My Life Experiences with Pandas, Mold, and Delusional Disorder

By Fern Rain

For readers to understand my story and experiences with PANDAS, mold, and delusional disorder, I go into detailed examples in my book. My life is put on display, as well as my son’s battle with his health, fighting through the PANDAS illness. This book details my son’s struggle with PANDAS. Mold was found in our house, and the process to renovate our house is described. If you suspect mold in your home, I describe how and where I looked for mold in my own home and where it was found. Health effects from mold were thought to be related to Brent’s and my health problems. Finally, my journey through delusional disorder is like being in another world, and it is a completely different view and storyline that can only be understood by reading my experiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796070545

Fern Rain

The author, Fern Rain has a master’s degree in Biology. She is a loving and caring mother of two boys. Fern has survived big hardships in her life. She helped her oldest son through PANDAS, cleaned and renovated from mold found in her house, and finally lived through delusional disorder. While going through delusional disorder, she, in a way, temporarily lost her family. Pushing herself back to health, after being forced into commitment, allowed her to be a mother again. She still takes care of her children, Brent and Drake, and has grown from dealing with big obstacles in her life.

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Copyright © 2019 by Fern Rain.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 11/21/2019

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Backgrounda

Chapter 2 PANDAS

Chapter 3 2014 GAPS Diet

Chapter 4 Mold

Chapter 5 Delusional Disorder

References

Chapter 1

Background

I was born on December 31, 1977 at the hospital in Fairmont, Minnesota. When I was born my parents lived in Ceylon, Minnesota, and I lived there through kindergarten. In first grade we moved a few miles to Welcome, Minnesota. Welcome to Welcome, the friendly city reads the sign in that small town. I grew up in the country on a farm with a beautiful rural setting. We lived at that home through my elementary school years, and then we moved to another home in Welcome when I was in seventh grade, also out in the country. In eighth grade we moved a few miles into a house in the city of Sherburn, Minnesota. In 2017, Fairmont’s population was 10,120, Ceylon’s population was 344, Welcome had a population of 655, and Sherburn’s population was 1,095. Fairmont was the biggest town that was close by, and it was an hour drive to more populated areas such as Mankato, Minnesota or Albert Lea, Minnesota. Both of my grandparents were farmers, and I helped weed and spray soybeans at a young age.

In elementary school, I was in a small class size of about twenty-four students. When we went to junior high, three towns combined to form a bigger school, Martin County West. Welcome joined with Trimont and Sherburn school systems to form Martin County West Junior High and High School. I was a good student and did well in school. In elementary school, I had a lot of friends, but that thinned out in junior high and high school.

I participated in cross-country running, basketball, and track in junior high and high school. I went to sectionals one year for throwing the discus in track. I joined a swim team with the Albert Lea YMCA during my senior year of high school, and I went to state swimming the breaststroke. I was involved in future problem solvers (FPS) from elementary school through high school. I also participated in Mock Trial. In band, I played clarinet and bass clarinet from junior high through high school. I worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor from seventh grade through high school. My youngest sister was born while I was in high school, she was born November 6, 1994, and I helped take care of her in the summers when I didn’t have school. I graduated third in my high school class of 84 students in the Fall of 1996. I was a member of National Honor Society.

During my senior year of high school, I was fundraising by selling suckers. My fundraising efforts were to send myself to Australia through Youth For Understanding to study abroad in Queensland, Australia. I did raise enough funds to study abroad in Queensland, Australia the summer after graduating from high school. I stayed with a host family for six weeks, and we visited different tourist areas together with a group of other students. We did not attend a school while in Australia; it was more of a host family experience and tourism.

Also, during the last year of high school, or the very beginning of the summer after graduation, prior to going to Australia, I was flown by Lake Forest College to look at their campus in Lake Forest, Illinois. This was the first airplane ride that I had ever been on, and I flew by myself. Lake Forest College had a beautiful campus. After being flown to see the campus and being enamored by the campus, I decided that I would attend Lake Forest College to obtain my bachelor’s degree.

From the fall of 1996 through the spring of 2000, I attended Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. I lived in the dormitories on campus. I had a serious boyfriend from the end of Freshman year though mid-Junior year. Then I dated different guys, and I met my future husband, Andy, whom I was friends with for a year first. I participated in cross country running my Sophomore year of college. I worked at the writing center as a tutor. I also peer taught Field Ornithology my Senior year of college. My bachelor thesis was a survey of the waterfowl species along the Skokie Lagoons, which I surveyed for two years.

I studied abroad at Queensland University at Mount Gravatt campus during the spring semester of my Junior year. My serious boyfriend from Freshman year also went on the study abroad trip, to the exact same campus as me, and he broke up with me when we got to Australia. I did meet and have an Australian boyfriend while I studied in Australia.

During my senior year of college, I became a waitress and cocktail waitress at Rockland Café in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Lake Bluff is the town just neighboring Lake Forest, Illinois. I later became a bartender there as well. Early on, while working at Rockland Café, I met a man named Andy, who asked me to go see his band play in Chicago, Illinois, and I gave him my phone number. We became good friends; we went for walks, roller-bladed and went to concerts together for about a year. We started dating, and we were more than friends after a year of being just friends.

