A Typical Day

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Yesterday was just like any other day. I worked on my blog first thing in the morning while nebulizing my daily dose of glutathione. I made breakfast. Eggs (for those who don't react to them), bacon with no nitrates or preservatives, grapefruit and fruit smoothies. Colin checked his blood sugar. He was 90! A nice start to the day. We did our daily round of supplements (which I will detail in a later entry), did our nasal sprays, and began our chores.

Reagan came in with a nosebleed. He had just taken a shower. We racked our brains like we always do. A new mystery to begin our day. Mold in the shower? He would have a nosebleed every day if that were the case. New book? He got a new set of cards in the mail yesterday. They didn't have a chemical smell. It had to be his room. He shares a big room with Kristen and Ryan.

I smelled something as soon as I walked in but couldn't identify it. Was it something from outside? The cabinets still off-gassing? Ryan suggested the trash. I walked over to the tiny basket. Bingo. Major chemical smell. We didn't go through it to figure it out. It could have been an empty box that at one time was stored near a bottle of Round-Up. Who knows. I do know that the nosebleed lasted an hour and made me nauseous.

Colin's finger was bothering him. He had a cut the other day and put a Band-Aid on it. We thought nothing of it. Until he removed the Band-Aid and the area got red. Very red. Itchy red. Uncomfortable red. What would cause a reaction like this? Of course, latex. This is a new allergy for us. I'm just beginning my research.

Colin's rash on his stomach was spreading. Itchy. Very itchy. Must be the belt we bought him last week. His nickel allergy started when we were in the Colorado house. He was hoping he could wear a belt now. He told me yesterday to get rid of it. "I can't wear it anyway, Mom."

I put him in a hydrogen peroxide bath. There are three types of baths we do. Epsom salts and baking soda for general de-tox. Clay baths for de-tox. And hydrogen peroxide baths for itchy skin. We follow those baths with tea tree oil. We also have emu oil, neem's oil, and grapeseed oil, depending on the skin irritation.

Chris took some of the kids to the store. We were out of grapefruit and green apples. Megan and I decided to clean the floors with peroxide. We washed the shower curtains and changed all the sheets.

We sprayed hydrogen peroxide in our air. If outdoor mold is causing a problem indoors, this will help.

Chris got home at 1:30 p.m. Just in time for lunch. Every meal is a major event. When you take away processed foods, you take away convenience. I had a breakdown. One a day usually. He hugged me and smiled. He said something that made me laugh. Something about how little we knew when we said our wedding vows.

Kaitlyn had a rough afternoon. A meltdown and a headache. We spent some time trying to figure it out but decided to leave the mystery unsolved. We did a series of burber and pinella doses. Two herbs designed to help de-tox the brain.

Erin went out with a friend from college. She reacted to a fragrance. The exhaustion that comes from an exposure is hard to describe. "How am I going to live with this?" she asked. She's just now connecting fragrance and chemicals with the way she's been feeling.

Kristen had remnants of a sore throat she got after a haircut last week. Shannon took her to a nice salon to treat her. They both came home with headaches. Kristen's throat began to sting. She took a shower and washed out her beautiful new style. "I'm never going to a salon again," she said.

There were some highlights to our day. Shannon and Ryan went horseback riding. The kids worked on homework. A new bright spot in their day. Who would have guessed?

Reagan learned a new magic trick.

Chris made hamburgers stuffed with onions, peppers, garlic, and broccoli. Lettuce for the buns. And then the Ohio State football game came on. I used to see football as an escape. Last night the cheering and yelling were music to my ears.

We won't know if we'll be able to stay in this house until it is tested, but we have hope. We don't want to have to leave another house. Especially one that seems to fit us well. But this is our life. There is no escape. We only have respites: rest stops along the road to recovery. And I welcome each and every one.

8 comments :

  1. I prayed for you just now...what a rough day!

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  2. I feel like a spoiled brat when I read your posts. I have been struggling with hives on and off for about 5 months now and get so crabby when they pop up. Compared to the nightmare that you have been going through, my hives are a walk in the park. I pray for you guys often and admire the way that you keep going day after day, trusting God and inspiring others. I will keep praying for you.

