Recovery and Laughter

I may have MCS, but MSC doesn't have me!  

Wait a minute...I got caught up thinking about an ad for arthritis.  

Of course it has me.   

When people write of recovery with this illness, it's not as if you can now start to use the $2000.00 worth of products I had to get rid of chemicals which landed you here in the first place.  

I swear, this post was supposed to be filled with rainbows and lollipop's this time.  I love humor, and was delighted to find this blog Don't Mess With MCS.  

Yup, last week I really needed a 'pick me up'.  I began to feel blue somewhere between not being able to complete a project with Nadia that involved a glue stick/construction paper.

Feeling completely helpless or like the glue stick's rape victim isn't how I intended for the week to start, but then I started to find some really cute statements/photos about MCS which reminded me that I love laughing.

Grabbed from the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation - Author Unknown (really...what's up with Author unknown?  If I wrote something, I'd be like, "Hell ya I wrote this shit!"


You might have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity if:

• You have ever asked someone if you can come to their house and smell their mattress.
• You have washed the same load of laundry 8 times.
• You've changed all your friends.
• NOBODY can borrow your car!!
• You are more afraid of an emergency room visit than any perceived emergency.
• You can't find anything because you stash everything somewhere because it smelled.
• You smell the mail before opening and reading it.
• You check the wind sock not to see which way the wind is coming from, but which way the   "stink" is coming from.
• Your best friend's smell strongly of BO and not at all of deodorant...and this is a good thing.

You know you have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity When:

• You realize that you cannot use any of the products being advertised on TV.
• The time it takes to recover from an outing is always much longer than the outing.
• You cannot convince people that your hay fever with red eyes and sneezing is only a minor inconvenience compared to your other reactions.
• You rarely see your old friends, but when you do, there isn't anything to talk about.
• You would rather see a ten-year old movie on TV than a current one at the theater.
• You become friends with your U.P.S man.
• You shop at garage sales rather than the mall.
• You call someone on the phone and can't remember why you called.
• You carry more things on an outing than your daughter-in-law takes for the twins.
• You have to write everything down to remember, but then cannot read your own handwriting.

You know living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity isn't so bad when:

• Your son takes a bite of your soy flour muffin and comes back for more.
• You have a ready-made excuse for not attending another stuffy retirement party.
• Five food products are recalled and you don't worry since you have not eaten any of them in years.
• You find out who your real friends and family are.
• You get your waistline back without paying Weight Watchers a cent.
• Your husband takes over the driving rather than be scared to death by yours.
• You develop new priorities as you learn what is important in your life.
• You are reacting and get angry and your wife understands and does not get angry back.
• You have to replace your clothes and remember the comfort of cotton.
• You discover the natural taste of food.

You know you are getting better when:

• You cease feeling sorry for yourself and are thankful you have MCS rather than a terminal illness.
• You start reading again.
• Your driving improves.
• You start planning projects around the house and actually complete some of the easier ones.
• You start thinking creatively again.
• You start thinking about things other than your illness.
• You regain your sense of humor.
• The dog food in the TV commercials stops looking tasty.

Mentally, I'm still a vain, MAC loving girly girl, who loves smelling pretty.  Physically, I am pretty damn boring looking.  Lately, people have asked me if I home school, or which grassroots organization I am part of???  This is going to take some time....maybe a bit longer for angry black women because we have a huge disadvantage based on the lack of organic hair products for coarse hair :).