August 2023, an eager, freshly turned 19 year old packed up her things, ready to take on University life. She gathered her graduation gifts, all the new bedding and gadgets she'd bought or received, the necessities, and a few treasured comforts. She had not only dreamed of this day since she was four, but she worked her tail off to get to this day. She actually worked so hard that she graduated college with her Associates degree two weeks before she finished high school. She knocked out her prerequisites and headed off to pursue her dream of nursing school. She didn't apply to any other schools because being an Aggie has been her dream...always. This girl has a strong sense of morals and values and Texas A&M seemed to exude those.
This grey fluffy stuff was coating the entire inside of the vent. Hardly clean and free of debris. Add moisture to this and I think it is a pretty good environment for mold to thrive.
Since we were now permitted to hire our own mold inspector, I went to work finding one. I was able to speak to someone at Texas Mold Inspectors (TMI) and set up an inspection for Friday. It was going to be a costly inspection, but we knew we had to figure out what was going on with Leah and eliminate the possibility that it could be mold. I knew nothing about mold or what it does to one's body.
We moved Leah into her dorm on a Thursday in August. This was her first time to live on her own...her first year...such a momentous and exciting time. I stayed that night and spent Friday running back and forth to Target for last minute needs and to help make sure we got every extension cord run and hidden just right and every decoration put in the perfect place. The room looked great and although it was the hardest good bye things were going great. I left a healthy, happy, excited daughter at the door that night.
The weekend was a whirl for Leah. Catching up with old friends, making new ones, attending events, finding a church, and getting ready for the first day of school Monday. By late Friday she was not feeling well and by Sunday she was headed downhill quickly. We all assumed it was allergies or that she picked up a bug or something with so many kids coming together. With classes starting the next day, she made a Telehealth appointment to see what they thought. Her eyes were bloodshot and itchy. She had a headache and typical allergy/cold like symptoms. They recommended a specific antihistamine so off she went to find it. They told her to call back if it hadn't helped in 24 hours or if she got any worse. She hardly slept that night because she just did not feel good and her eyes would not stop bothering her.
This was actually a few days in on steroids
She woke up Monday, her first day of classes on a beautiful college campus, and her eyes were swollen shut. She got ready the best she could and took off for class. You can imagine how hard it is to navigate a new to you campus, the largest university campus in the nation no less, but to do it the very first time without being able to clearly see where you are going and while feeling terrible is quite a feat. She made it on the right buses, to the right classes, and found the dinning hall for lunch. She felt even worse though and was so down about the fact that her first impressions were stumbling around while people went out of their way to avoid her and whatever was going on with her. I told her I really wanted her to be seen by a doctor in person. She begrudgingly went to the campus clinic. I think she would have done anything to just get well at that point. They said it could be allergies or possibly a reaction to a medicine she'd been on. Leah asked her if it could be mold or something in her dorm room as it seemed to be connected and she said "maybe". We paged the doctor who prescribed the medicine in question and checked with the pharmacist and they both agreed this was absolutely not what was happening. So back to square zero. She did another Telehealth appointment that evening and they said they really thought it was extreme allergies. They recommended more OTC meds and called in a steroid. Adulting 101 right off that bat...find a pharmacy...while dealing with vision issues...get there to find they don't have the meds in stock...find a new pharmacy to transfer to...get to that pharmacy before close. It was definitely not the first day of school any of us anticipated.
As the week progressed, Leah started feeling some improvement. The steroid helped her eyes settle down and despite the insomnia it brought, she was feeling better about things finally. Her last day on the steroid we were talking and she commented on how she felt "great"! I switched the call to FaceTime and this is what a week of steroids, too many allergy meds, and feeling "great" look like.
Hardly great to this mama. She continued feeling alright through the weekend, but as soon as the steroid had worn off, everything came back exactly the same. We decided at that time that she needed to see someone local to find some clearer answers. She found a primary care doc that was taking new patients (more adulting two weeks in to school). She saw the doctor and explained what had been going on. They gave her a steroid shot, instructions to stay on all the allergy meds (oral, nose sprays, eye drops) and encouraged her to pick up an at home mold test at Home Depot. The doctor told her she felt that something in Leah's dorm room was causing this all. Leah did as she was told and got the kit. It takes a few days to test so Leah set up the petri dish and came home for Labor Day weekend.