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  3. Hi Andrea,
    Living with MCS/mold sensitivities is a little like walking though a mine field most days isn’t it? In our home there was only one of us to try to figure out, that you are keeping up with 10 unique people’s needs is really more than I can fathom. Please know you are all doing a very, very good job of it. I admire that your mindset seems to be that you all have an illness, but it does not “have you.” It was always important to me to remembered that.
    Just a suggestion that Colin’s reaction may be to the latex or it may be the adhesive. There are a couple of kinds of tape today besides latex, such as vinyl or cloth. We had to specify cloth tape when tape was needed and even then, because my husband’s skin was so sensitive to the adhesive, it sometimes lifted skin off when the tape was there very long.
    I hope Erin’s friends will take into account her reaction to fragrances and leave them off. Our daughter-in-law bought into the idea early on (thank you Lord!). The result of her not using perfume and fragranced products was that she discovered she had fewer headaches herself. Then they related our grandson’s asthma episodes to fragrances as well. So, it was a win, win for all of us. As he grew up he seemed to migrate towards people who were “natural” and found there were lots of them. He is a runner and I think the periodic sweating has been a good detox regimen for him.
    I know it’s not as special as a sister treating you to a salon visit, but maybe Kristen and her sisters could do “salon things” at home using fragrance free products, with each other and to show their friends a fun and different way. Regarding a haircut, going to the walk-in unisex shops the first thing in the morning can help cut down on exposures. I still only go for a haircut and can’t wait to get home and get it washed out. I used barely diluted lemon juice in a little travel size sprayer bottle for hair spray for about 18 years. I felt sure I was one of the only people who kept her hair spray in the fridge. It worked well in the wind, but it let me down a little in the rain (those were my lemonade days).
    Thank you for sharing your day with us, Andrea, and please thank your children too. They sound very, very thoughtful and considerate of each other. Emma

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  4. I found your blog last night. I'll be praying for you and your family. What you write in your blog now makes me paranoid about my house. I hate to ask this question because I've been in a similar position and I found it to be personally very annoying. How much longer till you are all better?

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  5. Well, Robert, I need to write a blog soon about all the things that have improved. Reagan used to wear sunglasses at all times. Even indoors. He went on a hike the other day in the middle of the day with no sunglasses.
    We are seeing improvement. It's just soooo slow.
    Our doctor says 2 years. Some of our sensitivities will be lifelong. We've been at this 8 months now so I know we have a ways to go. I think that's a great question and needs to be addressed.

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  6. Emma,
    Just as I read your comment Erin came and asked me to look up natural hair spray. You can imagine my excitement to share your trick with her! We laughed at the lemonade day. Not too many of those here in Arizona.

    Thanks Beka and Kiki for the encouragement.

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  8. Dear Andrea and Erin, I wonder what natural hair spray would be made of? Just two ingredients from a long list on the label of a typical brand today are va/crotonates/vinyl neodecanoate copolymer and acrylates/octylacrylamide copolymer. Years ago, among other things, it said lacquer.

    Re: lemon juice "hair spray"
    Make it up fresh in small amounts, often (making sure to clean out the bottle, sprayer head, combs, and brushes when you do), as it doesn't keep forever and you wouldn't want to introduce mold, etc. Use it as a fine mist, not a stream. Don't expect it to feel like typical hair spray; you may have to get used to a little bit of a tacky feel even when it is dry (and then too, there is the risk you may acquire a craving for lemon pie). The “worst” that happened to me was a young friend where I worked affectionately referred to me as “The Lemon Head” when she didn’t use what everyone else called me, which was Miss Emma. And hopefully, neither you nor any of your family is sensitive to citrus as that would be a problem if you decided to try it.

    Another hairspray "recipe" I have read about was to use Knox unflavored gelatin; however, I never did try it. It would likely need to be warmed to flow through a sprayer head and would require refrigeration to keep it from spoiling. Sounds weird huh? :) Emma

    P.S. Don't be misled by "unscented" vs "fragrance-free." Fragrance-free means no fragrances have been added. Unscented means a masking fragrance has been added to cover other odors. Masking fragrance (whatever is it) may be what is in the odor "removing" or "covering up" products developed and sold today.

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