Indiana Woman Devastated By Mystery Illness Finally Learns The Truth Thanks To Home Contractors
Kathi Wilson was a hard-working mom and wife from Indiana. She had a happy life taking care of her loved ones and working pretty hard. Then, all of a sudden tragedy knocked on the door. A mystery illness struck her, and she became severely ill. At first, Wilson figured it was just a regular cold or at the worst, the flu. But as the illness got worse and worse, she and her family realized she had something worse than a cold.
Still, Wilson was unaware she would be fighting this ailment for over a decade. No one seemed to be able to help her, and nothing she did made her feel better. After staying ill for ten years, a miracle finally occurred. Finally, after so long, someone discovered the source of Wilson’s mystery illness. And, believe it or not, it wasn’t even a doctor…
1. Meet the Victim
Kathi Wilson, 41-years-old, was just a regular hard-working mom living in Shelbyville, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis. Wilson enjoyed a happy and peaceful life in the company of her husband and children, whom she loves dearly.
While she loved taking care of her family, Wilson was also an enterprising woman working at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Wilson loved her life, after all, she had everything she could ask for, a good husband, beautiful kids, and a great job. However, Wilson would soon face the biggest hurdle of her life. And it wouldn’t come from her personal life or workplace. Instead, it came from one of the most unusual places…
2. A Happy, Healthy Person
In addition to being a great mom, Wilson was always the happiest person in the room. She’s thoughtful, caring, and never let anything too small get to her, the kind of person you would want in your life. Every time she walked into a room, Wilson lit up the entire place with her presence.
And while Wilson didn’t hit the gym every day or run marathons, she always tried to lead a healthy lifestyle. To Wilson, family and friends mattered more than anything in the world, and she wanted to be there for them. So, she ate right for the most part and exercised relatively often. She also loved taking care of her mind, as well as her body. As a healthy woman who liked to take care of herself, Wilson rarely got sick. At least, until now…
3. Feeling Under the Weather
Wilson’s healthy lifestyle made it even more peculiar when Wilson randomly fell ill, about ten years ago. Not only did she lead a healthy lifestyle, the mystery illness seemed to come from nowhere. However, she was still human. Even those who lead the healthiest lifestyle possible can fall ill once in a while.
Nevertheless, even on the rare occasion Wilson would get sick, she usually recovered quickly. Always an incredibly strong person, especially when it came to health, Wilson figured this time would be no different from the rest. Unfortunately, it would turn out quite differently, this time around. The slight sickness she felt signified the start of her a horrible nightmare, a nightmare that would last for many years.
4. Just a Regular Cold
The mystery illness started very suddenly. One morning, Wilson woke up feeling very worn out. She lacked energy, her entire body ached, and she just felt like lying in bed all day. While Wilson could not believe her random symptoms, she had a day-to-day life to go about. She felt certain that eventually, the mystery illness would resolve itself. So, Wilson pulled herself out of bed and started her day.
As she got ready for the day, Wilson continued to think about her sickness. For her, it seemed like a regular cold, perhaps the flu, at worst. Wilson kept thinking about it, and a cold seemed more and more possible. After all, there were plenty of explanations. Unfortunately, what infected Wilson was no common cold…
5. A Stressful Life
When thinking about her illness, Wilson realized that, while she loved her job at the DMV, she had become very stressed lately. Just before she fell ill, Wilson had started focusing most of her time and energy at work. Being a successful woman involves dedication and courage to achieve your goals, and Wilson knew it.
However, as mentioned before, Wilson also had a family and a home to take care of. So, Wilson was having difficulty keeping up with everything that was going on in her life. Maybe she just needed a few days off to get some rest and get back on her feet. At least, that’s what she thought…
6. Struggles Came Along
By the time Wilson felt sick for the first time, she had started to struggle to keep her personal life and her work life separated. Before taking on the extra work, Wilson thought she could take on the extra load. However, now, it seemed like she could not. Worse still, now she was sick!
In the light of her personal struggles, Wilson figured out that maybe her immune system weakened because of her stress, attributing to her illness. So, she tried to de-stress and find more personal balance. Nevertheless, Wilson continued to get worse, day by day. Soon, her family started to worry that this might not be just a passing cold.
7. Family’s Concerns
Back at home, Wilson’s family’s concerns continued to grow every day. As mentioned, Wilson rarely got ill, much less for an entire week! Worse still, a week had passed, and she didn’t seem any better. In fact, she seemed worse! Still, Wilson refused to believe she had caught anything worse than the flu. She felt sure she’d get better in just a day or two.
