Fragrance Sensitivity Solution Leads to Incredible Health

The Danger of Fragrances

Why What I React to Matters

Why care about what I react to? Because I have learned that my body is a toxic alarm system, and when I research what I react to, I learn that it is harmful for everyone as well as our Earth.

In my last story, I told how I was reacting to Keith's clothing from fragrances.

The Worst Time in Our Relationship

Things suddenly got much worse. Keith and I went through the worst time in all of our thirty-nine years together.

In my last story, I reported this: "Keith and I went together to pick up our truck. My left sinus got blocked again, my eye was watering, and the intense exhaustion I've been having came back. Then I followed him in our car back home, and all the symptoms and exhaustion went away. Now it was so clear that the issue was Keith's clothes, not mine. Keith goes out each week with friends who use fragrances, and we realized this was the issue."

What I didn't tell you in my last story was that after we went home and picked up our RV to tow it to our storage place, Keith took our reusable grocery bags from our truck and put them in our car. We had been so optimistic, hoping the repair would be fast, and soon we'd be back on our trip, that we had left our RV in front of our home. Then, I followed him to the RV storage place. All my symptoms came back! The exhaustion, congested sinuses, and my eye watering. Now our reusable grocery bags were contaminated by the repair shop. After we parked our RV, we drove together home in our truck. I put my mask on to protect myself from Keith's clothes after he had been in the repair shop, but now my symptoms were severe. I had tears running down my face, my nose was pouring, and then I began to cough, and I was wearing my mask! This was in the very short time it took to get home. This was how harmful the toxins were at the repair shop.

Kindness in a Crisis

I called Omar, our mechanic, and he was so kind and caring regarding my MCS issues and offered to not wear his Old Spice deodorant and keep our truck locked with the windows closed when he wasn't working on it.

After we moved our RV to the storage lot, I followed Keith to take our truck back in to get the repairs done. Our transmission lasted even for this. We were so thankful!

After the repairs were done, we went to pick up our truck. At home, we were testing sea salt with iodine, and the VOCs were steadily in the yellow, so Keith took the salt out of the plastic bag, but it was still failing. Then he put the meter outside so it would reset, and he started testing our new plastic drainboard. It failed all night. However, the highest the VOCs went was 464, which has happened when we have tested products, even though any product that tests over 250 will give me asthma. Those products are usually discarded or returned. I will tell more about our VOC tester in another story soon. In my diary, I did not report any health issues on this day.

Because we had picked up our truck after it was repaired the day the VOCs first went yellow and didn't go down, we thought our repair shop was the issue. We had never had the VOCs stay yellow for hours, no matter what we did.

This was why I reported this in my last story: "Our truck is back from the repair shop. We are worried that our truck may be contaminated by the mechanic. For 48 hours, we did a hot box. We have it outside with all the windows closed in our very hot Arizona sun. Today, we have the windows open to air out our truck. Keith ordered new filters for our truck. Then we will run the air conditioner, and we are hopeful this will solve any issues."

In reality, our mechanic Omar had done an incredible job understanding my MCS issues and taking actions to keep me safe, as evidenced by the fact that I didn't have any health issues the day we went to get our truck. He is fantastic! His business is Diesel Experts in Glendale, Arizona. His phone number is 602-620-8089. I feel compelled to share exceptional businesses because I am always so grateful to discover them.

The next morning, Keith removed the drainboard and opened the window to reset the VOC meter. It was still yellow, so Keith put the meter outside to reset. At 10, the meter was at 1304, the highest ever, and all that was in Keith's office was Keith!

Our VOC Meter Confirmed the Problem

This was a problem since I had been getting asthma when I was with Ketih. I asked him to reset the meter and change into his winter clothes. We felt that perhaps last winter, we had been using Dr. Bronner's, and those clothes would be safe for me. The meter was green, then went to 1072. Then, when he came in for lunch, I started coughing and my left sinus, which had been totally open, became blocked, and I began to feel very sick. He went back to his office and put the meter outside. It went green again. Then, he put it in his office, and it went to 1620! He thought it might be the batteries, so he plugged the meter in, and the VOCs were still high. He took our larger, more powerful air purifier to his office, but the VOCs were still so high.

