A Day in the Life of Multi-Chemical Sensitivity Person...

How many of us, when we are out, have to use the public restroom?  How many of us prefer that people wash their hands when they have had to use the restroom?  All of us, right!  Yes! Most emphatically.  To think otherwise, well, let's just not go there.....but for some of us even washing our hands creates a problem.  I have finally made a connection between using the soap at a public restroom and a scalding, burn rash thingie that happens to my hands. 

I was lamenting over my hands to my husband.  They were hurting, cracked and bleeding.  It literally feels like I have scalded my hands.  So I get asked the usual question, "what did you eat?"  Nothing...nothing that is that I haven't already been eating and seemingly had no reaction.  If you talk with people who have these kinds of health problems, you find out just how hard this can be.  That is figuring out what you might be reacting to or not.  You log and log, you track, you check the ingredient of every thing that passes your lips.  What really makes it hard is they lie about their ingredients.  I was so happy when I found out one of the things that causes a major pain in my life. 

I finally made a connection between the only thing different was I had gone out of the house, had to go to the restroom and being the 'clean' person I am, washed my hands after using the restoom.  Within an hour's time, I had this scalded feeling, very dry, cracking skin on my hands.  Okay, we might need to kill germs but this seems overkill or is it the chemicals?  I don't know, I'm not a degreed, smart person, but I have learned to carry my own soap with me and use it.  You should see the rolling eyeball looks I get; but scalded hands or rolling eyeball looks - which would you choose?  Oh yeah, this also happens when I use some brands of flour - it results in my hands drying out, cracking open, and basically, an alligator has smoother skin than I do. 

And if one person tells me, you just need a good moisturizer....I slather 100% pure almond oil on my hands after I wash them or shower or Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  This helps more than any lotions which most lotions have some chemical in it that starts the whole process over again. 

More on the Thyroid....

I truly believe God directs all of our steps.  The ways of a righteous man or woman's steps will be ordered by the Lord, He says so in His word. 

I find it very interesting that at various times in my life, God has answered my prayers and the circumstances are so specific that I know it was Him.  I was searching and reading, searching and reading, tired of all the researching and reading.  Circles upon circles of information; feeling like a black hole that was continually enlarging and I was being sucked down into the vortex of this black hole with no escape.  I was saying to my self, "Self, I don't like what I see."  I see this group (thyroid issue people) talking about splitting dosages and taking supplements and doing this and doing that - all to compensate for dosing their thyroid gland to try and avoid problems that come up with their medications and their medical condition, whether hypo or hyperthyroid.  I then am reading on the MSG board and see where people have done this or that...and then, I heard the Lord say to me, "B12."  I'm like, "what???" 

I finished round #2 of my thyroid medication two weeks and one day ago.  It was quite an interesting experience.  First off, I did have the 'return with a vengence syndrome' that the thyroid people said would happen.  Next, I didn't quite calulate right and had to drop my dosage down faster than what I would like due to not having enough medication to get through and when I called in for my refill....well, I miscalculated.  Due to family emergencies and trips out of town, having to ship in your medication from a completely different state than where you live; not to mention a state that is all the way across the United States from where you live and then running out of medication for one whole day before the package would get here, so I had to again drop the dose quickly to at least have some in my system......so after getting really upset with myself for doing something so stupid as that and just the general frustration and then reading and trying to understand what and how the thyroid people were having to track their dosage...I was just tired of it all.  During the second round I had another blood panel drawn.  The doc has been very helpful.  In fact, all of them have been very helpful, the thyroid board people, the MSG people but no one like the Lord. 

So, I was sitting at home still waiting for the results of the lab tests which were to show what was deficient along with the thyroid issues.  While waiting, I had been reading (see above)...But two very interesting points or connections that I made while waiting for my results were the facts:  1.  MSG is an endocrine disruptor.  2.  MSG can cause cascading effects.  Hmmm, thyroid - endocrine...hmmmmm  cascading effect - leaky gut symptoms.  So I am combing the MSG board for similar issues.  Then I go to the thyroid board and get thoroughly upset at the prospect of having to split doses and manage this and manage that....seriously, I don't know how these people do it all along with working, living and life.

So I sit here telling myself and by this time talking with the Lord, "Lord, I don't want to have to live this way."  I heard "B12".  Huh?  "B12" ..."okaaaayyyy"  Yea, it can't be that simple right?  That's what so neat about God, it was that simple.  The very same day...in fact, about 30 minutes later I received the lab results and guess what...Yep, the B12 level was low.  I had also happened across an article where people where receiving healing from supplementing B12.  We're talking about serious healings of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease....and some other heavy hitters along with thyroid disorders.  They also explained how it had to be a certain form of B12 as not everyone can convert the usual B12...again I figured I fit in to that group considering that I had already had issues with leaky gut type symptoms. 

So, I'm taking the B12 in the absorbable form, trying my best to stay away from MSG in any way, shape or form (dreading the Holidays for food issues), and generally overall, I'm doing much better.  I have a better, over-all feeling of well-being instead of the something seriously is wrong with me syndrome.  I am learning to trust in the Lord with my whole heart and lean not unto my own understanding in so many areas in my life.  I know that sounds like pat, little cliches, but truly, He is showing me that he has numbered the hairs on my head and he knows me and cares about all of my issues, not just some.  He has answered and is answering our prayers as a family.  I don't know why I have to be reminded of who He is and what He has done.  I know this.  He has never ever let us down or let us go without.  But once again, it is written and recorded.  God has answered my prayer. 

