P.S. Did the doc determine what caused the formation of these fungus balls?
She had Valley Fever. We actually noticed she had a bad rash on her legs, then her knees swelled up like she had arthritis, then she started coughing a lot. We went to the doctor for her knees and for the rash and she was sent to a reumatologist (sp?). That doctor had seen these symptoms before and sent her for a chest x-ray. It took about a month to get back to the specialist with the x-ray and in that time her breathing got so bad that we ended up in the ER.
She took anti-fungal medication for a month and I had the ducts of our house cleaned. See, Valley Fever usually doesn't take over unless the patient already has issues. It usually strikes the very young, the very old or people with long-term illnesses. With my kid's case being so unusual, I decided to see if something environmental was helping the fungus along. My son had terrible blood sugars (he's a diabetic), I had headaches all the time, my husband was snoring terribly.
So I got fed up and attacked every bit of dirt, grime, etc in my house that I could find. It was while on my rampage that I had someone come in to clean the ducts. He found that we had over 12 feet of our ducts absolutely covered with black mold. There was a LOT of dried mouse droppings. It was horrible. Within 3 days of having the ducts cleaned, every one of us improved.
On a side note, my second cousin was so horrified by my story that she has her ducts cleaned. They found two long-dead rats right at the place where the ducts hooked up to the furnace. My neighbor also found mold, dead mice, and mouse droppings in her ducts. When we moved into our new home last August, I refused to stay here one night until the ducts were cleaned.