She Deals Collective

Once mold was mentioned, getting the HVAC company to respond became almost impossible, so we called the same industrial hygienist we had used seven months earlier.

After removing our bathtub, he had tested our home following remediation to make sure we didn’t have elevated mold levels beyond normal background levels. So this time, we actually had a clean air test to compare the new results to.

And the difference was shocking.

When he called with the results, he specifically asked me if anyone was living in one particular room.

I said, “Yes. That’s my son’s bedroom.”

He told me, “The levels in this room would make someone, even with a pristine immune system, severely ill.”

After months of watching my son deal with mono, strep, rashes, extreme fatigue and brain fog, hearing that was devastating.

We also discovered standing water inside the HVAC ducts running underneath our basement floor. We were told there was no way to reliably dry metal ductwork encased in concrete, so we put the system under negative air pressure, treated it with fungicide, poured concrete into every floor vent and paid another HVAC company to reroute the entire basement system through the ceilings.

At this point, we were already about $10,000 into trying to fix the damage.

As I mentioned in Part 2, our Allstate adjuster had suggested we talk to an attorney. I found a company that reviews mold cases and after going through ours, they told us we had a very strong case.

They connected us with an attorney in Georgia who planned to co-counsel with an attorney in Montana. The Montana attorney came to our home, met our family and walked through everything with us.

He told us he believed he would win the case, that he was one of a relatively small number of attorneys willing to take on mold cases and that he would fight for our family.

So in April 2025, we signed the agreement.

He represented us for the next year.

Part 4 is where this story takes another turn.

For years, I thought every health problem I had was separate.

Chronic sinus infections. Chronic UTIs. Anxiety. Depression. Endometriosis. Adenomyosis. POTS.

Different systems. Different doctors. Different diagnoses.

Then mold exposure made everything a million times worse.

We eventually found mold growing in the cavity around our bathtub because the entire backside had never been siliconed and water had been getting underneath it for almost two years.

I could walk into that bathroom and physically feel worse.

My hair was falling out. The fatigue and brain fog were insane. My heart rate was all over the place. I had bloody noses, sinus issues, inflammation and nonstop infections.

I told my husband more than once, “This must be what it feels like when you’re dying.”

And most of my standard labs still looked fairly normal.

That was when I finally stopped looking at every symptom as a separate problem and started looking at the whole system.

For me, that eventually led to MCAS.

I’m including this entire part of my story in Becoming You, along with what I wish I had understood years earlier about inflammation, nervous system dysregulation, mold exposure and connecting the dots.

Comment “preview” and I’ll send you a sneak peek.

Part 2 of our HVAC nightmare.

At first, we actually thought this was going to be a straightforward repair. They apologized, acknowledged there were major installation issues and told us they would fix the damage.

Then mold got brought up.

And that was it.

The second mold entered the conversation, suddenly they were out and there was “nothing more they could do.”

That was the moment this stopped being a bad HVAC install and turned into something so much bigger.

Part 3 is where this really starts to spiral.

When we remodeled our house, we didn’t replace the furnace because the remodel was already so expensive. We decided we’d wait until it actually went out.

In April 2024, it finally did, so we had a brand new furnace and A/C installed.

Then over the next few months, both my son and I started having one weird health issue after another.

He had mono, strep and rashes. I was dealing with weight loss, hair loss and so much pressure in my ear that I eventually had to have my eardrum cut open just to relieve it.

Both of us had insane fatigue and brain fog, and the bloody noses were so bad they literally looked like murder scenes.

At the time, we had no idea what was happening.

Then one Sunday morning in August, I opened the HVAC closet and found the ceiling had collapsed.

There was water everywhere.

That was the moment we realized something much bigger was going on inside our house.

Part 2 coming next.

When we remodeled our house, we didn’t replace the furnace because the remodel was already so expensive. We decided we’d wait until it actually went out.

In April 2024, it finally did, so we had a brand new furnace and A/C installed.

Then over the next few months, both my son and I started having one weird health issue after another.

He had mono, strep and rashes. I was dealing with weight loss, hair loss and so much pressure in my ear that I eventually had to have my eardrum cut open just to relieve it.

Both of us had insane fatigue and brain fog, and the bloody noses were so bad they literally looked like murder scenes.

At the time, we had no idea what was happening.

Then one Sunday morning in August, we opened the HVAC closet and found the ceiling had collapsed.

There was water everywhere.

That was the moment we realized something much bigger was going on inside our house.

Part 2 coming next.

This was the simple shift: I stopped making ultra-processed food the default and started building more of our meals around fresh, real ingredients.

Organic when I can. Homegrown when I can. Fewer additives, fewer preservatives and ingredients I actually recognize.

It wasn’t about eating perfectly. It was about changing what “normal” looked like in our house.

This Panang curry is one of our family favorites and exactly the kind of meal I mean. Fresh vegetables, chicken, coconut milk, Thai basil and so much flavor.

Comment “curry” and I’ll send you the recipe and the curry paste I use.

Holy cow. I cannot believe I never connected this specific piece until today.

I’ve spent the last few years learning how connected all of my symptoms are and completely changing how I take care of my body. I just had never fully connected getting my MCAS under control with how dramatically my mental health changed too.

Was treating my MCAS the only reason I was eventually able to get off antidepressants?

I absolutely don’t believe so.

I changed literally every part of my life. What I eat. What I put on and in my body. How I sleep. How I move. How I regulate my nervous system. How I take care of my brain.

My life today compared to three years ago is a complete 180.

But getting my MCAS under control also changed my life. And now, being two weeks late for my Xolair, I’ve been noticeably more irritable, on edge and reactive.

Then it clicked.

Histamine isn’t just about allergies. It functions in the brain and nervous system too. Mast cells release histamine and other inflammatory mediators and MCAS has been associated with anxiety, depression, panic and irritability.

And now there’s this whole emerging conversation around histamine and PMDD, including women reporting improvements in severe premenstrual mood symptoms with antihistamines.

I knew these systems were connected. I just hadn’t connected THIS dot in my own story until today.

And honestly, that’s what Becoming You is about. Everything I’ve learned and changed over the last few years that helped me stop treating every symptom like its own separate problem and start looking at my body as a whole.

Comment “preview” and I’ll send you a look inside.

This is not me saying everyone needs to get off antidepressants. I’m saying we need to stop acting like medication is the only option worth talking about.

There are so many things that can affect mental health. Sleep, exercise, nutrition, inflammation, stress, therapy, light, heat, supplements, your nervous system and your environment all matter.

Medication may still be part of the answer for some people. What I am asking is why we have become so uncomfortable even talking about the other things.

I think people deserve to know they may have more options than going to the doctor, getting put on a prescription and then staying on it for years because they believe there is nothing else they can do.

I believed that for 24 years.

I don’t anymore.

If you want to preview Becoming You and see all the things I’ve done that helped me get and stay off Prozac, comment “preview” and I’ll send it to you.

Disclaimer: If you’re interested in coming off an antidepressant, please work with a qualified medical professional who can help you taper safely. Do not stop antidepressants abruptly. This is not medical advice.