I also had an internship with Lake Forest Open Lands (LFOL), a prairie conservation and restoration group, during my Senior year of college. I conducted a people use survey at LFOL preserves during the Sophomore summer of college. I had a paid internship at the Chicago Botanic Gardens (CBG) as well my Sophomore summer of college. I worked in the prairie at CBG, and I learned a lot of plant species names as well as conducted research on earthworms. I also had an internship with the Lakes Department at the Lake County Health Department in Waukegan, Illinois during my last year of college. I was very busy throughout my college years. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lake Forest College in May of 2000.

I lived with my friend Renee the first year after college; we lived in Waukegan, Illinois. I worked at the Lake County Health Department as a beach sampler the summer after graduating from college. I continued waitressing and bartending at Rockland Café as well.

I lived in an apartment with Andy in 2001, and we lived in the apartment a couple of years before we bought a house in Waukegan, Illinois. Andy and I bought our first house together. We did a lot of home improvement: painting, putting up borders, remodeling a bar downstairs, and we had cabinets and some areas of flooring remodeled. We also had a lot of yardwork: getting rid of dandelions, starting a garden, and landscaping on our own. I worked as a legal secretary for an attorney for a while, and I still waitressed and bartended. In 2002, I took a full-time position working in the chemistry and microbiology lab at the Lake County Health Department. I started as a laboratory technician, and then I became a senior laboratory technician. I worked at the Lake County Health Department for five years, and while working there, Andy and I got married. We were married on May 28, 2005, in Sherburn, Minnesota at the Catholic church. Both Andy and I were practicing Catholics.

Starting around 2004, I worked part-time selling on eBay. I continued working on eBay while working at the Health Department.

In the Fall of 2007, I applied for and obtained a research assistantship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-Milwaukee) at the Field Station in Saukville, Wisconsin. The research assistantship was a paid assistantship with health insurance and a paid master’s degree, as school was also included in the assistantship. For the research assistantship, I helped with data entry, cut boards for the boardwalk, collected native prairie seeds, helped get food for workshops, cleaned the workshop house, assisted with workshops, helped set up the tree identification in winter class, and worked with GPS and ArcMap.

I studied the floodplain forests of the Milwaukee river for my master’s thesis. My thesis was titled: Riparian Plant Communities of the Milwaukee River. When I first started attending UW-Milwaukee, I still lived in Waukegan, Illinois at our house. We luckily sold our house just before the market got bad, and we moved to a condominium in Mequon, Wisconsin. After a year at the condominium, we bought our second house. It was in West Bend, Wisconsin, which was located just five miles from the UW-Milwaukee Field Station that I worked at. I graduated in May of 2010 with a 4.0 GPA, obtaining a Master of Science from UW-Milwaukee. When I graduated from college I was already a few months pregnant with my first son. I worked for the UW-Milwaukee Field Station the summer after graduation. I also continued to work on eBay.

I delivered my first son, Brent Rain, on September 30, 2010 at 2:34 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces. I had problems getting Brent to nurse, and he was jaundiced. Eventually, he did nurse well, but it took a lot of work and pumping to feed him in between nursing feedings, which were not very successful at first. I was a stay at home mom, and I also sold on eBay. My husband, Andy, traveled a lot for work, and we lived a long distance from any family. We lived about two hours from Andy’s family in Illinois and six and a half hours from my family in Minnesota.

My second son, Drake Rain, was born on October 15, 2012 at 2:28 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 inches long. He started nursing right away, and I had no problems getting him to eat; it was a nice surprise.

Andy was gone a lot for work, traveling across Wisconsin, and I had my hands full with two kids and working on eBay. We did find and make some good friends at the Family Center in West Bend, Wisconsin, where we took the kids to play and learn through crafts and singing. We had play dates at each other’s houses and met at the Family Center as well. The kids were Brent’s and Drake’s ages, and they got along fairly well. Eventually, Helen was a very close friend, and we did not get together with the other friends very often, and then not at all. Through the process of Brent’s illness, which I will talk about next, we became less close with the other two families.

Chapter 2

PANDAS

When my son, Brent, was a little over two years old on March 18, 2013, he was diagnosed with impetigo on his face. My other son, Drake, had impetigo on April 1, 2013. This was the beginning of our encounter with the Streptococcus bacteria, and it just continued to get worse.

On April 1, 2013, Brent went to his pediatrician again, and this time he was complaining of a sore throat. He had white tonsils, tonsillitis, and his doctor suspected strep throat. Brent was put on Cephalexin for ten days. On April 22, 2013, we went to Brent’s pediatrician again with complaints of another sore throat; Brent also had a low-grade fever. Ten days prior to this doctor’s visit, Brent had finished his antibiotics for strep throat. At this appointment the rapid strep test was negative, but they did a culture and started Brent on Amoxicillin while awaiting the results of the throat culture.

