By: Dr. Gloria Gilbere
EHN web-posted by permission of Dr. Gilbere

Kootenai Valley Times, December 2000

Dear Dr. Gilbere:

As a physician, I'd like to share my story in the hope that health-care professionals will not only have more compassion for their patients exhibiting symptoms of chemical sensitivity, but that they'll educate themselves before labeling victims hypochondriacs and worse "mental cases".

I was a teenager when I first experienced a reaction to a chemical odor. It was the odor of the sawdust compound used to sweep wood floors. The odor would set-off a coughing fit and throat constriction that was only relieved by removal from the source exposure. Then other chemicals started causing me to have what I described as peculiar reactions: diesel fuel, machinists' oil and other petroleum products. Since my exposure to such things was limited, I felt that my reaction was somewhat natural, strong odors causing me strong reactions, evidently by the rarity of the exposure.

The symptoms became debilitating only in the recent past. Ten years ago, I worked in a large medical clinic. The housekeeping routine called for serious disinfecting of clinic rooms and equipment once each week. The chemical used was a standard, industrial disinfectant. It would send me home with a serious headache, total body weakness, nausea, and an entirely angry attitude. It was devastating. If a bottle of this solution were even opened in the next hallway, I was totally disabled and forced to leave work. If I used a room where the solution had been used within 24-hours previous, I would have a milder but still serious headache and muscle weakness.

I still felt that these were reactions that could be considered normal; strong response to a strong chemical that I was only rarely exposed to. Then it began to be something far more insidious and frequent. I began to have similar reactions to perfumes and colognes. Again, it did not quite seem to be a problem except that these people were dosing themselves with unusual amounts of horrible fragrance choices, bad perfume/cologne causing a bad reaction. My work requires me to spend 10-20-30-minutes alone in a closed room with patients.

My professional life demanded that I provide the services these people were seeing me for. My livelihood required that I made no "insulting" demands for the patient to provide the "relief" that "my condition" required. This was potentially career ending, if not a serious means of robbing me of career satisfaction. I began to seek the opinions of my fellow professionals regarding my reactions to chemicals. To a man, I was considered a hypochondriac and, worse, a malingerer of the first magnitude. I was relating my fear for my professional career and was told I must have some "mental" reason for "desiring" to end my professional career. I was not a happy care-giver nor a happy patient.

I learned to keep my complaints to myself and to shoulder the anxiety it produced, damned if I did and damned if I did not. I spent years cataloguing my reactions and making notes on my schedule for occurrences and severity. This became obsessive-compulsive in itself. I did not have any professional encouragement that I suffered even a known condition until about four years ago when an environmental expert made some suggestions. Those suggestions lead me to do research into multiple chemical sensitivities and eventually a self-diagnosis. The relief to just have a clinical diagnosis was a worthwhile experience.

Now I find I can appreciate the problem and meet it in some form of preparation if not remediation. I am even affected by the presence of an offensive perfume/cologne in another room, behind closed doors. I can begin an encounter with a patient and not realize until later that an offensive fragrance is being worn. Flying and attending church has its challenges as well. For some reason, people believe that dressing for church and air travel includes dosing themselves with fragrances.

The quality of life for my family and me has greatly suffered. I must choose where I go, whom I'm around, and risk their opinions (expressed or implied) if I ask for accommodation because of my sensitivities.

To those health professionals who don't acknowledge chemical sensitivity, I encourage you to look deeper and even examine some of your own symptoms that you may not connect to this invisible illness that destroys lives.

Dear Dr. Trask: Your story is one I hear from all over the world. Patients that have been "tossed out" by society and traditional medical professionals because of their lack of knowledge and unwillingness to look beyond their preconceived mental box.

It's professionals like you that will help us all make a difference. Education is power, and I assure you that by sharing your experience you have given power to many who have been told, "it's all in your head" or "take this pill, you're obviously depressed, it will get rid of your symptoms". In my opinion that's "band-aid" care not health-care.

Lets all work together to prevent dis-ease through education about the dangers of fragrances and chemicals. Individuals quick to judge and criticize are usually the least informed. If a doctor does not acknowledge chemical sensitivity exists, he/she is more interested in their ego than your health; find a new health care provider. Naturally.

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This article is for the purpose of education and to provide support to the millions afflicted with allergies and multiple chemical sensitivities. To share your stories of challenges, solutions and living with these disorders, please mail to: MCS Stories, P.O. Box 3220, Bonners Ferry, ID USA 83805 or email: secondhandreactions@drgloriagilbere.com

Gloria Gilbere, N.D.,D.A.Hom.,Ph.D. is an internationally respected expert in EcoErgonomics, environmental health consultant, natural health practitioner, research writer, advocate for toxic free living and the chemically injured. She is author of I was Poisoned by my body (Lucky Press, 2000). Dr. Gilbere is Director of the Naturopathic Health & Research Center, Bonners Ferry, ID.

Gloria Gilbere,N.D.,D.A.Hom.,Ph.D.
Director, Naturopathic Health & Research Center
P.O. Box 3220, 7098 Ash Street
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805-3220 USA
Ph: (208) 267-5417
Fax:(208) 267-0617
email: doctorg@drgloriagilbere.com
web page: www.drgloriagilbere.com

I was Poisoned by my bodywww.luckypress.com/poisoned

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