Thursday, January 14, 2010

Powerful blog on living with ME/CFS and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

The following blog was featured on Cort Johnson's Phoenix Rising newsletter. This couple was originally exposed to something toxic in the apartment, developed MCS along with CFS. They finally moved into a tent to escape their increased sensitivities to chemicals around them. I have moderate chemical sensitivites but know that people who never have had this problem tend to scoff. Believe me, it's real. Their story is one of courage, determination and also one of love. Read it at Sundog Tales

7 comments:

me/cfs warrior said...

It is a powerful story. I too have mild to moderate chemical sensitivities. People who have it severely live in a sort of exile.

Lyle Daggett said...

Sometime back I watched a news story on "60 Minutes" I think it was, or some show like that, about aid workers in Africa helping provide food and medical care for people in a famine area. A doctor with the project mentioned some of the basic staple foods they would bring in for people, and one of the specific items she mentioned was peanut butter.

At the mention of peanut butter, the reporter asked the doctor if they ran into problems with food allergies with the food packages they were giving people, and the doctor immediately said, "No, you don't have food allergies in developing countries the way you do in industrialized countries."

I'm sure there can be a variety of factors involved, and I'm no medical worker and don't pretend to know about this in depth. But for a long time I've more or less guessed that the whole broad cluster of allergies and immune disorders that have emerged in recent decades must have at least something to do with the constant exposure to all of the industrial and technological substances that are present all around us. Why would our bodies not react (in some cases with great force) against the toxins that surround us and pass through us?

Word Verification is "oxession" -- a word for our times if there ever was one.

Pris said...

Hi Terri, even moderate in our society is hard since we're surrounded with chemicals all of the time. I had a period when I felt strong enough to go directly from parking into a Pennys to buy my husband a shirt for his birthday. I lasted 10 minutes. The stench of 'new clothes' was so overpowering I had to get away . I later red that 16 chemicals go into clothes at factories , including one just for smell. The woman writing the article had worked in such a factory and never wore anything without washing it first. I've done the same for years.

Lyle, so true. We're surrounded by chemicals and I, too, am convinced that's where the problem comes from. Those of us with MCS are only the canaries in the coal mine. I would be very surprised to find someone living in a developing country, still not exposed much to 'our stuff', with sensitives. Thanks for confirming that.

Yes, good word:-) Mine, just signing in, is 'ables'.

Jim K. said...

Certainly all quite related.
A lot more research into the
dynamics of the immune system is
needed. One of those areas where
single-factor modernistic research
cannot see into the thicket.

Pris said...

You're right, Jim. I think the ultimate solution is fewer chemicals in our food, environment, lakes, forests....but that's not going to happen. Our immune systems would be okay without the bombardment.

Anonymous said...

Wow Pris, I had not known you'd put my story up here on your site. Thank you very much!

Big hugs to you, Lisa :)

Pris said...

You're very welcome, Lisa. It's a story that should be shared.

xxPris