A tropical depression, MSC style

Posted on Aug 10, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Susie Collins

I’m not exactly sure when I realized I was in trouble.

There’s nothing like a hurricane barreling in your direction to cause havoc with just about everything. No matter how many times the weather service tells you Hurricane Felicia is expected to weaken before land fall, you still have to plan for the worst. You still have to take a look in the food pantry to be sure you’ve plenty of provisions. You still have to worry about your employment if the Internet cable goes out. You still have to wonder about how sturdy the chicken pen and how delicate the spinach starts. You still have to wonder how much wind it would take to whip that tree limb into the electric line. Forty miles per hour? Sixty? How much wind would be too much? How much rain would cause a flood?

To reduce some risk, we spent all day Sunday trimming branches, clearing out ditches, securing potted plants, scrubbing water containers, planning for possible evacuation.

But disaster came anyway, for a different reason. It happened in the front garden when we were trimming back the bamboo from the Internet cable, my husband way up at the top of a wooden ladder lopping shoots, and I hauling off the bundles to the mulch pile. About an hour into the job, our neighbors decided to do their laundry. Only someone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity understands what this means. Only someone with MCS could understand that a neighbor doing laundry can cause a disaster.

I’m not exactly sure when I realized I was in trouble. Certainly the odor was a clue, that sickening stench of laundry detergent chemicals causing my brain to lurch backwards and my eyes to burn. But exactly how long was it before I actually started to crash? Oh, I remember. It was when the same neighbors started up the BBQ. Yep, that was it, the lighter fluid, hitting my lungs and my brain and my muscles as I lugged a bundle of cut bamboo up the hill. Instantly, it was no longer a hurricane I worried about, it was my own tropical depression.

I barely made it through the rest of the chores, collapsing into bed by 7 o’clock and sleeping for a couple of hours before having enough energy for dinner. I was so sick! Horrible, horrible feeling. Brain not working, body not working, all joy of life gone.

I woke this morning groggy but better. My eyes were still a mess, but I managed to shake off the rest of the aches and pains by the time I started on today’s writing assignments. This evening, Civil Defense is saying Hurricane Felicia is now a tropical storm, quickly deteriorating into a tropical depression herself. She’s wandered north of the Big Island, and will dump some rain on a few of the other islands, but no major problems are expected. As it turned out, she made less problems in my life than my neighbor’s washing machine.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Fragrance, Garden, Hawaii, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Products, Stink, Toxic

6 Responses to “A tropical depression, MSC style”

Julie

11. Aug, 2009

Sorry to hear it Susie, hope you feel better soon!

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mokihana

11. Aug, 2009

We have been tracking the Felicia for several days, and in addition to family on the islands you ‘ohana were in my thoughts, thus I’m here front and first to check you out! The connection of depression is so there in your face and I’m so sorry to hear of your neighboring conditions. Living close like that and then dealing with both the natural and unnatural disasters are part of the too muchness sometimes.I’m so sorry to hear of your exposure!!

Glad to see how Felicia was sheared off at the top and went north. Sending many blessings for continuing recovery for your own dear self, tita.

Malama your self xxoo honi your way!

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Jasmine

11. Aug, 2009

“A big storm’s coming honey, what should we do?!”

“Let’s have a BBQ! But first I need to throw some underwear in the wash!”

Who are these people?! But seriously, glad you were able to make it through both disasters – the natural and, as Mokihana put it, the unnatural kind. xoxo

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Eva Caballe

11. Aug, 2009

Susie, I totally understand you! As you say, only some with MCS can understand it. I hate our vulnerability and how our neighbors have the power to ruin our health.

By the way, your neighbors seem to have their brain affected by laundry detergent, because I can’t understand how anyone does a BBQ and washes her clothes when Hurricane is barreling in your direction!

I wish the tropical storm and your own tropical depression blow up soon!

xoxo

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Susie Collins

11. Aug, 2009

Thank you, Dear Canaries, for your kind thoughts. Today is indeed a brand new day! xoxo

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Dancin4Joy

14. Aug, 2009

Hey Susie,

When I first clicked on this I thought for sure you were going to talk about the winds whipping up all the sediment into the air and chemicals, smoke etc, but mostly I thought you’d talk about the pain/trouble associated with strong weather systems that kicks off the inflammation in our bodies.

The meteorologists are telling us to expect El Nino this year at winter and I’ll can say is RUNNNNNNNN! Last El Nino winter I was a sobbing fetal-positioned mess and wound up living at the hospital part time.

I had places that I didn’t even know could hurt, hurting to the point that I was whimpering in pain in my sleep, when I could sleep. I called my doctor one day so out of it that I was irritated by the whimpering interrupting my comatose state. I asked her ‘What is that noise!’, ‘What does it mean – can you make it stop?’ She was like – “it would seem you’re in a lot of pain perhaps, where is it?” By the time we were done she was telling me I needed the hospital and I just said ‘No I’ll be fine once that noise stops, I don’t feel up to going to the doctor right now.’ Needless to say she got me to the hospital and I didn’t leave, for a week. It wasn’t really anything they did, I just had to be monitored and I couldn’t eat anything because my GI track was too inflamed so I was on IV fluids. I got a little better as that weather system moved through and they let me out. The toll however, lasted until the next weather system.

I bring that kind of thing up because large weather systems have put me in such peril that I wondered if I could survive them. I’ve passed out with no warning and not come to again for days, crawled, cried, passed out again… and that was JUST from the weather system itself mostly – the atmospheric pressure related to it, I was inside, locked down, most of this had nothing to do with chemicals although I”m sure there was more than usual whistling through the house with the windy storminess.

All of that to say – WOW I’m so amazed that you don’t mention incapacity from the weather even aside the chemical soup of your relatives while you were outside. I couldn’t even get outside on my own when it was two weeks off and spent the better part of 4 months inside. The Dr’s were getting sobbing phone calls from me and they geared their clothing by it for the coming weeks. (Packed rain clothing etc in their cars.) They said I was the best meteorologist they had ever had.

I know that not everyone who has MCS has all of the secondary syndromes and health troubles but it seems to be rare that inflammation pain/symptoms isn’t a problem. Sometimes it depends how long a person has been sick too. If you have figured out a way to avoid some of these troubles in large weather systems please let us know because it may save my life this winter lol.

Thanks for bringing up weather and MCS it’s a much needed conversation!
Mahalo
Joy

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