After Keith changed clothes again and had a shower, he moved our VOC meter from his office into my office. I was feeling incredibly good, so this was a way to check if the meter was working. We moved to the living room. I could watch the meter on my cell phone. I began to cough and feel very ill. Even though he had changed clothes, taken a shower, and washed his hair, the meter would go up or down. When I began to feel sick, I'd look at the meter, and it had gone up. The cause of my fragrance sensitivity was verified by our VOC meter. When I felt better, I checked the meter, and it had gone down. This was even though our meter was in another room! Our four air purifiers in our home could not keep up with the toxins. Then Keith left and changed into his bathrobe, which had not been outside our home, and I began to feel fine, and the results improved.

After this, our VOC meter was in yellow for four days, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday straight, while at the same time, I could not be near Keith or I would get severe asthma. For four nights, he had to change into his bathrobe so we could spend time together.

On Friday morning, Keith was making breakfast, and I was having severe asthma. I asked if he could go to his office, and I'd finish breakfast and bring it to him. I simply couldn't suffer with asthma anymore. He was wearing another outfit he had washed four times. In the meantime, he washed three sets of clothes from last winter 5 times with Dr. Bronner's. This was in addition to the two times before.

Writing this story was what made me realize that the issue wasn't the repair on our truck. The VOCs increased further when Keith changed to his winter clothing. Clearly, we had not been using Dr. Bronner's then either. Keith pointed out that winter clothes have more material to absorb toxins, and that is why I got worse and the VOCs went so high. We can now see that the VOCs were not that high the day we picked up our truck; they were a maximum of 464.

However, at the time, we did not realize this because I was so ill that I went into a panic. I became so frightened, and I double-checked everything Keith did. I seemed to have PTSD from all my reactions. We both yelled, and I cried. It was the worst time of our marriage.

I had been having issues for a while - my peak flow and oxygen levels had gone down, and I was coughing more. I had known something was wrong and had been waiting for the answer.

Now we had found the answer. Even though Keith did not smell any fragrance, the chemicals from the fragrance from when he met with friends had been building up on his clothes until my MCS body could not tolerate them, and I became very ill. This did not happen with my clothes since I don't meet with anyone who uses fragrances. This was because of the simple change of no longer using Dr. Bronner's Baby Soap for our laundry, we had switched to using organic white vinegar. Organic white vinegar did not cause any reactions, and it cleaned our clothes so well, but it had not removed the toxins of fragrances.

The Solution for Fragrance Sensitivity

Now we know the fragrance solution to keep our clothes safe and clean in the future. First, we will wash everything with Dr. Bronner's Baby Soap. Then we will wash everything with organic white vinegar. This will remove any toxins and keep our clothes so clean.

Clothing Was Another Important Solution

I had already been looking for new clothing for Keith. The only organic clothing I could find for him was organic sweatpants and sweatshirts. He refused to wear them, so I was looking for pants and shirts for him while he was getting holes in his clothing. Because of so many issues I'd had with clothing, I was afraid to try any clothing except organic cotton, which also, I had learned, had risks. I will review these issues in another story. This all made my search very difficult.

I had felt so much better when I switched to only organic clothing that I'd wanted organic clothing for Keith, also. Now, the only solution was new clothes for Keith since all his clothes were so worn out. We were out of time, and I needed new clothes for him now.

Then on Friday, I found a fantastic solution at https://rawganique.com/! Regular pants that were 100% organic with front pockets, a zipper, and even the thread was organic! The elastic was organic rubber and cotton. I found 100% organic t-shirts, and Keith approved them. I ordered one of each for one day delivery so we could see if they were the correct size. I told Keith this was the only choice we had, the only solution I had found in years of searching. They would arrive on Monday, in three days.

