Toxic Amender "In Our Shoes" Tools:
In addition to being tools of awareness and education, Toxic Amender Tools are to help us help each other, to get through this... by helping someone else who is struggling to understand that they are not alone, to find humor in pain and sacrifice, or to find their own creativity.
In Our Shoes
What is it like? Life with MCS is unfathomable to most who don't have the condition. Looking in, decisions made in order to practice avoidance by people with MCS can appear mind bogglingly strange. Yet to others with MCS, trying to survive, trying to avoid more painful symptoms is a completely rational act. How each person with MCS handles the required changes is an individual process yet what is common is the need to adapt to life in a world drenched in toxic chemicals.
There is suffering: painful physical symptoms, pain from isolation, the immense losses of independence, financial freedom and important relationships to name just a few. There are also stories of triumph and finding joy in ordinary things. Small steps forward, moments of healing, improvements to health, small achievements are celebrated and savoured in the face of their temporary nature. One step forward, three steps back is a well known dance.
What used to be done without a second thought (travel, visiting, shopping, medical visits, eating) now requires planning and usually results in more exposures and more suffering. The chronic fatigue that can accompany MCS means simple activities can use up precious energy reserves. Prioritizing activities means some have to fall off the list.
What have you done to have to survive MCS? What's it like? Sharing can help us glean comfort from each other and help people better understand this condition.
Saying, "I'm sensitive to chemicals" doesn't really illustrate life with MCS.
Did you wash a pair of pants fifty-nine times only to have to throw them away? Do you live in a mansion and have to confine your living space to one sealed room? How much stuff have you given away because you took it home, only to find out it made you sick from the chemicals used in its construction? What have you sacrificed? What is important to you now you understand the nature of this illness?
Help fellow sufferers share a laugh or a tear. Help someone who doesn't have MCS walk a mile in your shoes. What's your story?
-- Stormchaser