My story
NOTHING prepares you for thinning hair or complete hair loss - ESPECIALLY for women.
From the beginning of time, it has been profiled that women should have a full head of hair. And that profile still holds true today. If a woman doesn’t have hair and/or is wearing a cap or turban, then she is profiled as sick or that “she must have cancer.”
So, when the reality of hair thinning and/or loss does happen, it can come with a multitude of serious
emotions: confusion, stress, fear, anxiety, unacceptance, insecurity, embarrassment, depression, I’m ugly, etc., ESPECIALLY for a person who doesn’t know or understand WHY or WHAT is causing this extreme change physically and mentally and is out of a person's control.
For me personally, my biggest fears were my husband leaving me and my kids, as well as family and friends being ashamed or embarrassed of me. I felt ugly & very insecure. I was frustrated, angry, insecure. and confused, I felt terrible both physically & mentally. I hid not only my hair loss, but also my feelings, thoughts, and internal struggles from EVERYONE. I went into a deep depression mode, and frankly,
at one point, I WANTED TO END MY LIFE.
Very few people understand the severity of reactions or health risks that can occur from living in a home or working in a facility that is infested with TOXIC BLACK MOLD.
Here’s My Story……
On December 31, 2019, my husband and I celebrated our 25 Year Anniversary!
My gift to him, and our family, was 11 acres of land that I had secretly purchased in the country for us to someday build our forever home.
In May 2020, we listed our home for sale, and by Labor Day weekend, we moved into a two (2) bedroom apartment. This was temporary as we waited for our new home to be built. Before moving into the apartment, I had to make the place CARRIE KENDALL CLEAN! I was cleaning dirt off the plumbing, off the baseboards, off the windows, in the cabinets – and just basically deep cleaned the apartment prior to our move in. Hot soapy bleach water, disinfectants, etc. BUT, what I didn't realize, is that I was in fact, scrubbing black mold. And what even makes this worse, I am seriously and highly allergic to BLACK MOLD!!
It only took about a week before the stuffy noses and headaches set in, even for my husband. I worked from home, or now in the 2nd bedroom of the apartment, while my husband left the apartment everyday for work. I lived and worked in the apartment, breathing in the then unknown toxins. By mid November, I was starting to have really different and noticeable issues breathing, I had started struggling with sleep, I wasn’t eating as I felt nauseous most of the time. I also started feeling sluggish and “lost” with most normal daily activities, especially with work. As the other symptoms seemed to be getting slowly but increasingly worse, by early December I noticed that I was starting to lose my hair in the front top of my head.
I made my first appointment with the doctor and my blood work was good. No Thyroid issues, Covid issues, Covid Antibodies issues, Menopause issues…..The doctors “assumed” that maybe I was under a bit of STRESS.
However, by Christmas, I had completely lost ALL of my hair on the top front of my head. I returned to my doctor, again, were I was given a clean bill of health based on my bloodwork results, but this time I was prescribed a “hair growth cream.”
After the holidays and prior to our vacation in January 2021, I bought my first topper to hide
my balding head. Who knew that finding a salon or store to purchase a wig or topper
would be so challenging, but I finally found a place in Dayton. The girl that helped me was
really nice, even though the facility was quite dated, smelled like mothballs and hairspray,
and the owner was very curt. But I got a topper and felt slightly better about the trip.
While in Florida, my husband and I both noticed that our stuffy noses and headaches were
significantly less severe, if we had one at all. We both slept much better and over all felt
better, even though my brain was still feeling quite foggy. I just couldn’t kick that feeling.
When we returned from vacation, after just a few days, the illness symptoms that I felt prior to vacation were back.
My eyes felt swollen, heavy, and dry. I wasn't sleeping again, and most nights I would be awake until 1 am or even later. I again started waking up with severe headaches and unable to breath. My morning routine transitioned into two (2) Tylenol and ice packs on the back of my neck and across my forehead/face each morning, just so I could function enough to get into a hot shower.
By mid-late February, I transitioned from a hair topper to a full wig. The hair loss was increasing, and again, I headed back to the doctor to try to get some kind of answers.
The doctor ordered a complete blood panel test. This time, my blood work came back with very high eosinophil and histamine levels. My histamines came back at 0.9 but the normal range was 0.0-0.4. This started questions of where I had been, what changed in my daily routine, etc. I explained that we were building in the country and I was spending time out at the barn, but other than that – nothing? OH, and I have temporarily moved into a rental apartment?
As we started to gather our stuff together to move out of the apartment and into our forever home in March, I began noticing the areas where I had cleaned "dirt" had come back. And came back with a vengeance. It was really quite nasty. That’s when it finally dawned on me...could this “dirt” be MOLD?
