Breathe Free Do You Know What You’re Breathing?

I got this email last week as a comment on my web site Fragrance Free World. It just seems lik such a cruel world we live in, doesn’t it?

One thing intrigued me. I’ve never really read about a connection between HPV or other vaccines and MCS. Have you?

Over the last 2.5 years, I have become extremely sensitive to fragrances and have had MAJOR health problems because of them. Up until last October, I’d had migraines on an almost daily basis because of fragrances. For the longest time, my doctors thought it was allergies…. in fact, I’d been on allergy medicine since I was 10 years old… I finally went to an allergist to figure out what it was I was allergic to and it turned out that I wasn’t alleric to anything…. not ever dust! So, after listening to my symptoms (constant sever headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion, easily sicken by motion, poor balance, EXTREME sensitivity to smells) my allergist thought I had transformed migraines and sent me to see a migraine specialist. Last October, I saw the migraine specialist and he prescribed me Topamax (anti-seizure med.) which he said was supposed to raise my tolerance to stimuli! It has made a world of difference. I can’t and NEVER will be able to w ear perfume, or use scented anything and neither will my husband and those coming in close contact with me, but at least now I don’t get an instant headache from every little whiff of fragrance like I used to.

I really don’t understand where all this came from. I myself used to love wearing perfume and loved bath and body works products, but now I couldn’t hate them more! Sensitivities to fragrances run in my family, so I’m sure it has something to do with that, but I think two other things (one huge one in particular) may be to blame for my sudden problems. 1. I moved into central WI to go to school… there are TONS over paper mills in the part of the state. Some days I can hardly handle the smell…. I sometimes wonder if being exposed to those chemicals on a daily basis triggered my problems because I never experienced them until I moved and went to college…. 2. Recently, I was given the 3 HPV shots and shortly after those is when I started having problems…. My dad had a similar problem after getting a flu shot which has had lasting effect on him as well…. there is no way to ever prove the HPV shot had anything to do with my becoming the way I am now, but it seems awfully
coincidental to me.

I feel like my sensitivities I have to fragrances and the migraines I get from them have taken over my life! Every single place I go is scented. It has gotten so bad that I have to sniff the keyboard and mouse in the school computer lab to make sure nobody before me has used scented lotion…. I have to sniff chairs that have fabric on them… I carry peppermint oil around with me to put under my nose ever time I smell perfume, cologne, fabric softener to drown out the smell to avoid getting a migraine and I end up applying the peppermint oil until my nose AT LEAST 10 times a day, I have to bring my own sheets when I stay in a hotel, I can’t go shopping anymore (which was one of my fav. things to do) because the mall REEKS of perfume, I can’t sit near people in movie theaters or ball games, I am hesitant to ride in other people’s cars or go into other people’s houses in the fear that it will either reek of smoke, air freshener, or the new car smell….. the only place I feel
I can be at ease and not always up tight is at home…. and up until I got married, I lived with roommates that were VERY insensitive to my requests of them not using fragrances in the house… so at that point even my house was not a safe haven.

I’ve dealt with people telling me it’s all in my head. My stupid sister-in-law even went as far as to tell me that I’ve made up my issues with fragrances and the migraines I get from them to control her brother. (He’s switched deodorant, detergent, stopped using cologne, etc.) It makes me sick that I’m now related to this woman.

I’ve dealt with people telling me it’s their right to wear whatever they want to wear and how dare I ask them not to. I just really don’t understand how anybody can have this attitude towards somebody. I really think it’s sad that people are so mean, ignorant, and inconsiderate just because they can’t understand what somebody is going through and choose to do what they know damn well is making others sick.

The section about me and my world brought me to tears. I sometimes feel like I’m totally alone. It’s nice to know that somebody gets it.

My dad and my aunt, but they’re not as bad as I am.

I view the usage of fragrances like smoking…. if you want to smoke, fine, but make others breathe your smoke in as well. If you want to use fragrances fine, but not in public places where everybody else around you is forced to smell it.

I wish more people would view the situation this way…. or at least not use the whole damn bottle every morning!

Continue reading Another Sad Story