Over the weekend home, her eyes began clearing up. Her skin that had been fiery red settled down. In just 3 days, she looked so much better. We were certain it was something in the dorm making her sick at that point. There was too much coincidence in how she felt, when and where. She often would tell me, "I feel worse in my room. I just don't want to go to my room" as she wandered all over campus trying to avoid the inevitable.
She left home on Labor Day looking and feeling almost normal for the first time since moving. When she got to her dorm room she found this. The mold test was definitely growing mold and numerous types at that. Leah was ecstatic that she had figured out what was happening and could now get it fixed and get to feeling better. This room had sat empty the entire time the mold kit was out. No one in or out. No showering or water running.
She immediately contacted her RA who was also shocked by this. She encouraged her to fill out a maintenance request form. Leah did so that night. She told them there was mold in her room and that it was making her very sick and had been since she moved in.
Tuesday, the 5th, someone from maintenance came by to look at the room. She showed him the crack in the wall and all of the bubbling paint in her bathroom. We noticed some bubbling at move in and foolishly thought it was old damage because it had been painted over. The bubbling had gotten significantly worse, especially behind a cabinet Leah had in the bathroom.
The maintenance worker said he didn't really deal with mold, but that he would send someone who did.
A few days later, Leah followed up with her RA and was told that Environmental Health and Safety. (EHS) had come and taken an air quality test and that there was no mold. On this report it claimed that the mold test was the only mold in the room and needed to be thrown away. They said that the room was more humid than it should be, but offered no resolve in fixing that. The AC system is controlled outside of the individual rooms, there is no vent for the bathroom, and as such literally no way for the student to impact the humidity. The report states that the vents in the room were "clean and free of debris".
By this point in time, Leah would call several times a day, three-fourths of those calls hysterical. I noticed more and she was struggling to come up with simple words in conversations. I thought it was just distraction or exhaustion. One day in particular, she called while she was in line for pulling football tickets. She was so excited for Aggie football season. She called moments later and I could hardly understand her. She had pulled her ticket, walked back to her dorm nearby, and could not find her ticket anywhere. She lost her keys repeatedly. She complained that she could not focus in class and could not remember lessons one day to the next. The following day she called even more upset. Through sobs she told me that she went to take her first test and couldn't remember how to spell her name. I tried to get her to settle down so I could understand what she meant and she meant just that. She could not figure out what letter went first in her name. I knew then regardless of what was happening, whatever it was, something was really wrong. Every joint in her body was now hurting all the time and she wanted nothing more than to lay in bed except she wanted to not be in her room more than that. She said she was considering sleeping in her car. I offered to put her in a hotel until we sorted things out, but she didn't want to go through all of that. I think she still questioned if something was really going on and what.
Leah was scared and so were we. She was also determined to figure out what was going on. Leah had complained that the room was muggy and wet feeling. She was plagued with anxiety and insomnia anytime she was in the room. On September 14th, during an insomnia episode, she went to her car and retrieved her tool box. She set search in the room for what could be causing her to be so sick and her rapid decline. She pulled the vent off the bathroom wall because she felt humidity there all the time and immediately the mirror beneath it fogged up. This was odd because she hadn't showered yet that day. She called and let me know that the vent was disgusting and there was definitely something in there.
I asked Leah to notify her RA. She did and was told to fill out another maintenance request which she did that night. She also mentioned the dirty vent and high humidity. She continued to look around the room and noticed that the crack in the wall had opened up further and there was black spots all underneath it. She mentioned both of these things to her RA, who was in agreement something wasn't right. She was kind and helpful every step of the way.
At my request, Leah asked her RA if we could hire a mold inspector to check the room. She asked her boss and got back to us to say that we could not.
Someone from maintenance brought in a shop vac and vacuum "cleaned" the vent. No precautions taken. As you would expect this sent it all airborne and made Leah feel even worse. Not only that, but it made a huge mess. Leah's RA checked in with her and Leah told her what they had done and that the humidity still wasn't being addressed.
The next night, Leah came home and someone had set up a dehumidifier. This was plugged in on one side of her bedroom, power cord strung across the room to the dehumidifier and then had a hose running across the bathroom to the sink. As you can imagine, this monstrous thing was NOISY and cumbersome to navigate around, especially with cords and hoses everywhere. There was no information given if this was temporary or would be spending the rest of the year there. No information given on whether or not the issue causing the high humidity would ever be addressed. Nothing. It was pretty clear that we were getting a bit of a run around at this point. It seemed they were just trying to get us to give up instead of truly addressing the issues.