Wilson did her best to brush off her family’s concerns away, confident she wouldn’t be lying in bed for much longer. In her mind, she would be feeling like herself again in no time. She had no clue, whatsoever, this was the beginning of the biggest battle of her life.
8. Mystery Illness Worsens
Every day, Wilson’s symptoms worsened. Each morning, she woke up weaker and more lethargic than the day before. A few weeks into this mystery illness, Wilson didn’t feel like herself anymore. Worse still, it started affecting both her professional and personal life. All that mattered most to Wilson began crumbling in front of her very eyes.
At this point, Wilson could not keep up with her hectic work schedule. And worse yet, she couldn’t take care of her family anymore. Wilson felt too tired and fatigued all the time to do anything, at all. Now, she began to think that she might not have a common cold or the flu. But her symptoms said something different…
9. Strange Illness Symptoms
What truly struck Wilson, and her family, as odd were her symptoms. She, and others, had experienced them all before. Wilson suffered the symptoms of the common flu virus, but the illness would not leave her body, it seemed. In the past, whenever she had the flu, her symptoms had cleared up within a couple of days of when it started, but not on this occasion.
Wilson felt fatigued every single day, her entire body ached, and she also had a persistent cough. Ultimately, she started to lose her voice to the point where she could no longer talk. However, Wilson still did not feel ready to head to the doctor’s office just yet. Instead, she decided to take the matter into her own hands.
10. Helping Herself
A true role model, Wilson never ever felt pity for herself. She always did her best to change the things she wanted to change. So, mustering what little energy that she had left, Wilson paid a visit to the nearest drug store. Once there, she stocked up all the medications she would possibly need to battle a cold or the flu.
Hoping to get better, Wilson purchased everything from cold and flu medication to numerous vitamins and other nutrients. Afterward, she headed back home to begin treatment, praying to get better within the next couple of days. Little did she know at the time that the next few years of her life would be a living hell.
11. Taking Care of It
Still assuming she had a cold or the flu, Wilson believed her extensive drug regimen would help. A smart, safe woman, Wilson followed the directions to the letter, taking her medicine, getting plenty of fluids, and lots of rest. She hoped that now, with the help of medication, she would feel better in no time.
However, the medication would only be effective against the flu, nothing worse. So, Wilson also made the wise decision to make herself a doctor’s appointment. In the end, this became Wilson’s smartest move. Because, very soon, she would learn that the medication had the opposite effect she intended…
12. Things Get Worse
Not one to give up on herself, Wilson tried to fight the illness with various over-the-counter medications and vitamins. Unfortunately, they did the opposite. After taking cold medicine, Wilson started feeling worse and worse. Now, out of options, Wilson realized she needed to visit a professional. Thankfully, she had made a back-up appointment, just in case.
Wilson prayed that the doctor could diagnose whatever afflicted her and get her back on track. That’s all she wanted! Wilson just wanted to return to work and start taking care of her family once again, not the other way around. So, nervous about her visit, Wilson headed to the doctor’s office.
13. A Professional’s Opinion
Wilson hoped that the doctor could find out what sickness she had and would be able to provide her a speedy recovery. After an examination, Wilson’s doctor took some blood samples to run various tests that would help them diagnosis Wilson’s mystery illness. Waiting for blood tests is never a fun experience, as they usually hold the vital medical clues doctors need to solve cases.
However, the tests did not exactly help. In fact, the opposite! The results came back from the lab, proving what Wilson already believed: the doctor would not help at all. Wilson’s results completely shocked both her and her physician. What the doctor found made no sense whatsoever…
14. Healthier Than Ever
According to the doctor’s findings, Wilson was healthier than ever! Her labs’ results came back entirely normal. Wilson couldn’t believe what her doctor. If she was healthy, then why did she feel so horrible every single day? Something just didn’t add up.
Wilson couldn’t wrap her head around it. It felt like her entire body was shutting down. Still, there seemed to be no physical signs. However, Wilson understood she couldn’t argue with the cold hard facts of science, yet she had the feeling something lay hidden just beneath the surface. Something causing the symptoms. Unfortunately for Wilson, her mystery illness would not go anywhere any time soon.
