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Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, IBS, Fibromyalgia, Sad.

In 1987, my husband was doing major remodeling in our house and in 1990 I began having IBS and headaches. They also were doing remodeling at work, and the smells were giving me headaches and IBS. Then almost overnight, and for no apparent reason, I became extremely sensitive to the most minute chemicals and other smells (new carpeting, plywood, furniture, paper, coffee), to the point of having to sell my house and move into an apartment with hardwood floors and hot water heat. I lost most of my friends and co-workers because they thought I was crazy. I also became allergic to ragweed, trees, grass and severely allergic to mold. Any smells and inhalants would give me headaches and strange physical symptoms, along with severe fatigue. I had to foil the walls in my new apartment, wear only organic clothes, wear a charcoal mask most of the time, foil my mattress and could not go anywhere. If I went anywhere, like the health food store, it would "destroy" me, and I would be in bed for at least 3 days. I could not even bring a newspaper into my apartment. When my husband came home from work, he would have to shower and put his clothes in a plastic bag. I was severely reactive for the next 5 years. I tried everything: Macrobiotic diet, colonics, acupuncture, homeopathy, Chinese Medicine, Dr. Rea's Clinic in Dallas, food rotation, saunas, exercising (sweating out the chemicals), and cranio-sacral therapy. I went to at least 50 doctors between 1990 and 1995, and after five years, in 1995, a doctor put me on Prozac and Klonopin and I got about 80% of my life back for the next 23 years. They do not know why it helped me. I could go places again, wear normal clothes, and have an almost normal life. I even was able to have a child. I still could not bring some new things into my house, like a new mattress or some new furniture or new carpeting, and plastics, and perfumes and cigar and cigarette smoke still bothered me, but I mostly had a life, but still had to be careful. Twenty-three years after finding Prozac and Klonopin, in 2018, I was working part time and the store was doing construction, and I began getting migraines almost daily. In the summer of that year, I had to quit my job and eventually became bedridden with a migraine almost daily. I am almost back to where I was when this illness first began 31 years ago. Again, I have gone to many doctors, and they would try pills and other things, but told me they did not know what to do for me. I became sensitive to almost all smells and all foods and could barely eat anything without getting a migraine. My IBS and Fibromyalgia were back, too. I could not go into other people's houses due to the air quality or moldy basements in their homes. I am still trying to find an answer to help me currently in 2021. It has been 3 years since the Prozac and Klonopin stopped working and I have no life. I am incredibly sad because I have no life and have no answers. Thirty-one years later and still no answers or new research for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I do not know what the future holds. I hope to find help. I pity anyone with this horrible illness.

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