I immediately reached out to my doctor and asked if mold could cause the symptoms and sickness that I have been experiencing. The answer was a resounding YES!
I instantly reached out to a home inspection company that also partners with a company that performs air quality tests. On March 28, 2021, both came to the apartment and performed a home inspection and air quality test. As they completed their test, they looked at the piping...mold, the furnace & a/c unit....mold, the carpet padding...mold, insulation...mold, everything was covered in... BLACK MOLD.
They provided photos of the areas checked, and if I wasn’t already physically sick, I would have been after seeing the photos. Two (2) days later, we were turning in the keys and were fully moved out and into our new home, or into the barn and garage, as we were skeptical about the items that were inside the apartment.
We dealt with a “friend” of the landlord to turn in our keys. We asked her, “PLEASE DO NOT RENT THIS APARTMENT, as we had suspicions that something was not right, but we didn’t want to say until we had the test results back for confirmation of our suspicions.
April 1, 2021, THE RESULTS WERE IN…...
Just as we expected, but not to this extent, the apartment tested positive for
FIVE (5) TYPES of MOLD:
Penicillium/Aspergillus, Cladosporium Species Spores, Basidiospores,
Marker Spores, Alternaria, and Smuts/Periconia/Myxomycetes.
Also, during and after moving out, I started noticing that I was experiencing a weird double vision view. ANOTHER not so fun fact about mold is that it can permeate the eye membranes and weaken the eye muscles. After treating with 2 different eye doctors, I was sent to Ohio State.
Based on the seriousness of the double vision, he suggested infusions that could help with both the muscles and vision. I traveled for 8 treatments, once every 3 weeks at Ohio State. Not only did this NOT help my eyes, I experienced the severity of side effects: Headaches, but most of all - the cramping of muscles throughout my body. I would have nights that I would be up most of the night crying, trying to walk the floors, or lying across my kitchen island, with my legs dangling to the floor due to the cramps enabling me to not be able to straighten or bend my legs. I also strained and pulled muscles in my left wrist and hand, as I was getting out of bed with both legs cramped and almost fell thru the sliding glass door. All of this and more, with no progress or relief for my eyes.
On September 26, 2022, I ended up having surgery on both eyes. To date, the surgery was a success. I will have 1 more surgery to correct the muscle in my right eyelid, as my right eye was the worse, and the muscles in the eyelid need to be reset to the new/old eye set from surgery.
Again, few people understand the severity of reactions and/or health risks that can occur from living in a home or working in a facility that has mold issues. THEN, add a person who is diagnosed as highly allergic to black mold to those conditions - the outcome can result in severe & permanent health conditions, and can even be DEADLY.
I tried to sue the landlord 2 times, with 2 different attorneys, with NO success. Both cases were kicked out of court on the technicality:
“We did not alert the landlord of the issue to give him an opportunity to rectify the issues”
I was told by both that I could proceed with the case, through a jury trial. I would have to pay anywhere from $5000 - $10,000 to even get the process started, and none of it was a guarantee that I would “WIN”. I can’t tell you all the emotions that I felt. So, after long discussions, anger sessions, and many cries, my husband and I decided that it would not be in my best health interest physically or mentally at the time to try to pursue this issue. I was heartbroken for me, for the people who lived there before me, and the people still living there now. I just couldn’t wrap my mind, OR MY HEART around any of it.
One of my doctors told me when I asked the questions….
“How long am I going to be like this? When will I be better? Do I have permanent damage?”
He stated his answer exactly this way:
“When your body quits REACTING and starts ACTING again – YOU WILL KNOW”
It could be a couple days, weeks, months, or even years. You WILL get some relief from this, and the permanent damage – it’s too soon to diagnose. So, after much thought, cries, anger fits, etc., and remembering what the doctor told me, I decided that I would win! I WILL WIN!
That’s when I took my thoughts of a local, fun, yet very personalized wig shop to become more than a thought. I would use my life altering experience to help others. I will use the money that I would have used to take the landlord to court, and put it to something GREAT! And that is when “WIGGING OUT” went from a thought to a reality – Well, after I convinced my husband to let me start another business.
I want to take a minute to say thank you for reading my story. I would not be where I am today without my precious family and friends. But most of all, THANK YOU with all my heart, to Matt Kendall. He has been by my side thru sickness and health, for 28+ years. He is my whole heart, and I probably would not be here if it were not for his patience, caring, and love, and for that I will be forever grateful to him.
Thank you for reading my story, and I hope you stop by Wigging Out Boutique. We have all sorts of wigs and toppers, along with all the FUN accessories too. We are WIGGING OUT, and it’s an AWESOME & BEAUTIFUL thing!!!
