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A Little Poisoning Along the Road to ME/CFS

Jody submitted a new blog post:

A Little Poisoning Along the Road to ME/CFS

Anyone else been poisoned along the way? Jody Smith tells part of her horror story ...


Looking at my symptoms, many of which are far less these days and some are gone, it would be easy to figure that I'd just been dealing with some heavy-duty menopausal issues.

The sleep abnormalities, the brain fog, digestive issues, astonishing weight gain, I was the right age ... I fit the menopause profile.

But then I remember some of toxins I've been exposed to over the decades, and I realize that whether menopause had anything to do with my becoming so sick for so long, there was more to it than that.

Until fairly recently, I thought of the pain, inflammation, swelling, and subsequent incapacitation that I would experience a few times every year as being separate from ME/CFS.

The first time I had a serious, agonizing bout of roaring inflammation I called it tendinitis. After a few days of searing pain and functional uselessness in my right arm, I wished for amputation.

Instead I got a prescription from my GP for Voltaren (diclofenac). I took this medication for a few days and the pain began to fade. Didn't disappear, but it became bearable. Couldn't actually use my arm.

There was weakness and stiffness such that I had to lift my right hand with my left to take a cup out of my kitchen cupboard. I couldn't lift any of my small children with my right arm.

I stayed on Voltaren for five months, and then later that year was on it for three more months after a second bout of inflammation.

I did not make a connection at the time with the excruciating pain that had taken up residence in the pit of my stomach. My husband had been injured at work and there were some scary things going on in our lives at the time. I just chalked up how I felt to being anxious.

But this pain never went away over the following 15 years or so. And I suspect that the leaky gut I've been healing may have originated from this scenario. I've made dietary changes, identified and eliminated foods I can't tolerate.

Now I know that if I have inflammation, I can generally get relief from castor oil wraps, acupuncture or chiropractic. I take omega-3 oil to lessen my tendency to inflammation, and try to eat a diet that is low in omega-6 fatty acids. I try to respect my body's limitations and act with ergonomic responsibility. The less I strain it the less it hits me with inflammation.

We had an oil furnace that we realized was emitting fumes into the house. My husband discovered that the combustion chamber was cracked. We quit using the furnace and started using the wood stove in the living room. Later added one to the family room because replacing the furnace was beyond our means at the time.

Realized later that both wood stoves were installed incorrectly and were unsafe. It's a wonder neither of them burned our house down. They both also burned broken chairs, cardboard, painted wood from old furniture, and who knows what else, when we couldn't afford proper firewood.

The crawl space of the house we lived in 25 years ago got flooded. We found out by accident one evening. As the water drained from the tub after one of my kids had their bath, we heard the water .... drop. It wasn't going through pipes away from the house to wherever the water goes.

The pipes had been disconnected, maybe by an animal that had gotten into the crawl space. And when the water went down the drain, it fell onto the ground under the house.

There was a pool about six inches by the time we discovered this. It explained the tendency to mold in this house which was so much more than anything I'd ever experienced before.

The floor directly above this mess was soft and punky, and one day my mother's foot went through the floor. She was okay, just shocked. The floor which was a third of the length of our house, now obviously had to be replaced. But that is another story for another day. Or rather, one you really never want to hear.

We also found out that our neighbours had been re-directing water from their yard into ours via a big plastic pipe, so their runoff would have been ending up ... under our house. We politely asked him to stop. He did.

Our next house was in much better shape. But the cement basement would flood after very heavy rains. And then it would flood any time it rained. My husband Alan discovered that the storm sewer line was full of debris from a tree right above it. The rainwater couldn't be carried away, it just ... overflowed and soaked down the side of our basement walls and floor.

Almost everything stored in our basement has had to be thrown out, but it all sat there for a number of years before any of us were healthy enough to get it done.

He has found the source of the problem and we no longer have that kind of flooding. But the house had a strong inclination to mold, on the walls and in the basement for a long time.

We had a waterbed which split open and poured water throughout our bedroom 20 years ago. We mopped things up as best we could. Let the carpet dry, we couldn't afford to replace it. Whatever bacteria was in that water permeated the particle board platform frame and the rug.

We kept the platform and stuck two single mattresses on it, and slept that way for about five years. When we could afford to get a new mattress, we also got an unexpected bonus.

I had been waking each morning with searing sore throat, aching sinuses, headache and earaches. After I'd get up and been awake for an hour or so, these discomforts would gradually decrease till they were -- not gone, but bearable.

But the first morning after I slept on the new bed, I noticed that I wasn't in pain. My breathing wasn't hampered by stuffed sinuses. The change was that dramatic and that immediate.

I can't say how much any of these things contributed to my becoming, and staying, sick with ME/CFS. I just know what my experience has been. And the timing of these environmental insults when compared with when my symptoms have eaxed and waned is all pretty convincing to me.

Have you gotten poisoned along the way?



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Continue reading the Original Blog Post
 
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That is appalling, Jerry! I am so sorry. Maybe to lesser degrees most of us have innocently been around poisons or used them. We aren't told by officialdom until years afterwards, if then. Usually the poorer, less educated, less mobile people get it the worst. And children!
 
Terrible experience, Jody, I'm sorry. Your comment about burning furniture, painted wood, etc. stood out to me because in my neighborhood someone is burning that in their furnace. Every night there's a chemical smell in the air so I can't open my window. Our next door neighbor was doing that until my husband told him about the toxins in the treated wood. We also have several people in the 'hood that burn the treated wood and plastic, wiring, etc. If we're outside when it happens we both get sick. It comes into the house and we're miserable. People don't realize how nasty and dangerous it is to burn toxic materials. The cumulative effect of all these people burning improperly is like a large factory spewing toxins into the air with no filter. The factor would be fined and maybe shut down for that.

u&iraok,

Your post highlights the other side of what happened to us. Not only were we exposed but anyone who was near the smoke coming out of our chimney. Spreading of the ripples.
 
Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds much like my life story in a lot of ways.
The difference is that I've spent most of my life using all kinds of pesticides. As a teenager working on a farm we used tons of chemicals and had no idea about the need to protect our selves. Then as an adult working in the Pest Control industry using many different pesticides very day.
I almost forgot about riding our bikes around following the mosquito fogging trucks as kids.

Awful. I can relate, I don't know what all chemicals we and our kids were exposed to, living in that farming area. So much for the whole country and fresh air concept.
 
Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds much like my life story in a lot of ways.
The difference is that I've spent most of my life using all kinds of pesticides. As a teenager working on a farm we used tons of chemicals and had no idea about the need to protect our selves. Then as an adult working in the Pest Control industry using many different pesticides very day.
I almost forgot about riding our bikes around following the mosquito fogging trucks as kids.

Yikes! And I suspect it's safe to presume you have CFS? I did have a lot of small exposures to pesticides before one particular occupational exposure I think pushed me over the edge. I'll probably never really know.

What get's me is obviously this has happened to tens of thousands of others. Others who obviously complained like I did on deaf ears. If my CFS was indeed set in motion by this. How is it not recognized by regulators who's job is the safety of these materials? That's rhetorical. I know the answer to this. Most the regulators I complained to sided with the PCO, defended what he did. Even though it's a violation of federal law to apply these materials inconstant with the label. Of which he wasn't just inconsistent he did the opposite. Said to water in, he didn't. The one in charge of filing the report never did. Stonewalled me every single time I asked for a copy of it. After 4 years and much badgering all I finally got was a letter from the dept of entomology saying they lost it.

MD'S are not trained to recognize poisonings such as this. I even saw one that specialized in occupational types of exposures like these and he gave me a clean bill of health. (he did make sure I wasn't taking drugs though)

My experience is relatively rare. Yet the symptoms I have mirror that of most others with CFS. So either there are multiple different ways to end up with the syndrome or my pesticide exposures were not the cause? Maybe it was a tick? Maybe it lowered my immunity to bacteria viruses and fungi? Maybe there are multiple other ways to end up with what basically amounts to the same condition.

Looking back I suspect a couple of my customers had CFS. One would not let me use roundup and I totally get why she was concerned now. Both just had that subtle unhealthy look or air, lack of muscle tone that comes with the condition. Back than late 80's early 90's there was no internet. You were truly alone with this. As bad as this is could you imagine having no support groups? Nothing but a dr to turn to who thinks you need to see a shrink?
 
PCO's are well versed in getting around the label requirements. Employers in general are good at covering their own butts not those of the employee. You have to learn to protect your self at all cost.
 
PCO's are well versed in getting around the label requirements. Employers in general are good at covering their own butts not those of the employee. You have to learn to protect your self at all cost.
And as I said regulators encourage they conduct themselves that way. I suspect if I was only exposed to 50lbs or so of the stuf it wouldn't have been so bad. Cause the report never got filed I don't know exactly how much but I suspect it was 7 to 15 tons of fertilizers laced with pesticides. He saved a ton of money not spraying and I suspect didn't warn me cause doing so would be admitting it was dangerous as hell until it's been watered in and allowed to dry. They always say when it's dry it's safe but I suspect that when it's watered in allowed to dry and baked in the sun for a week or so would be a more accurate statement. I suspect another trick he used is when he did spray he would use something like a ten to one ratio of product to water as opposed to something like 100 to 1. To reduce the amount of water he had to lug around and than spray. That arguably was probably much worse for me. And would have been much safer if it actually was watered in and allowed to dry. I remember one time seeing the grass dry but stained with a white material. I suspect that was a fungicide. I stupidly mowed it anyways.
 
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Thanks Jody.
I was being poisoned for a while by waste products from methamphetamine production being poured down the outside drains next to my house. Of course I didn't know that was happening until the police turned up and the drains were decontaminated. Three or four days later I woke up feeling completely different....
I'll never know how much of a part that incident played in my illness.
This is a short reply. You didn't have the energy or the money to sue the owners? If ever there was a right time, that was it.
Take care.
 
This is a short reply. You didn't have the energy or the money to sue the owners? If ever there was a right time, that was it.
Take care.
Unfortunately, I never knew what the chemicals were... The police were not helpful, and once the decontamination had occurred I couldn't gather evidence. The owner of the property was unaware that her tenant was involved in any wrongdoing. The tenant was charged along the others with various offences I believe....

Bottom line was I had zero proof that any harm had been done to my health, only how I felt. And no doctors would take me seriously.
 
"Zero proof"
That's the problem and as I was saying. As sure as I am the pesticides I was exposed to at the very least pushed me over the edge. Without any evidence to this end I have to be honest with myself and admit I don't know this for fact. (As could any jury) Could have been a tick or some type of virus or sexually transmitted disease which isn't understood by science yet. Very annoying and why I focus all my anger at authorities who are responsible for sorting this type of thing out. But take the easy way out. Dismissing it out of hand and instead implying it's psychological. Giving criminally negligent individuals and corporations a blank check to do whatever they want. If I were able to go back and do things different i would have hounded the dept of entomology more until I got them to file a report or be investigated for not filing one. While I couldn't have proven my illness was due to my exposure. I could have presented evidence that it was indeed extensive, atypical and certainly possible of doing such.
 
Altitude sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning maybe me/cfs mimics.I was wondering if something going wrong with metabolic pathways may leave you oxygen starved or with too much carbon monoxide.