15. Disappointing News
After the doctor explained that they found nothing physically wrong with Wilson, they started to talk. After a lengthy conversation, her doctor actually agreed with Wilson’s original diagnosis: a stress-related illness. So, her doctor recommended that Wilson should try to decrease her stress levels. Taking her advice, Wilson decided to take some time off work and get some rest at home.
In the end, Wilson left with even less information than she started with. Even though she felt, deep down, that an illness lay inside of her, she decided to take the doctor’s advice and get more rest. Hopefully, this time around, the rest would work.
16. Following Doctor’s Orders
Wilson followed the doctor’s orders to a T, making sure she gave herself plenty of time to rest and let her body recuperate. At this point, Wilson had experienced her horrible symptoms for almost an entire month. The mystery illness plagued her, turning her whole life upside down. Wilson began to get very upset and restless, needing to know the origin of her pain.
Moreover, not only did she want to figure out why she felt so horribly, but she also wanted to find a way to resolve it. Sadly, there wasn’t much she could do to help herself, as over-the-counter medication did nothing, and her doctor could not find anything wrong with her. Unfortunately, things were about to take another turn for the worse…
17. The Symptoms’ Severity
While on her doctor ordered rest, something bizarre began happening. For some strange reason, the more time Wilson spent following the doctor’s recommendation, the more severe her symptoms became. Whether her ideas of the doctor’s recommendations, all of Wilson’s efforts seemed to have the opposite effect on her body.
Wilson waited a little bit longer, yet she only continued to get weaker and weaker. So, she decided to go back to the doctor’s office for a more throughout examination. Wilson figured that this time, they might find something they hadn’t notice when she first came to them. Especially now that it was clear that this was no common cold.
18. Further Testing
When Wilson arrived at her doctor’s office, she told them her symptoms were getting even worse than before. So, her primary doctor, Dr. Mary Beth Hensley, helped her by performing numerous tests to get to the bottom of her ailment. Dr. Hensley booked her for blood tests, EKG, CAT Scans, heart tests, MRIs, and spinal taps to rule out any possible disease they could think of.
“[She had] cardiac testing, chest x-rays, MRI’s [of] the brain, the spine, to see if something was related,” Dr. Hensley said. Whatever was wrong in her body, they should be able to see it when the test’s results came back.
19. Faithfulness
Again, Wilson hoped that, this time, Dr. Hensley would find something, anything that could explain her symptoms. And with the numerous tests she underwent, she believed a clue would finally present itself. Maybe they could finally get to the bottom of Wilson’s mystery illness. Dr. Hensely felt confident also, after covering their bases with a wide variety of tests.
Now, all Wilson could do was patiently wait, once again, for Hensley to review her test results. Hopefully, Wilson would soon get her professional and personal life back. However, she was about to be devastated by the doctor’s conclusion. Wilson started to wonder if she would ever get better…
20. Still, No Answer
It didn’t take long for the test results to come back, and to Wilson’s dismay, they were inconclusive. Wilson felt heartbroken. It seemed like not even Dr. Hensley could figure out what afflicted her so painfully. Nothing medically wrong showed up in the plethora of tests and scans that she had undergone. In fact, the only thing they did show was Wilson’s complete and utter healthiness.
The medical tests also showed Wilson didn’t have any allergies or disease that could explain her symptoms. However, Wilson’s medical team felt determined to get to the bottom of the issue, despite the baffling test results. Furthermore, they had a plan for the meantime.
21. Feeling Hopeless
Wilson felt devastated and hopeless. No one could solve her mystery illness, which made her feel upset and angry, to say the very least. Not having the answers she needed, Wilson became more and more emotional as the days passed. Meanwhile, the only thing her doctor could do was prescribe some medication for the pain. It at least made the mystery illness manageable.
Nonetheless, with time, Wilson started to feel like a completely different person. She was no longer the cheerful and happy mother who could take care of her beloved family. Instead, she had become this bitter version of herself, a 40-year-old woman trapped in the body of an old lady. Unfortunately, the mystery illness would soon start to get even worse.
22. Mystery Illness Continues To Take Its Toll
As time continued to pass, Wilson’s situation worsened. Wilson couldn’t go to the bathroom or use the kitchen unassisted. Little by little, the condition started to take away her abilities to perform any part of her daily routine. She felt listless as her unknown sickness continued to take its toll.
“The more I stayed home, the more I slept, the more I got sick,” Wilson said. She had tried many medications and ran all sorts of tests, but none came back with an answer. No one had an idea of how severe the mystery illness was, but her life hung in the balance.
