What's Up Wednesday #52 - House Hunting with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

It's always tricksy with my chemical sensitivities, trying to find a living space that's safe for me. Since my chemical sensitivities were at their height in the height of my chronic illness, we've found ourselves needing to find a new space more than once. I've learned a few things along the way about being the canary in the coalmine and why it's important. 

In case the phrase isn't a familiar one, "Canary in the coalmine"  is an allusion to caged canaries (birds) that miners would carry down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately.

The toxins that my nervous system cannot tolerate include all manner of petrochemicals: plug-in air fresheners, scented candles, perfumes, colognes, detergents, fabric softeners, fragrances in lotions, makeup, deodorants, pesticides, solvents and propellants like turpentine, shellac, butane, propane, natural gas, gasoline, diesel, exhaust fumes...the list goes on, but you get the picture, right? The thing is, I AM the Canary in the Coalmine. These chemicals don't only affect me - they affect ALL of us.

I show the symptoms - like dizziness, migraines, headaches, brain fog, fatigue, pain, confusion, inability to focus. But for ALL of us, these chemicals get into our livers and accumulate there, making our livers sluggish and fatty, preventing them from performing their over 2000 functions that keep us alive every day. Our heroic livers. Always protecting us, keeping us safe. I don't know about you, but I want to do everything I can to HELP my liver do it's job. Even heroes need support. 

Because of Medical Medium and all of the information he brings to us from Spirit, I know just how to support my heroic liver and therefore myself. I know what these toxins do in the body and how to get them out and counteract them. I am eternally grateful for that, because it makes my experience with house hunting an empowering and doable one rather than one fraught with anxiety and panic.

I know when I can and can't go into a space, I know to bring plenty of adrenal snacks for the extra processing my nervous system is taking on, and I know when to rest and take a break.

I see my sensitivity as a gift. Like a spidey sense. A superpower if you will. With it, I know what dangers are present in the environment and I can take the measures I need to to keep myself and my loved ones safe from absorbing too much into our livers and overloading them. It can be intense navigating such a toxic world when you are highly aware of what dangers lurk around every corner, but it can also be empowering. I talk about all of it in the video, have a look!

traveling with chronic illness and allergies, or how to give yourself a panic attack, part 2

We did it. Or more, I made the lists of everything that needed doing and then stayed on top of checking off whether they'd gotten done. And my husband did them all. I helped where spoons allowed: doing laundry, packing the kitchen stuff, the food and electronics and my and my son's clothing. My husband packed everything else, and made sure the house was clean and the chickens were fed before we left. And he tetris packed that car. 

I drove, because winding roads make me carsick, and my son loves it when his Dad rides in the back seat with him. The two of them held the animals on their laps. We had called ahead and requested our room not be cleaned with chemicals, but instead with vinegar and baking soda before we came. It was thankfully only a two hour drive, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I swear, Oregon and Washington are two of the most beautiful places I have ever encountered in my life. I LOVE the Pacific Northwest SO much!

We got to the hotel and went inside and....no harsh smells. I couldn't small the pool! And I can ALWAYS small the pool. It didn't feel overly humid inside either - which hotels with pools tend to do. So far so good!

We had a pet room, which meant other pets had stayed there before, and I could smell the faint smell of dog - but it wasn't bad, and again, no harsh chemical smells other than the sheets, which they promised not to bleach. But those would soon come off. The window opened out to the Columbia River, and the view was lovely - railroad tracks and then water, and the sound of....barking? Sea lions! Incessant barking, but not sharp like dogs....comforting in its consistency somehow, in its constant noise. Background noise. I was going to find out where they were later for sure!

So while this hotel isn't *perfect* (we are in a pet room which has previously had other pets here and my eyes were kind of burning the first day and night), it is as close to perfect as a hotel could be for our price point. No chemical smells, no over the top reactions, soundproofish rooms, HUGE suites - we have a kitchenette area, two beds, a sofa and extra tables - this hotel is BRILLIANT. There is space for the litterbox, the dog crate, all our food, our kitchen stuff if we're frugal about the space, and all the toys, electronics and clothes. 

And. Frenzie's eyes have been watering nonstop since we moved into our house (carpet, gas oven/stove).....by afternoon of the first day being here they were completely cleared up. And no more sneezing - she has been sneezing constantly for as long as here eyes have been watering. So I bet my house IS part of what is making me sick, not JUST the regular Portland mold and moisture.  I knew it was an issue, because Frenzie's eyes have never watered like that anywhere we have lived, plus she is sneezing ALL the time...she is our canary.  

Also, how amazing is this?

