LD DI said: Hi, CanDo!

I love yr handle, and also your wry sense of humor!

Thanks, I appreciate the complements!

There are more and more new products with weird stuff being added that one can react to. I cope with this by using used stuff where possible.
 

That doesn't always work for me. I tried to keep my old Pentium II PC working for as long as I could, so I purchased a similar but more powerful Pentium II PC through Ebay. I could not have the newly purchased, used PC in my home. I took it apart outside on the porch, and cleaned it as much as I could, but I still could not get near it without getting sick. I am guessing that it was used around cigarette smoke. I recycled it. Didn't lose a lot of dough.

Re: Washers, last I got is a front-loader from Sears about 8 years ago. I got it from their discount/seconds warehouse, and had to carefully examine many machines b4 finding one that had not been used with noxious products whose residues I could not handle.
 

What type of reactions do you "normally" get when encountering irritants? Are they instant reactions, delayed, or both depending upon the irritant?

Have you found anything that makes you any better, other than avoidance? 

Had to go there for abt 20 minutes several times to find one, cause that was all I could tolerate and still drive home!

Drives one NUTS, doesn't it!?

How long did it take you to recover from this encounter with irritants?

Only another person with this crazy condition can begin to understand the courage it takes to face each day, let alone face it with any hope, a sense of humor, and zest for life!

You certainly are able to cope well, with your Environmental Illness. I commend you and really appreciate your positive attitude and kind remarks.

You rock, love yr posts!

BTW, are you just living with this, or what are you doing to try and recover?

Di

I shouldn't even be alive. Over twenty years ago I was diagnosed with Heart Failure and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation, both of which are progressive and place me at higher risk of death or debility, but when you have both at the same time, it has a much higher rate of death and debility. At first, it wasn't too bad, but as I approached my 60's, everything got worse. I was faced with deteriorating health from heart failure, atrial fibrillation, Insulin Resistance, Pre-Diabetes II; and it took less encounter with an offending environmental irritant to make me even sicker.

So........ I decided to encounter the worst of all things possible......... DIET! I had to put down my beer (I'm still crying over that), stop eating out, and go on a small meal, low calorie, balanced, mostly organic diet of around 1400 calories. In a short period of time, my health improved quite a bit, and I went from 180 pounds to 125 pounds. I added exercise, slowly and built my way up to 540 steps per day with each leg, 100 pushups, 300 lifts per day with two 10-pound dumbells and two 30 minute power walks per day. Prior to my diet and exercise, if I tried one pushup, I would have major breathing problems and chest pains. Now...... I just feel much better! I have found that I can encounter more things than before, for longer period of times, but I still get sick from them. However...... there are still some irritants that make me deathly sick, like cigarette smoke, even from someone's hair or clothes HOURS after they have last smoked. I get double zapped by cigarette smoke. I get Asthma and MCS reactions to it!  

I also purchased an acupuncture machine, several years ago, the KWD-808-I, for about $100. I haven't yet used needles, I only used the electronic pads. I have had some limited success with it, but not with my MCS, but with my sinuses. Currently, I am zapping various acupuncture points on the top of my head. We'll see if that does more than just frying my brain.

In a nutshell, I am still faced with nasty reactions to chemicals and other irritants and other major health problems, the worst of which is DIET!

Have you found anything that helps you?