Later that day I came into town for a visit. I checked the room and had big concerns, as well. I opened the vent and checked the crack and agreed that they had to come retest. It just didn't make any sense. I was only in the room for 30 minutes or so, before heading out to the game. I felt itchy in the room. By the time we left the game, I had a sore throat and my eyes itched. This is what they looked like. Whatever doubts or questions I had were gone at that point. I returned home and by the next day, they had cleared up. We asked about getting her moved out of that room and that wasn't an option unless she wanted to move to an apartment and pay $$$ more.
Monday, Leah returned from class to find two individuals outside of her room. It was a woman from Facilities Maintenance and the gentlemen who was a campus mold inspector from EHS. We later learned he was the same one that inspected the room the first time. He was cold and very upset that Leah had requested them to come back out. He asked her if she even knew how to read the report or knew what she was talking about. She started crying, overwhelmed, defeated, and tired. No one had even asked her what was going on, how she felt, nothing. She was made to believe she was an uneducated nuisance. The woman saw Leah get upset and began talking to her. She asked what had happened and listened to Leah. The gentlemen told Leah there was no mold in the room and said he was going to collect swab samples to prove it. Leah asked if he could swab the black spores on the wall in the bathroom. He told her "You're not lying on the floor in the bathroom so that wouldn't bother you. If there was mold in here your air purifier would take care of it". Neither of these is true. I don't know if this is a case of lack of knowledge or gaslighting, but every step of the way it seemed like they were doubling down and refusing to acknowledge a serious issue. I do not understand what harm there would have been in swabbing that area. They told Leah they would rush the results on this inspection.
Later that evening, Leah's RA told her she was told she could no longer talk to her about the room issues and that she needed to go through a specific Residence Life lead. The next day, Wednesday, I got a call from said person saying they would let us know what they found out and explaining why there wasn't mold in the room. I emailed him the picture of the peeling wallpaper covered in black spores. Later he called back with the "good news" that there was no mold found in the room again. I was in shock. I asked him what the black spots were in the photo and he said it was hard to tell from a picture. Um, then go to the room and see. He said I needed to decide what I was going to do regarding moving her or not. It was an incredibly frustrating conversation and it was clear it wasn't going anywhere.....at least not where common sense would go. At the end of the call, I asked again if we could hire a mold inspector. I explained the false info on the first report, stating the vents were clean and free of debris and mentioned the fact that they refused to swab the black spots. He told me that legally they could not tell me no. We asked for the second report. Being told that there was nothing wrong in the room for the fifth week in a row left Leah feeling crazy. It was obvious yet everyone seemed to ignore it. It felt like there wasn't any care or consideration given to what Leah was going through or what was happening with her body.
Here is the second EHS campus mold inspector's report. Of course it again showed a clean room with no mold concerns.
Friday morning, I traveled to College Station and met Josh with TMI at Leah's dorm. Leah was at class so I let Josh in and showed him the areas of concern. He was immediately concerned that there was indeed mold there. I left and let him get to work. Several hours later, he informed me that the room was absolutely filthy and full of mold. He said he was condemning her room and all of her belongings. He said there was most certainly mycotoxins on every item. I didn't even know what mycotoxins were. I would so learn that mycotoxins are poisonous substances produced by fungi or mold that can be toxic to humans when consumed, absorbed through the skin, or inhaled. Here are some of his pictures of the hundreds he shared with me.
White mold on cabinets in bedroom
100% moisture meter reading on bathroom walls
Black mold carpeting the wall between the
bathroom and bedroom
Black mold under wall paper on same wall
So Leah returned from class and I had to tell her that first off, she was exactly right. There was no doubt a substantial and harmful amount of mold in her room. She trusted her gut, followed the obvious, and continued to push through despite being told she was wrong. She is so smart, so in tuned with her body, and perseveres with love and grace even when being gaslight. Secondly, I had to tell her that ALL of her belongings and her room were condemned. Her clothes, her books and notes, her laptop, all of her graduation gifts and things she bought to make her room just right, family photos, childhood keepsakes......everything. Five weeks in to the year. Gone. Both pieces of news were equally devastating. She collapsed and was absolutely heartbroken. A million questions poured out once she caught her breath. What am I supposed to do about classes and my homework due today? Why wouldn't they listen to me? Why wouldn't they swab it? How did they ignore the obvious signs and put me in this room to begin with? What am I supposed to wear? What about everyone else in the dorm? They have to be getting the same mycotoxins, too. I tried my best to console her with just as many questions swirling in my head. What were we going to do? Would they put her somewhere different now? What does this all mean? How are we going to replace ALL of the things we just purchased for her? Is the damage to her body permanent?
