Our Story Continues

I haven't done much with this blog, but I want to start doing more with it as meth is a growing problem everywhere. I would like to start with signs of living in a meth house or apartment:

Discoloration on walls. This can be black, yellow, blue, or even purple. The blue discoloration is more often found on metal, like a metal sliding glass door frame, propane tanks, or fire extinguishers.

Black discoloration on walls. This did not wash off, I could scrub and scrub but it just kept coming back.

This is the blue that appeared on our metal sliding glass door frame after we cleaned the carpets. This would not scrub off either.

The smell. Our apartment smelt like cigarette smoke mixed with cat urine.

Your physical symptoms. This can include breaking out in a rash (hives), burning in your eyes and throat, itching, headaches, difficulty breathing, cold symptoms, sinus pressure, memory loss, unusual stretch marks. Adam and I both had stretch marks appear on our inner thigh for no apparent reason.

This is a picture of Adam's hives. The more time he spent in our apartment the worse his hives got. Eventually his whole body looked like this.


Our vents were filthy, although I am not sure if that is necessarily a sign of meth.



Signs that your tenants or neighbors use meth:
They behave oddy, are very thin, bad teeth, and open sores.
Have large amounts of garbage.
Visitors at odd times.
Coffee filters that are not brown.

There is a simple meth test, but it isn't always accurate. Get a bottle of spray starch, like what you would iron with and spray the starch on the wall. If the starch becomes discolored you have a problem. Like I said, it is not always accurate...in our apartment the starch did not change color but we did have a meth problem. We had scrubbed the walls like crazy with bleach before trying this, so that may be why it didn't change.

In Utah the only place that tests for meth is DataChem. The test kit is free and when you bring it back they charge you $45.00 for them to process it. The test takes 4 days, or you can pay an additional $45.00 to get it back 2 days. DataChem's address and phone number is:
960 Levoy Dr
Murray, UT 84123-2502
(801) 266-7700
To order a test kit from DataChem Click here

Meth affects everyone differently and if very dangerous. The effects of meth can last for years. After not living in the apartment for 2 years and after doing the cleanse we felt that it was time to start our family. We are happy to announce our beautiful little girl Zoey.

Isn't she the cutest? I may be a bit biased but I think she is the cutest little girl in the world! :) Zoey was born with several heart defects including Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Double Outlet Right Ventricle, a coarctation in the aorta artery, and several other less serious heart defects like holes in her heart and a heart mummer. So the big question...WAS THIS CAUSED BY THE METH??? I think about it all the time. Zoey had her first heart surgery when she was 9 days old and she has 1+ surgeries to go. Zoey is doing so good right now! We are so happy with the care she has been receiving and we thank God everyday for how well she has done.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to share your story here please let me know.