I know these are scary times we are living in...every day we read more and more that leads us to "look up for our redemption draweth nigh."  I really believe He is teaching us to stand and not to be fearful.  Why should we be fearful when the God who created all things and can do all things, knows all things, and overcame all things is telling us He loves us and care about us.  The only thing we really need to fear is Him.

Allergies, Food Intolerances or Thyroid??? That is the Question....

Well, I have just ended round #1 of the liothyronine (natural T3, T4) medication.  I can tell it too.  My symptoms came back full force, raging,  before I was even off the medication but at a very low dose.  It really is not very fun.  For instance, today:  My usual day runs -  Up at 4:00 a.m.,  cook breakfast and pack a lunch for hubby; have my quiet time, breakfast, wait for the children (now one child) to get up and start our home schooling day.   Priorities are set. Whatever needs to be done in the way of housework gets done and so on and so forth goes our day.  I have been doing this for ten years...Before that, it was get up at 3:00 a.m., go to work, hubby wakes up; I stop work, fix his breakfast, get him out the door, get child number one up, fix her breakfast and out the door to school, go back to work and wait for child two to wake up.  Child two wakes up and then I stop work for the day so I can spend time with him...That was my life for ten years before the last eleven years which is how many years I have been home schooling. 

Why is this topic under  "He's Married to a Multi-Sensitivity Chemical Allergic Type Person"... you ask...Well.  I wanted you to know I don't and never did just sit around at home doing nothing.  So many times in my life I have heard, you need to get up and be more active.  Come to find out, there is a reason I am always so tired, always in so much pain, always why the back is hurting and I have muscle aches and pains that never go away so  much so that if I do something major say like gardening, it takes me two or three days to get over that one day of gardening.  I have what is known as Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome.  I run a low body temperature and because of it, it affects my thyroid gland. 

Within the last, I don't know, four or five years, maybe even six or seven...I have had escalating symptoms.  I had a leg rash that would not go away.  I became allergic to my allergies...hay fever symptoms multiplied...asthma flaring all the time, chronic fatigue, muscle aches and pains, a back that was out more than it was in, headaches,... just a miserable person.  Well, I finally went to the naturopath because all the medical doctors just kept wanting to give me Prednisone but could never give me an answer for what "it" was.  I'm a person who does not like to take medicine if I can help it especially medicine that has really bad side effects.  So I was tested for food intolerances and yes, I have some.  I changed my diet.  It helped.  But then I started getting more scary symptoms....

This morning, for example, I had to have a nap at 9:30 a.m.  ??? A Nap???  Seriously, that early in the day....So then I have this weird feeling going along with it.  My head feels all numb, kind of a half asleep feeling you know pins and needles...and my tongue feels like it is drawing up to the roof of my mouth....The funny thing was that I was doing this before I started the thyroid medication and after starting the medication all these symptoms went away.  The flashy lights in my peripheral vision, this weird feeling and the passing out because when I get this way, I'm going out whether I chose to or not.  If I sit in a chair, I'll just fall asleep.  Ask me how I know...And it is not like a fall asleep/wake up feeling.  It is a 'your out and down for the count' feeling.  I know because my children have awakened me and although I was awake, I had to struggle to 'wake up'.  So it is either one of two things....the sour cream I ate at breakfast or the thyroid issue....Yes, there are things in certain foods that knock me out such as I described.   So I have a new brand of sour cream and I need to figure out if it was the sour cream or the medicine.  Although the symptoms kind of all went away while I was at a higher dose of medication.  But maybe it was a fluke and it is the sour cream....see how dodgy life gets with a multi-sensitive chemical disorder person.  You can go here and read how certain food chemicals have affected others....MSG-Myth    And just try to find a doctor who understands this....I have yet to find someone on my insurance plan...the naturopath is another who does but no coverage on my insurance for them. 

Anyhow, I'm waiting to start round #2 of my medication which I will be doing in the next day or so...They hope they can jump-start my thyroid gland  to working properly.  But it appears that all of the above symptoms mentioned, the many more that are listed with thyroid issues and many more that I have that I didn't list, all go away when I am on the medication.  My husband even commented on the Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde personna that I seem to have developed which makes me sad.  I certainly didn't mean for my family to have to suffer and then to be told for so many years, "It's all in your head."  Yeah, riiggghtt, Doc...!  Thanks a lot....

Anyhow, not to focus on negatives, I am just trying to state that I have been through quite a bit and I can tell the good days from the bad.  I know what it feels like now to feel good and I want that all the time.  I'm tired of feeling bad.  I have had many, many years of feeling bad.  My children have had to deal with 'sick mom' all their life.  My husband has had to deal with 'sick wife' all of our 21 years of marriage.  I am a little bit mad that these things were stolen from me.  I thank the Lord, He is restoring my health to me by allowing me to find these things that are working.