Now I Know Why

April 2010 we left the mold house.  My Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and mold sensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) were all extremely severe.  But by August 2010 we had made it to better air in the Black Hills of South Dakota. 

That first house was good, but the next spring was very rainy, so the forest grew so much mold I could not breathe right, and we had to move south.

For severe mold recovery, in most cases both indoor and outdoor air must be good.  So we navigated various rentals, camping spots, and day trip escapes. Most summers I gained ground camping, and most winters I lost ground in rental houses.  We considered going to a warmer place for the winter(s), but so many barriers popped up, it just didn’t work out.

This whole time, starting the day I hobbled out of the mold house, one thing seemed to happen frequently: As soon as we would get to a good place, I would feel good almost immediately.  (Wind Cave National Park was one of my favorites.)  In many cases, within an hour I could suddenly exercise or walk a good bit, even if I had been nearly bedridden in a rental house.

But we had so little control over our environment that my MCS, though already more extreme than most moldies, progressed even further along the extreme end.  Exposures to chemicals in rentals that would not hurt others were too much for my weak body. Some rentals were moldy, also.

One day in July 2014 our RV was parked near some railroad tracks.  I was in the RV alone while Steve and the kids were in town.  Suddenly I heard a chop-chop-chop noise.  I looked out the window.  I saw a helicopter, and to my horror, a sheet of liquid coming down from the helicopter.  My suspicions were confirmed a few phone calls later–they were spraying the railroad tracks with herbicide.

I spent the night throwing up, the next day in pain.  But worse, after that I was never the same again. Of course we stopped camping there, but it was too late.

I could still tell when we would get to a good place, but gone was the immediate lift in energy.  I felt like I had weights on every cell of my body.  My legs felt like lead, even in good places. In relatively bad places (for the extremity of my MCS which was now off the charts), so many things started to go wrong in my body that my last winter in town pollution, I was afraid for my life.

I knew herbicide kills good gut bacteria and is a bad chemical.  But still I wondered, why did it hit me SO hard?  Why was I never the same again?

“Glyphosate [the main ingredient in herbicide) disrupts methylation and liver enzymes that allow our bodies to detoxify harmful substances we come in contact with everyday. This can cause a person to develop chemical sensitivities.” what-does-monsantos-roundup-do-to-you/?

Now I know why.

So vulnerable already, I could not withstand the chemical further disrupting methylation and liver enzymes, further damaging my ability to detox.

But see this post for the good news.

Christa Upton   Black Hills Picture Books   Edgemont, SD   57735