As MCS Awareness Month concludes, please read my blogger friend Karyn’s terrific post about life with multiple disabilities, including Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
By guestblogger Sharon Wachsler.

Sharon Wachsler, who blogs at After Gadget where she shares her life after the loss of her service dog Gadget pictured here.
It’s the last day of May, which makes this the final day of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity awareness month. Appropriately, my friend, Karyn, who usually blogs about her assistance dog, Thane, has written a terrific post about life with multiple disabilities, including MCS.
She writes about how every day begins with uncertainty as to which disability will do what, and how that has affected her decisions in training her guide/hearing/service dog. This is a topic I really relate to.
She also explains why she tries to keep a certain level of privacy about her disabilities, yet was compelled to speak out now.
Karyn’s blog is Through a Guide’s Eyes, and the post is Different Ways for Different Times.
I don’t talk much about my disabilities in my blog because frankly I just want a place where I am seen for the inside pages as opposed to the book cover of the physical shell. That all said, I am beginning to feel the need to let down my guard as others have done. Perhaps its because by letting down my guard, I can share with you the kinds of training that can truly prepare one for the unknown- so here goes.
When you wake up each morning, you probably know what you are going to feel like, how much energy you will have, how your limbs will function, whether or not you can get to point B without smacking into a wall from vertigo or any other myriad of functions that as an able bodied healthy person you probably take for granted. This isn’t the side of the coin that I deal with however.
I have multiple disabilities and have for more years than not. I am a deafblind individual living with incomplete quadriplegia, complete paraplegia, MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities), low kidney function as a reminder of my chemo days, asthma that can rapidly spike to a level of it being hard to communicate secondary to a variety of triggers from my MCS, and a problem that to this day no one has the answers to. It comes on with minimal notice and can affect me in a myriad of ways- feeling like blood sugar is crashing or I’m going to pass out without typical treatments of such bearing any changes on the sensation, vertigo, loss of where I am in space, episodes of complete deafness and at the least greater level of blindness, confusion of how I got where I am- like being in a daydream but not having any daydream of thoughts to cause it. Its believed its linked to the cause of my blindness and to the cause of the further deterioration of my deafness but not the initial cause of that condition. I’ve accepted that possibility since it is viral in nature and the cause of my GI system roller coaster ride.
Please read it and share it. While her experience is unique, there are aspects of it that will resonate with people with many disabilities, and hopefully raise a little awareness for everyone about the disabilities they don’t share with Karyn.
Thank you, Karyn, for this excellent post.
~Sharon, the muse of Gadget (who also had chemical sensitivities), and Barnum, SDiT
P.S. Don’t think that just because May’s over I’m going to stop blogging about Lyme and MCS awareness. As far as I’m concerned, having Lyme, CFIDS, and MCS means hardly ever meeting deadlines. So, June is just an extension of May in my world. (Also because I have no sense of time.)
Sharon Wachsler is a freelance writer who blogs at After Gadget, where she shares her life after the loss of her service dog Gadget and now life with her service dog in training, or SDiT, Barnum. This post was originally published at After Gadget, titled Signal Boost: Guide Dog Partner with MCS.





The following is information for the readers of The Canary Report concerning potential risks of exposure to photocopiers and laser printers. I have suffered a devastating respiratory condition from exposure to these types of machines, and so I am trying to raise awareness about this health hazard to hopefully receive feedback and get in touch with other persons who suffer the same.
Elaine Willis, who has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and a host of other illnesses, contacted me for help in composing an advance letter for her health care specialists. She’d love to have input from as many people with MCS as possible. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Now Smell This: A Blog About Perfume reports on
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