The night before Barbara's attack, she had opened a jar of a nacho cheese dip
which had been recently purchased. On the top of the cheese she observed a
large mold covering most of the exposed surface. She immediately closed the
lid with the intention of returning it to the store. By the next morning at
7:00 am she had lost her ability to walk. At the time of her incident we had
real questions about whether her attack was related in some way to a toxin
inhaled from the mold. Doctors at the time suggested that this was only a
coincidence and was not likely to be related to her illness. We called the
CDC to ask if they might be able to help us with an analysis of the mold /
fungus / ? on this cheese, but they were not interested. My question is
this: Is there any recollection of other's known exposure to mold / fungus
/ etc. immediately preceding their attack.
Another "coincident" was that the neurologist that treated Barbara indicated
that he had another TM patient in the hospital the same week. Since he
indicated that this was a rare diagnosis, I considered it unlikely that one
neurologist would have two patients in one week without some common cause.
We discussed possible points in common about the other patient, but could
not identify a common thread that might indicate an environmental factor.
I feel the cheese connection is probably a coincidence, but wanted to ask the
question on the list. Hope you don't think Barbara's husband has lost his
marbles in all this. (P.S. I do still have the jar of cheese though!)
Jim