What would we do in the meantime? Keith had been washing the three sets of clothes over and over, and now, after nine times, I did not have asthma when we were together.

At 12:10 Saturday, the meter finally went green and stayed green. Even with our air purifier running nonstop, it had not been able to clear the toxins from Keith's office for four days. This is because fragrances off-gas nonstop, and this was caused by the fragrances other people wore; no fragrances had been in our home.

Finally, the problem was solved! However, we did have a few other issues come up.

There Was Still More to Learn

One morning, I began coughing violently. Ketih was wearing his belt, which had been exposed to everything, so he gave his belt away. He has an almost new belt he can use when needed. We also learned that the socks he wore to ride his bike made me very ill; clearly, they had latex in them. His dress socks made me very sick; they too had fragrance in them. No problem, we ordered very comfy soft ones from Rawganique!

On another morning, I had violent asthma. The day before, Keith had gone to the store, so he took off his clothes in the garage, took a shower, washed his hair, and put on fresh clothes. Since that had been in the middle of the day, Keith wore them again, and now I was reacting to the same clothes. We realized it was because we always throw our clothes on the floor when we go to bed. All the clothes on the floor had contaminated the carpet! Keith cleaned our carpet, and the issue was solved!

No wonder I had developed so much fear from what felt like endless issues and asthma attacks. My body could no longer tolerate these toxins I'd been exposed to.

The Solution Was Even Better Than We Expected

On Monday, Keith's new clothes arrived, and the pants we had ordered for him had back pockets which I hadn't realized. They were better than we realized! His new clothes looked so cute! We ordered seven sets of clothes for Keith, and I ordered one of the pants for myself to try. I was so excited to try out regular pants, not sweatpants! We were so thrilled!

On Tuesday, Keith's clothes arrived and he looks so cute in his new clothes! I tried on my new pants and I loved them! Once again, I was so thrilled!

We bagged up all of Keith's clothes and put them in the garage. We finally had a solution, and we could get all the polyester and synthetic clothes Keith had out of our home. We took all of them to The Salvation Army. We don't take anything to Goodwill. Goodwill uses fragrance everywhere, causing harm to their employees, customers, and our Earth. Keith kept some of his work clothes in the garage. I was so thrilled!

I also learned they offer dress shirts! Keith can wear organic, safe clothing even for work! They also provide so many other safe products that I have been searching for. Everything we have bought from them has had very low green VOC results below 250, even before they were washed! We are so thrilled!

We have also found that every pair of Whitin shoes we have bought has scored below 250! We are both so thrilled with this, too!

Amazing Results

Then I began to feel fantastic! My sinuses became incredibly open! I stopped coughing! My lungs got so clear, and I was able to get my ears to pop and open up more. The infection I had been fighting off was suddenly gone. I was sleeping better. Everything was improving so much!

In the short time that any trace of fragrance and synthetic clothing has been gone from our home, my health has become incredible!

In 2018, I had a huge turning point when the constant cough I'd had for years completely stopped at times. This was another huge turning point. I stopped coughing at all! I am so thankful every moment of every day. I have reached my dream!

We had been unaware of this issue, that even though we don't use any fragrance at all, fragrance had been increasing steadily over time and affecting my health. Even though we never smelled any fragrance, even though we never had anyone in our home wearing any fragrance. Another issue that had been affecting me was the synthetic clothing I was exposed to every day.

Solutions for You

This link shows all the issues that fragrances cause, with research results such as cancer, allergies, autism and so much more.

https://www.fragrancefreecoalition.com/

Fragrances are everywhere - in deodorant, cleaning products, laundry soap, lotions, so many products. So what do you do if you want to avoid fragrances? I show you how I avoid them in my story called How Natural Cleaning Improved My Health. I have videos about how I clean with natural ingredients. You can see all my stories and videos on our website.

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