23. Housebound
Soon, Wilson had to resort to the help of a cane to be able to get around the house. Later, she could not leave her house, whatsoever. Wilson became a literal prisoner of her mystery illness. Even worse, the more she stayed at home, the worse her condition seemed to get. However, Wilson had no energy left to even think about her disease. Instead, all she could do was sleep.
After becoming housebound, Wilson found it hard to even move from one room to another. “I felt like an 80-year-old woman stuck in a 40-year-old body,” she said. The family stuck by her side trying to help her, but Wilson condition took its toll on them also.
24. Failing to Find a Diagnose
It’s hard for the average person to imagine suffering from an undiagnosable disease. It must have been truly frightening to realize that the doctors could not help Wilson. Now that the mystery illness had lasted for so long that Wilson started to lose all hope that she would ever get better.
Unfortunately, Wilson’s affliction would last much longer than anybody could have foreseen. Moreover, not one doctor could help her, and no one could understand why. Kathi Wilson tried to battle this disease as strongly as she could, yet her condition continued to take everything away from her. And soon, the medical bills started to pile up…
25. A Long-Lasting Illness
When Wilson first fell ill, she had no idea how much time and energy she would be investing in finding what had been plaguing her. Despite the fact that Wilson had suffered for so long and how badly she wanted to give in, she tried her best to remain positive. Even as the medical bills piled up from test after test, Wilson believed that maybe a clue hid somewhere yet unseen.
However, the diagnosis still alluded doctors. All Wilson wished was to finally wake up from this nightmare that lasted for years. Wilson had no idea that it would be a struck of luck from a kind stranger that she would once and for all be able to get her life back to normal.
26. Living With A Mystery Illness
Over the years, Wilson went to many specialists, and no one could determine the source of her mystery illness. So, Kathi Wilson resolved herself to merely living the best she could with her condition.
Soon, five years passed, and Wilson still saw no improvement whatsoever. She had to put up with her condition for a considerable amount of time, time she will never get back. Fortunately, a turning point waited, unseen in Wilson’s future. However, Wilson and her family would need to preserve through another turn for the worse before they could attempt to emerge from the other side of this nightmare.
27. Over A Decade Of Suffering
Five long, exhausting years had passed since Wilson began experiencing the symptoms of a common cold. Unfortunately, this only marked the halfway point. Wilson ended up living with her mystery illness for over a decade. For ten years, Wilson struggled to accomplish even the most basic everyday tasks, as the sickness made everything almost impossible.
However, near the end of the ten years, things took a turn for the worse, once again. Wilson’s husband and daughter contracted chronic bronchitis and started having bouts of pneumonia. Something started affecting all of them. Still, it wasn’t until Wilson and her husband made an unrelated decision that they learned the terrifying truth on why Wilson had been suffering for such a long time and now her family as well.
28. The Restoration
In an attempt to try to keep their home in optimal conditions, the Wilsons decided to do some minors restorations to their family home. They intended to do the entire thing but agreed to start one room at a time. So, they began with the bathroom. All family members loved the idea and believed it would help rejuvenate the old house.
At the very least, this would keep Wilson’s mind occupied with something other than her mystery illness. First, she came up with a mental picture of how she would like the new bathroom to look like. Then, she needed to find the best construction workers in their small town.
29. Finding Construction Workers
After doing some searching, Wilson found some local construction workers who were available to start building the new bathroom right away. The Wilsons wanted to start their home project as soon as possible, so the workers worked out perfectly.
So, the construction workers arrived at the home, to take a look around the bathroom and quote the Wilsons a price. However, when they arrived, they immediately realized within a couple of minutes that something was terribly wrong with the house. Something that would explain everything. No one knew the construction workers would soon solve a medical mystery that had eluded multiple doctors…
30. Something That the Doctor Failed To See
As soon as the construction workers walked into the bathroom, they realized something was terribly wrong with the house. Meanwhile, they knew nothing about the Wilsons’ mystery illness, nor did Kathi Wilson have any idea that they had discovered something. So, contractors Doug Tucker, and brothers, Evans and Luze Duran, started to look around at exactly what they would be dealing with.
The contractors did not put the puzzle together until they heard a very specific, very quiet noise. Then, they made a life-changing discovery that finally diagnosed Wilson’s mystery illness.
31. The Life-Changing Discovery
In the bathroom, the construction workers heard a strange noise. In order to get to the bottom of it, and successfully complete the remodel, they needed to see the Wilsons’ furnace. The Wilson family guided them to the spot where they keep the furnace, and that’s when they saw it.
