<p>I don't think I have ever posted here before, so I am not sure if this is appropriate.</p>
<p>Has any parent experienced this, and do you have suggestions? My daughter is a sophomore in college, and both last year and this one, she spent the entire 1st semester with severe cough and congestion. This year so bad that she fractured and bruised some ribs from the coughing, and her cough sounded to me like end stage COPD! The health center tested for a few things but basically gave antibiotics and OTC remedies. </p>
<p>Now that she is home for break I am thinking of getting her tested for mold and indoor enviromental allergies, but I guess I would really have no way to link this to her building per se.</p>
<p>Not sure if anyone here can offer ideas or suggestions, but thanks for reading!</p>
<p>i’m sorry that your D is suffering. You might want to get a chest x-ray and schedule a consultation with a pulmonologist. My D had a similar experience with a chronic cough and she had severe inflammation in her lungs. The doctor suspects that it started with some sort of severe allergic reaction. It responded well to steroid treatment.</p>
<p>I do remember a case discussed on CC where a student became ill from mold that was discovered in a dorm. Is your D in the same dorm / building as last year? Has there been a lot of rain where the college is located? But the most common causes of a chronic cough in a non-smoker are asthma, rhinitis with sinusitis and post-nasal drainage (PND). So do have her tested allergies, mold and a sinus infections [ I suffered from SI’s for YEARS- got them every fall- had to take Biaxin for weeks[ I mean 6-8] to kill all the bugs.] So if your Dr says she has a sinus infection- demand NON generic Biaxin and have her take them for a much longer time than is usually prescribed.[ its expensive, but it does the trick!]</p>
<p>Son thinks he has identified odor in his room. They lifted a ceiling tile (has dropped ceiling) and the tops of the tiles and the ceiling above are covered in black mildew/mold. Isn’t this a health concern? Should housing be forced to clean up the problem? Anybody with an opinion? </p>
<p>Son just called, said he is having trouble with headaches, sore throat, congestion. Of course it is hard to tell if he has just picked up a cold/virus, though he said after he is out of room for hours it is better. Has history of asthma. He is very upset with room. I’m calling tomorrow to see if I can get medical permission to move him off campus as when I called today they said they had 100% occupancy–so no moves. Guess I could fight to have room “fixed” but what a mess that would be.</p>
<p>Mold update----
Have message in to the school facility/environmental person to come and inspect room. Son has Dr. appt. scheduled for Fri. </p>
<p>another mold update,
Roommates mother came to look at room and was also concerned. School has not called back after 2 voice mails left, and son has not found right person in office. Have contracted with independent agent to come into room on Tues. and do necessary tests/samples and have sent to independent lab. I don’t know what else to do as I feel am already getting run around. If test okay, then I/we can feel better and know it must be some other allergen/virus whatever. Also, son has checked with some close by apt. complexes and there are available units, so if he has to move out, at least won’t be on street. Thanks to all for suggestions. </p>
<p>menloparkmom,
Environmental health from the school called around 5 this evening. They are starting a clean-up tomorrow (he is staying elsewhere tonight and weekend)–they will replace ceiling tiles, clean everything and on Mon. put a 24hr. air collection unit in room to measure air quality. I think I will still follow up with independent contractor just to back up results if nothing else. Guess my son got hold of maintenance who looked at room and sprayed clorox around—son informed him that that did not meet the U.'s own mold policy guideline and maintenance man got env. health over to room. Hopefully, they are now taking care of it right—we’ll see after test results.</p>
<p>The problems could be related to mold/dust in the room and it seems that the college should fix the problem is so. You might want to inspect the room for it. There might even be some legal recourse to getting them correcting it (but I’m not a lawyer) since I’m not sure it’s permitted to rent a mold infested space.</p>
<p>If nothing else you might want to try having your kid use a HEPA air cleaner (check on units from Honeywell) in the room to see if it helps.</p>
<p>We had to get my D certified as a disabled student to get her out of the dorms. Her problem was allergies and no air conditioning. With the windows having to be wide open all night she would wake up and need her inhaler first thing every morning (when usually she only needed it about 1x/month). She tried staying in an air conditioned dorm one night but it was actually worse there so we suspected there might be mold or some other irritant in the building’s HVAC system. </p>
<p>We needed a letter from her doctor and a few from us, but she is now out of the dorms, in a small apartment with hardwood floors, and is completely back to normal. </p>
<p>I think persistent mold is even worse than pollen. menloparkmom, make sure the “cure isn’t worse than the disease”. Breathing in Clorax fumes doesn’t sound too comforting to my lungs.</p>
<p>My son is going in for allergy testing tomorrow for this very same reason. Symptoms started freshman year, got better while he was home this summer, flared back up this semester (sophomore year) while living on campus is a different dorm. Both dorms were relatively new. Freshman year dorm was only two years old and supposedly ‘green.’ I can’t wait to hear what his Test results reveal.</p>