After my father's office was flooded by an AC backup at his workp...

I am very glad your dad is alive. My dad did not survive his Prednisone overdose. I would like to talk to you more about this. If interested please respond.

Wow, the similarities between your father's illness and the one I've been battling is uncanny. Up until a few years ago I was a healthy active woman who owned several businesses in the building in which I lived. We had a bad flood and everything was contaminated with a fungus called Stachybotrus atra (or chartarum). I spent untold time in various emergency rooms, unable to breath and broken out with hives that looked just like the mold. Our businesses and homes had to be moved to a decontamination site by men in Tyvex suits with respirators. Everything we owned was contaminated with the spores and their "fungal bloom," also known as a mycotoxin. This was in Wisconsin, where it is very humid and molds are common. I got so sick I was in the hospital with a 50/50 chance. I eventually had to leave everything and return to Colorado, where the sensitivity eventually (as in a couple of years) went away, and left me with neurological and psychiatric damage. I was given a shot of a steroid for a broken foot, and within hours was covered with severe hives. I went to the ER, where among other things they prescibed prednisone. I only took it for about 10 days, and I started having hip pain on the opposite side of the foot I had broken. I gained almost twice my weight over these few months, and finally went to the surgeon who had cared for me during my foot injury. X-rays showed nothing, but after a 1 1/2 hour MRI it was revealed that 80 percent of my hip was destroyed by vascular necrosis, 20 percent in the other. Next week I am having a full hip replacement. There are no other options. I've cried a lot (I was a tournament tennis player, mountain climber, runner and yoga practitioner.) In just 4 months I went from a cramp in my thigh to a nearly crippled and EXTREMELY painful condition. I advise you to keep an eye on the fungi, because Stachy and its friends (aspergillus, penicillium) are so toxic they are used in biochemical warfare. They do terrible damage to the immune and neurological systems, and pretty much cut me down in my prime. Good Luck, Roxanna