Josh finished collecting samples and gathering info. He said that he was getting sick just being in the room. I asked him what we were supposed to do and he said he would get a letter to us ASAP stating that the room was unfit for human occupancy. Since it felt like every conversation with school was a battle and since Josh was the one with the knowledge, I asked if he would stay around and talk the Res Life contact we were working with. He agreed and I called and asked them to come. He came over, as well as several maintenance workers, and a gentleman we had not met yet from Operations and Events (O&E). He said that he had heard something going on and decided to come along. Our Res Life contact, a facilities maintenance worker, and maintenance joined Josh in the room. He showed them what he found and even taught maintenance how to use their moisture meters. ahem..... no comment.... The O&E gentlemen found Leah immediately and started talking to her. Are you okay? What has been going on? and a million more questions came on. By the end of his time with her he knew all of her favorite things, understood what she was going through, and showed true Aggie morals with how much he cared about Leah. Thank God for that man.
When they came out, I asked, "now that we know that there is mold in the room making her sick, how do we get her moved out?". Res Life rolled his eyes, pointed in Josh's direction and replied, "in his OPINION". I came unglued. I took a step forward and asked him how in the heck he just saw that with his eyes, heard directly from a MASTER certified mold inspector, and could say this was an opinion. I quickly realized I was headed for the 5 o'clock news and told him I wanted to speak to someone else... his boss, anyone else. He obliged and got a director from Res Life to come over. I explained what was going on to her. Everyone else had gone back in the room again. I showed her pictures and invited her to go see. She said she had health issues and did not care to be anywhere near it. Everyone eventually came back out and Josh asked for access to the AC system since it was a shared system and all the rooms shared air. This request was denied, but he made clear that he felt the whole building could be condemned if he had access to that. He proceeded to leave when the facilities maintenance worker told him she was just sharing the message that he was not allowed to take samples from the room with him. I don't know what is or isn't allowed, but this seemed off to me. Josh said he was absolutely allowed to take them with him and they could have their lawyers call them. He later would say this was just a scare tactic to try and get him to leave proof behind. He assured us all that he would get back to us with the results.
Monday she went to classes, but called by midday and said she couldn't do it. She was dropping out. I had my mom go with me and we drove up to see her. She had packed what little stuff she had up and looked horrible. Mom drove her home while I put on a protective suit and video inventoried her room. I assumed this was the end of TAMU for us.
After a few days, Leah started logging on to her schoolwork and knocking things out. I knew that Aggie spirit in her was still burning. By the end of the week, she decided she would go back. So we loaded up the car and planned move number 6 for the month (we had moved homes the week before the first college move in). Leah began to settle back in despite feeling terrible. A few weeks later she submitted a urinalysis for mycotoxin screening. After that she came home for a few days in November to see a local doctor who was supposed to be familiar with mold. Of course all of these appointments meant time away from classes. The local doctor told her she needed to drop out of school and move back home now. She said that treatment would be too intense to do on her own. Leah had just gotten back into routine and felt good about being back at school. She was devastated. We talked over the very confusing packets of info the doctor sent us with. She had fought so hard to get to this point and really didn't want to quit. We decided we would do whatever we had to do to support her and make it work if she wanted to stay. We knew she would be on a strict diet which is impossible to do on a meal plan. Since the dorm room didn't have a kitchen, we planned out driving up weekly to meal prep if need be. We were all determined to support her efforts.
She had a lot of other tests and appointments and rested some between school assignments. She updated her professors every single step of this journey and notified them when she would miss class or need an extension. We eventually had accommodations put in place just to be official and allow her extensions on tests. Her professors were so very caring and compassionate every step of the way. One even sat and listened as she sobbed about not feeling like she could handle nursing school. There is such a high burnout rate and she already felt burned out and defeated. This professor talked to her about all the things she loved about nursing and helped her discover a new career path the she is even more excited for. They and her small group friends are 100% the reason she went back. Every single time she would come home saying she was done, their encouragement pulled her back up. I am so thankful for them. In addition to them, the one O&E employee that was so kind the day of the inspection continuously reached out to her. He made such a difference. It was neat to see the Aggie spirit alive and well in some of the staff.
I will post another update with what happened after settling in and where we are at now soon. I feel like this is already way too long. It seeemed a lot of the details were important though. I hope and pray that no one ever has to go through this. However, if someone does, I hope they find something helpful in this.
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