On April 26, 2013, at 6:00 p.m., we went to the emergency room in West Bend because Brent was complaining of mouth and throat pain. The emergency room doctor found acute tonsillitis; there was significant swelling to his tonsils, and his throat was swollen. Brent was given a steroid, orapred (prednisone), at the hospital, and we were given two more days worth of the medicine to give him at home. This steroid was to help bring down the swelling in his throat, which was very extreme. At this appointment he was also taken off the Amoxicillin antibiotic and switched to the Augmentin antibiotic. We were told to come back to check Brent the next day because of how swollen his throat was. The next day, April 27, 2013, we followed up from the emergency room visit. The pediatrician, who was not Brent’s normal pediatrician, recommended we stop the antibiotic and diagnosed Brent with coxsackievirus, but I think she was incorrect as it was just based on a couple of red spots on Brent’s fingers that were not obvious.

On May 4, 2013, we went to Brent’s pediatrician with Brent complaining of a sore throat again. The rapid strep test was positive, and his pediatrician put him on Augmentin for ten days. She also thought Brent had sleep apnea and sent us to an ears, nose and throat doctor (ENT) for a consultation.

On May 14, 2013, we saw the ENT doctor for a consultation. There were no actions from this appointment; he just suggested we wait and see before recommending a tonsillectomy. He did recommend cauterizing a blood vessel in the side of Brent’s nose that had the most frequent nose bleeds, because Brent has frequent nose bleeds.

So, Brent had a lot of issues with tonsillitis and strep throat at this point. We had no idea that what was going to happen with his health next would change our lives for the next few years. There is a little more background on other health complaints that Brent had. Over the past couple of months, Brent did say quite a few times that he couldn’t see. He would be crying, and I did assume he meant because he was crying he couldn’t see well; I am not certain what was wrong. Over the winter, before multiple strep throat infections, Brent was complaining that the light was too bright, and he would get watery eyes from the sun and snow reflecting sun. It would bother his eyes so much that he did not want to go outside. He had to wear sunglasses, and we had to pull the blinds closed in January, February, and March when it was mainly cloudy, and not that bright outside. Also, Brent had a constantly stuffed and boogery nose, with nose bleeds so often that we added a humidifier to his room and they seemed to get a little better.

Brent has always played with and held onto stuff, but more recently, in the 2012-2013 winter and 2013 spring, when he was sick with strep throat and tonsil issues, he sat in a pile of stuff and shuffled it all over the floor. Brent shuffled small toys, papers, Q-tips, and random items that he collected and liked to have. Brent sat on the floor with a circle of stuff around him. He brought stuff to bed with him as well. Usually he wanted more stuff once he got to bed. He had been staying up later at night to 10:00 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. for a couple of months, playing in his bed. He normally went to bed at 8:30 p.m. Brent also seemed scared, as he would get us to come up to his room, and he told us to stay. The last couple of months with illness and in between illnesses, he would want to stay home and play with his stuff. He did not want to leave the house and go on trips sometimes.

Brent has historically been a very smart kid; he could spell, and he knew books by heart. He knew the whole alphabet and recognized letters since he was one and a half years old. He spoke well and knew numbers 1-29. He spelled, and he spelled his own name since at least two years old out loud. Normally he had a good memory and could recite the Brown Bear Brown Bear book, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, the whole book.

Andy started telling Brent to take three things to bed with him, and we read three books before going to bed. But if we did not read three books, he got upset until we read the third. There was a zoo incident at the beginning of May where he wanted to go his way, and we didn’t let him. He wouldn’t listen and had the biggest fit I have ever seen. All the way to the car he had a fit, insisting we go back the other way, and it was twenty minutes of screaming and protesting to go back the other direction.

The week starting May 27, 2013, was the beginning of a big episode where his health changed. It started small with a stuffy and slightly runny nose, and he was spacey and out of it. Brent was nervous about playing with and eating by his cousins, which is not normal for him. He looked sickly and shaky that day. He was not eating well. He was itchy around his neck and sleeping heavily in the car with a sickly look.

On Monday, May 28, 2013, Brent was itchy around the neck, unbuttoning his shirt, taking his pajama shirt off (he never takes his pajamas off), and talking in gibberish. He had a runny nose. On Tuesday, May 29, 2013, Brent was calling me stupid and was hitting; he was angry. He was taking his button-down pajama shirt off again, after it was irritating his neck. He had a runny nose and was stuffy and pale. He had arm movements that I looked up online and saw they looked like chorea movements. Chorea is defined as a neurological disorder characterized by jerky involuntary movements affecting especially the shoulders, hips, and face [3].

On May 30, 2013, Brent had a stuffy and boogery nose. He was fussy, pale, and had sickly looking eyes. Brent had a huge fit to head out of the door; he had to do it his way. Brent fell while playing at the playground about four times when running around with his friend. He fell two more times later that day, and he seemed to be walking a little differently, clumsily. He was wearing the same shoes as all winter, and