They revealed that, all along, the house itself was the culprit. The entire time the answer had been laying in front of their eyes. It all started to make sense, that’s why the more time she spent at home, the more she felt sick and weak. After making their discovery, the construction workers revealed what had happened, solving a major medical mystery…
32. Realizing What Had Gone Wrong
As it turns out, whoever installed the water heater did not instill the pipes correctly. This caused a small leak of carbon monoxide, which spread through the house. Carbon monoxide, a clear, odorless, poisonous gas is widely known as “the silent killer.”
For more than ten years, deadly carbon monoxide had silently and lethally leaked into their home environment and slowly made Wilson sicker and sicker. “I was shocked,” Wilson told Inside Edition in an interview. Furthermore, if the workers hadn’t found the source of the issue, the CO poisoning would have likely killed her and possibly other family members.
33. Getting Back Her Normal Life
Immediately after they found the source of the problem, they rushed to let Kathi know about the leak in the furnace. Wilson knew right away that it was the reason why she’d been sick for so long and why staying in the house only made it worse. All along Wilson had been suffering from carbon monoxide poising.
“This actually was the worst I’ve ever seen,” recalled contractor Luze Duran. The construction workers fixed the leaks, and almost immediately, Wilson started to get better. Wilson felt thrilled as soon as she noticed the difference. Hopefully, she would be able to get back on track to return to her regular, everyday routine.
34. Recuperating Mentally and Physically
Now that the leak was fixed and she had finally woken up from the terrible nightmare, Wilson could start getting back to her usual self. Wilson began the road to recovery to become, once again, the cheerful and happy person she was before the debilitating affliction struck. She knew there was still a long way to go.
Mentally, Wilson felt exhausted, yet she knew it was only a matter of time before she was back to normal. And she was right! It wasn’t long before she was back to her happy and loving life again. Wilson did still have a slightly hoarse voice but other than that, she felt better than ever.
35. Being Grateful
Wilson had nothing but kind words for her life-saviors. “I want to thank you guys for giving me my life back,” Wilson said, overwhelmed with emotions. Wilson wanted to thank everyone who had helped her throughout the years. Even the doctors who were unable to identify the issue, she wanted to thank for their time and patience.
“They were my angels. They brought me back to life,” she said about the constructions worker. If the Wilsons hadn’t made the decision to remodel their bathroom, Wilson’s story would have turned the same. Instead, everything turned out for the best, Wilson said: “I feel great, I haven’t been this happy in I can’t tell how long.”
36. Looking Out For The Future
Once Kathi Wilson recovered from her mystery illness, she wanted to make sure that what happened to her didn’t happen to other people. She wanted people to know what to do if they were ever faced with the silent threat of silent carbon monoxide poisoning.
Wilson hopes other people won’t be suffering from CO poisoning without knowing it and suffering its consequences for years, maybe decades. Wilson wanted people to be aware of her story and know that home safety is as important as taking care of your health. She is confident that learning about the warning signs that crept past her family could help save others.
37. Setting The Alarm
As a way to prevent this terrible mystery illness, modern houses are required to have carbon monoxide alarms in the U.S and most countries. And the Wilsons were not the exception to this rule. Afterward, they had a carbon monoxide detector, installed in the ceiling as is common in most American homes.
The family also learn a valuable lesson about the most effective placement of CO detectors. Due to the fact that CO is heavier than air, the ceiling unit was unable to detect the CO that had been leaking for all those years. Such detectors are also made to insert into electrical outlets, so you can place them closer to the ground. Unfortunately, Wilson had to learn this lesson the hard way.
38. CO Poisoning
Carbon Monoxide has no smell, taste, or color. So, in order to detect it, you must have a CO detector in your home. As CO is heavier than air, it will sink to the floor. And that is the reason why is called the silent killer. So, make sure to install your CO detector close to the floor. Furthermore, the security experts from First Alert recommend that you place it “15-20 feet away from the furnace or fuel burning heat sources” and “at least 10 feet from sources of humidity like bathrooms and showers.”
When winter approaches, make sure to have your detectors tested by a professional and if need be, purchase another. Be aware that the most common CO leaks come from furnace, generators, fireplaces, and clothes dryers. While we don’t think about carbon dioxide in the same way as radiation or fires, it can be just as dangerous. So, learn from Kathi Wilson’s story and stay safe!
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