Hello, Friends,
I've just returned from an extremely uplifting trip, in theme, purpose, and goals (of beauty) achieved . . . This joyful outcome shall forever stand on its own, bright and shining no matter what.
In the background, however, completely unrelated to the beautiful performances we were able to see, were noxious chemicals in use -- as they are in many public places -- in the hotel.* This indoor contradiction to artistic beauty (which had been performed outdoors in the presence of peaceful nature) turned out to be a jarring one.
I was increasingly breathless and weakened when traversing the hotel stairs, which were heavily scented with a carpet cleaner or air deodorizer. I avoided the elevator because it was frequented by smokers; and a chemically sensitive person does well not to risk spending extra minutes in a small, closed space with proximate irritants of cigarette odors and synthetic scents. The air in the hotel room was clingy. I felt strange and increasingly bad in a way I could not define.
I found out on the way home, experiencing what I can only call a slow, prolonged seizure of the abdominal organs. This has happened to me before, following chemical exposures. Arrested by sickening, thick, intense pains that bored into me from the back and the front, in different places at the same time, I couldn't rest my back against the seat of the car because it hurt so badly in the soft-tissue area of the kidneys. I could barely inhale because something was gripping tight and painful in the area of the liver, on the right, and in the upper digestive tract on the left. So for about six hours straight, I held myself at left-angle, then right-angle, away from the seat back, frozen in position waiting for the pain to abate, which it did not do until about eight hours had passed. The pain slowly, slowly moved lower and lower, easing in the kidneys as I was finally able to drink some sips of water. But the pain on the right side stayed longer, gnawing into me. Now the active ache has stopped in the liver area, but that place feels like a raw wound.
I've had this happen about 10 times since around 2005. It's always a long bout and just immobilizing. I would have to call it a "migraine of the internal organs." It's severe, comparable to a gallstone attack. Having had the privilege of experiencing two gallstone attacks (one was confirmed with ultrasound -- the next one I simply survived), I can tell the difference. The "migraine of the internal organs" is more "spread out," more pervasive; and the boring pain hits in places removed from the gallbladder's reverberating "range," or periphery.
The tender and deep kidney pain -- both sides -- has always been a curious effect of this peculiar form of migraine. It always feels as though the kidneys had been directly impacted by something caustic and were crying out for help.
I interpret the whole syndrome as the body being completely filled up with toxins and everything suddenly being frozen in place -- "seized up," if you will. Recovery begins with coaxing fluids into the body (one feels as though one will be sick and, under the strain, tends to forget whatever remedies one had), and it's a slow process.
I would like to reiterate that, although tissue inflammation and congestion certainly can and do result from one's experiences of chemical sensitivity, the "source pathway" of reactivity to chemicals is markedly different from a strictly immunological model (as with food/plant allergens). Yes, inflammation results from chemical sensitivity (often tingling and/or feeling like a "burn," as well) -- and this can sometimes be seen, or even measured. But the full pathway of a chemical toxin into the nerves and tissues is a neurologically intricate event which is mediated -- to the best of my knowledge -- through the brain and, as suggested elsewhere (and through my own experiences of reactivity to chemicals), also involving the eyes; and new means of measurement must be developed to track all of this in a commonly available way.
As a matter of great interest to me -- and perhaps to others -- I've just today come across a website which mentions the use of a retinal/ocular test to help measure the ins and outs of chemicals from the body. This is the kind of test I'm speaking of when I say that new methods of tracking must be developed. It's called the Functional Acuity Contrast Test. The existence of such a test is an uplifting thought.:
The Functional Acuity Contrast Test (healingpartnership.com)
Wishing you clean, clear air -- Happy Autumn!
Cheers!
~ Daisies
*An American hotel in Richmond, Virginia.
I've just returned from an extremely uplifting trip, in theme, purpose, and goals (of beauty) achieved . . . This joyful outcome shall forever stand on its own, bright and shining no matter what.
In the background, however, completely unrelated to the beautiful performances we were able to see, were noxious chemicals in use -- as they are in many public places -- in the hotel.* This indoor contradiction to artistic beauty (which had been performed outdoors in the presence of peaceful nature) turned out to be a jarring one.
I was increasingly breathless and weakened when traversing the hotel stairs, which were heavily scented with a carpet cleaner or air deodorizer. I avoided the elevator because it was frequented by smokers; and a chemically sensitive person does well not to risk spending extra minutes in a small, closed space with proximate irritants of cigarette odors and synthetic scents. The air in the hotel room was clingy. I felt strange and increasingly bad in a way I could not define.
I found out on the way home, experiencing what I can only call a slow, prolonged seizure of the abdominal organs. This has happened to me before, following chemical exposures. Arrested by sickening, thick, intense pains that bored into me from the back and the front, in different places at the same time, I couldn't rest my back against the seat of the car because it hurt so badly in the soft-tissue area of the kidneys. I could barely inhale because something was gripping tight and painful in the area of the liver, on the right, and in the upper digestive tract on the left. So for about six hours straight, I held myself at left-angle, then right-angle, away from the seat back, frozen in position waiting for the pain to abate, which it did not do until about eight hours had passed. The pain slowly, slowly moved lower and lower, easing in the kidneys as I was finally able to drink some sips of water. But the pain on the right side stayed longer, gnawing into me. Now the active ache has stopped in the liver area, but that place feels like a raw wound.
I've had this happen about 10 times since around 2005. It's always a long bout and just immobilizing. I would have to call it a "migraine of the internal organs." It's severe, comparable to a gallstone attack. Having had the privilege of experiencing two gallstone attacks (one was confirmed with ultrasound -- the next one I simply survived), I can tell the difference. The "migraine of the internal organs" is more "spread out," more pervasive; and the boring pain hits in places removed from the gallbladder's reverberating "range," or periphery.
The tender and deep kidney pain -- both sides -- has always been a curious effect of this peculiar form of migraine. It always feels as though the kidneys had been directly impacted by something caustic and were crying out for help.
I interpret the whole syndrome as the body being completely filled up with toxins and everything suddenly being frozen in place -- "seized up," if you will. Recovery begins with coaxing fluids into the body (one feels as though one will be sick and, under the strain, tends to forget whatever remedies one had), and it's a slow process.
I would like to reiterate that, although tissue inflammation and congestion certainly can and do result from one's experiences of chemical sensitivity, the "source pathway" of reactivity to chemicals is markedly different from a strictly immunological model (as with food/plant allergens). Yes, inflammation results from chemical sensitivity (often tingling and/or feeling like a "burn," as well) -- and this can sometimes be seen, or even measured. But the full pathway of a chemical toxin into the nerves and tissues is a neurologically intricate event which is mediated -- to the best of my knowledge -- through the brain and, as suggested elsewhere (and through my own experiences of reactivity to chemicals), also involving the eyes; and new means of measurement must be developed to track all of this in a commonly available way.
As a matter of great interest to me -- and perhaps to others -- I've just today come across a website which mentions the use of a retinal/ocular test to help measure the ins and outs of chemicals from the body. This is the kind of test I'm speaking of when I say that new methods of tracking must be developed. It's called the Functional Acuity Contrast Test. The existence of such a test is an uplifting thought.:
The Functional Acuity Contrast Test (healingpartnership.com)
Wishing you clean, clear air -- Happy Autumn!
Cheers!
~ Daisies
*An American hotel in Richmond, Virginia.
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