through a ton of doctors and got nowhere. A few years of being gaslit by doctors and then trying a dozen different antibiotics and other drugs (doxycycline, amoxicillin, azithromycin, cefdinir, rifampin, fluconazole, nitazoxanide, artemisinin, valacyclovir, ldn, ivermectin, celecoxib, gabapentin, amitriptyline, etc, etc.), to no avail. Tried treatments like accupuncture, red light therapy, compression therapy, cryo therapy, which offered some relief, but no solution.
Until I found Dr Patterson and started his protocol, and after a few months on maraviroc, atorvastatin, and colchicine, he suggested the mycotoxin test, which came back positive across the board.
My symptoms are severe neck/head pain, fatigue, dizziness, muscle/joint pain, and paresthesia, primarily in the arms and legs. It's like my nervous system went haywire.
My own integrative doc has prescribed cholestyramine and a bunch of supplements, and after a month I was feeling much better. But then I started to trend back in the wrong direction, and after two months of the treatment I'm somewhere in the middle. So I'm curious what you're treatment entails.
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1 ReactionPlease let us know how your journey goes…
Did you have to get tested outside of a standard healthcare system? When I ask them about mold and mycotoxins, they look at me like I’m an idiot.
Can you please give us the full name of Dr. Patterson? and how to find them?
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1 Reaction@mikesixtysix I've learned everything from the helpful world of Dr. Google and Dr. YouTube since leaving the care of Dr. Patterson. Dr. Patterson led me to Mold as the cause of my symptoms, but he doesn't treat Mold Illness. As you might expect there are diverging opinions on treatment regimen. I found myself very drawn to Dr. Andrew Campbell who is extremely straight forward. He has 4 steps, 1. Get yourself away from your mold (your car, your home, in my case, my career in factories) exposure, 2. Take an anti fungal - itraconazole, 3. an array of supplements, and 4. anti inflammatory, low histamine diet. He is very very very insistent on the anti fungal drug itraconazole and you dont mention an anti fungal. I fortunately found a couple of Doctors in Charleston, SC that treat Mold. I met with one and we developed a hybrid approach between what he sees work and Dr. Campbell. The only addition is that I take Glutathione (which Dr. Campbell doesn't recommend). Highly recommend you watch 1 Dr. Campbell YouTube. Best wishes on your journey.
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1 Reaction@sueinmn Dr. Greg Patterson. Lots of YouTube videos between him and various Medical Journalists. The YouTubes will lead you to how to connect with him. Caveat is he doesn't treat Mold, he has his specific approach to Long COVID.
@oly78 I get it. So many medical professionals are clueless about Mold and Mycotoxins. Everything I have done is mostly outside of my Medicare Insurance coverage. I have intent to file with Medicare, but haven't pulled things together yet. You will find 2 tests for Mold, Urine and Serum. Doctors disagree which is the right one and so I did both! Both showed Mycotoxins so I removed the debate that way. My serum test was $350 and my Urine test was maybe $150ish all done with remote labs. Highly recommend you watch one Dr. Andrew Campbell YouTube. He lays things out very clearly although you will quickly encounter the divergence of view and regimen debate. I follow General George Patton "a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week".
@arichards3 thank you for the information!
Was there a brand name of the test? Perhaps an offsite place where you had them conducted?
Again, please let us know how the efficacy of your regimen goes!
@oly78 The Serum test is from myMycolab (mymycolab.com) which is associated with Dr. Andrew Campbell and the Urine test is from RealTime Labs (realtimelab.com). Serum requires a blood draw locally and you ship it off, Urine is at home and you ship it off. Best wishes.
Are you referring to Dr. Willaim Weir? Thanks.