I’ve discovered a couple more blogs by canaries!
On her blog After Gadget, Sharon blogs about life after the loss of her beloved service dog Gadget. After Gadget is a new blog with only a few posts, but if you get hooked like I did, you’ll read every page and then subscribe so you don’t miss the next entry!
Along with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Sharon also suffers myalgic encephalopathy (ME), also called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS). Her bio is here. An excerpt from the page about how MCS affects her life:
In my case, the low-level, constant exposure to the sick building was the initial trigger. If I had recognized what was happening and taken steps to lower my toxic burden, I might have regained my health and not become disabled. Instead, I moved into an apartment with freshly painted walls, bought cheap pine furniture (which is usually imbued with fungicides, insecticides, and formaldehyde), and then painted the new furniture. My symptoms increased in severity and number, and still I didn’t see the connection. Being so ill, I was forced to stay home from work and from teaching; I didn’t know this was the nail in the coffin of my health. The ancient gas stove and furnace in my kitchen and living room were leaking. As a result, I suffered several months of low-level, chronic carbon dioxide poisoning. By the time I found a doctor who diagnosed me with MCS and told me to shut off my gas, I’d developed severe MCS and CFIDS/ME.
Here’s Gadget delivering a message for Sharon to someone in another part of the house:
Because Sharon has speech disabilities, when she lost Gadget, she also lost this way of communicating with others in her home, which increased her sense of isolation and loss. But she’s adapting to life after Gadget, and while her heart still mourns for him, she’s also looking forward to bringing home a puppy in the very near future.
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Faith at An Ocean of Joy gave The Canary Report two shout outs, so nice of her! First post here and second here. In the more recent, she explores biochemist Martin Pall’s MCS research. Faith has mast cell problems, and through process of elimination, has recently come to the conclusion that she has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I’m not familiar with mast cell problems, so I welcome the education I’m getting from her blog on that topic.
Pall explains how mast cells can be triggered by the cycle in the context of MCS, which may be of interest to anyone with Mast Cell Activation Disorder. In addition, he lists the 6 genetic polymorphisms associated with a susceptibility to MCS, including the UGT1A1 polymorphism associated with the heretofor ‘benign’ Gilbert’s Syndrome.
The way out of the cycle, according to Pall, is to reduce nitric oxide levels in the body, and he presents an experimental treatment protocol designed to do so.
Thanks for the education, Faith!
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