My friend M gifted me her scooter while I need it, and it was at S's house. Since she wasn't coming to the conference because of chronic lyme, she suggested I ask C 

9other mutual friend coming to conference and basically running it in S's place) to bring it, WHICH SHE DID - AMAZING. S's eldest helped get it into the van, because they have brute strength apparently!

So my husband and C unloaded it, but no cord for recharging...but the website it came from was listed on the scooter. So I called their after hours number, and they didn't have one, but gave me the # of another health supply place here in Astoria. It was/is RIGHT up the street from the hotel.

The after hours tech met my husband at the store, and gave him a cord we could borrow while we are here! How amazing is that?!? It's a $120 cord and he's just like, "Here, I trust you, go ahead and take it for the weekend."

Of course we will bring it back! But what kind of alternate Universe have we entered here? What an amazing gift, all of these people doing all of these amazing things so I will have more mobility. And needed, because there are sea lions on the docks, just happily barking away, day and night, and clearly they WANT us all to visit them and bask in their fearsome glory.

well, I was going to write about RVing, but...

Keep Calm and Save Spoons by ThePaperPoppyStore on Etsy

Sometimes it's difficult to remember how to keep a blog. Life gets in the way - health, trying to stay afloat, just staying functional. I struggle with chronic illness. One of the myriad of reasons we are wanting to get on the road is to find an environment more conducive to my health, as I am incredibly sensitive to mold and wet climates (NOW you tell me!). The past two years have made me very aware of just how much my environment IS affecting my health.

Have you heard of The Spoon Theory? I hadn't, until a few months ago. But it is a brilliant theory, in my opinion, because it really does explain what life is like when one has a chronic illness. When my own husband read it it helped him understand what I am going through in a much more profound way. I highly recommend clicking on and reading (and even bookmarking) that article, it is well worth it. Go ahead, I'll wait.

You see? That's it. That's my life now. Most days, even though I am probably sitting here on the sofa doing nothing, because that's what I have the spoons for, I cannot even brain enough to write blog entries, and instead I either read Facebook because it's brainless, or watch silly sitcoms, because they keep my mood up. If I do have the ability to brain anything, or any energy, I'm not at my computer - I am doing stuff with my son or getting some laundry done or catching up on chores that pile up while I'm down. (My husband, though valiant and tireless during this period, is only human, and cannot manage allthethings while also working outside our home full time).

And then there are days like today: my brain works, but my body feels exhausted - like I've been hard at work or am completely sleep deprived, despite having had a full night's rest. I'm just tired. But deeply, bodily tired, like I just can't move, and even walking to the bathroom is a LOT to ask of my body.

The official diagnoses are: Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroid, Adrenal Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, PTSD, Anxiety, Sleep Apnea, Bursitis and Depression. It seems that when one has one major diagnoses, they become like those famous potato chips - no one can have just one. I also have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, which makes going out in the world akin to trying to navigate a minefield: all of the scents, chemicals, lighting, sounds, emissions....it overwhelms my already overloaded body and it can take me down for days. I have to be so careful about where I go or who I am around (perfumes and colognes), or what I put into my body. I can't go out at night because the lights from the cars against the darkness will send me into migraines. Which is almost irrelevant, because what little energy I have tends to crash around 3pm, leaving me unable to do anything but rest for the rest of the day anyway. What social life? 

I use a combination of allopathic (that's traditional western medicine), biomed, naturopathic and chinese medicines to foster my healing. I see a therapist, and a GP, a naturopath, a rheumatologist, sleep experts, a chiropractor, and massage therapists just to keep at this level of function. Because it was even worse before. My brain fog was so bad and my energy was so low that even doing something as seemingly simple as typing a blog post seemed herculean. Everything in the world was overwhelming. My anxiety was so bad that even making a phone call seemed impossible. My husband was making most of my appointments and then even taking off work to take me to them so I would be able to go.

I take an amount of supplements I cannot even talk about because it is so far beyond anything I ever thought I would see myself do. Food is medicine if one's body is functioning properly and can absorb the nutrients in the food...but when one's biochemistry is all out of whack and one's health is a multi-layered onion...well, it seems food can be thought of as Step 1. I am very VERY careful about my eating - my body does well on only a handful of foods, all of them grown in nature and unprocessed. I have learned in these past two years what my triggers are and I work hard to avoid them all.

My goal now is to keep working and keep finding where I am unbalanced, and do my best to correct that imbalance. So that I will have energy again And be able to move my body again. And go out into the world safely again. And I can see that it can happen...albeit it slowly, I can see that it just takes careful tweaking of this and that until it takes me up a level, then I can address the next layer, and so on. And as much as I love my beloved Pacific Northwest, I think that being in the wet and mold and lack of sunlight isn't working for my body, and I need to find somewhere that I can heal a little faster and more completely.