- What Helps the
Chemically Injured
- in the
Toughest Times
- Personal
Accounts
- Help for
Depression
- Support for
MCS/EI
- Prayers, Songs
and Passages
- This page is created for
MCS/EIs, their friends or relatives to share
- what has
helped through the toughest times.
-
- If you are a friend or
relative, could you tell us what gave relief to the
MCS/EI in need?
- Was it your encouraging
words, prayer, lending a hand or simply listening?
Your
contribution can help many others! Send "What Helps"
to: maryk555@yahoo.com
- Please submit your
name as you would like it to be posted. Specify if you'd
like to remain anonymous,
- or if you are a
relative, friend or an MCS/EI.
- Personal
Accounts
- Anonymous, MCS/EI
- These are some things that
helped. I told my friend, after much debate with
myself (as I feel I am being intrusive if I ask people to
change what they are doing and, before MCS, wouldn't have
dreamed of doing so), that I had MCS and that the perfume
at her house and scented candles were preventing me from
being with her. She immediately said, "What is
MCS?" I gave her a small brochure on MCS which
listed possible irritants. She said, "I will
try to keep the air clean while you are here."
She seemed understanding, and apologized profusely for
her husband's smoking, and said that she was trying to
make it nicer for me so that I didn't have to smell the
smoke. (My mother was sensitive to cigarette
smoke and perfumes, which she attributed to her father's
extensive cigar smoking when she was a child.) That's what all the perfume and
candles had been for! Another example of someone
who really was helpful was the man from Cuba who cleans
the apartment building halls. He was using window
spray that made it impossible for me to go in and
out. Upon learning of this, he stopped immediately
and said, "Oh! I'll just use water where you
are." He was very kind, asked no questions,
and accepted that we were telling him the truth. My
partner has been the most support for me- more than words
can say. He has changed just about everything to
help make our home better. He agreed to air
filters, water filters, organic towels and sheets, and
stopped wearing cologne and after shave lotions that were
scented. He got rid of the laundry detergent, and
cleans with a natural product I can tolerate. He
cleans with only vinegar and baking soda. Our car
has an air filter in it. He fills the gas tank, so
that I don't have to go to the gas station. If
I get sick, he takes me home immediately.
Sometimes, he drives me to the beach so we can stay in
the fresh air for awhile. There is so much
support from him, acceptance and caring. In the
beginning, it was really difficult for him. And his
son said, "Dad, it will be better for you,
too." I think the willingness of
people to believe and to attempt to understand the pain
helps more than words can say.
- Jean
Haney, an MCS/EI
- I
have been dealing with MCS/EI/CF for over 17 years now.
After about 5 years, I sort of stabilized at a lower
functioning level than before. Then, 4 years ago, during
the worst allergy season in 50 years, I went downhill
again - FAST! I had lost ground and had a very hard time
getting back to a functioning level again. There were so
many times that I wanted to give up - but I thought back
to where I was 17 years ago - when I had only 1
grandchild. Now, I have 8. If I had given up then, I
would never have known these grandchildren. I keep in
mind that I want to be around when they all graduate from
school and get married and have children of their own.
Some of these grandchildren show signs of having MCS also
and I want to be here to show them the way - to be an
example for them to follow and the one person that
understands what they are going through and all the
manifestations that go along with this illness -
including the isolation, the loss of jobs, friends and
family. This is all that keeps me going from day to day -
my grandkids!
-
- Brice MacKay, an
MCS/EI
- The isolation during bad stretches with
MCS is very hard on morale. The greatest help are
friends and family members who call or write with their
everyday family stories, sharing a little bit of
normalcy. It always helps remind me of life, and to
keep connected to these special friends who I value so
greatly.
- Anonymous, MCS/EI
- I go through periods where
the physical pain of my reactions, fatigue, isolation and
financial pressures are almost too much to bear. It is
like I'm in the ocean, the waves are over my head and
keep coming so that I can barely get a breath before I
dive under the next one. I use many coping tools. I find
peace at times when I walk outdoors, look at nature or
when I pray. When I feel that my friends or family have
too much on their minds, I reach out to people in
organizations that I trust and know will listen to me and
pray for me. If I do not find lasting relief, I reach out
to professionals for help. Sometimes, it is humiliating
to admit that I need this kind of help. I never thought I
had pride, but I guess I do. The more I reach out, I am
humbled, but I am rewarded.
-
- Mary Jean Kempf, an
MCS/EI and mother of an MCS/EI
- I survive my darkest times
with the help of my husband and family. They give me a
great deal of emotional support. I am also grateful that
my daughters, their husbands, my son and his family have
changed their chemical use. They provide a safe house for
me when they are tenting for termites in my neighborhood.
-
- Don Kempf, husband of
MCS/EI and father of MCS/EI
- I don't really know of any
way that I help my wife or daughter with MCS/EI with
words. I am not aware of anything that I say that helps.
I can only guess that I help by listening. I help in
other ways, by trying to improve our home, so that it is
as chemically free as possible for my wife. Once, I gave
away a business suit that was making my daughter sick. I
recently flew out to visit with her before her surgery.
She greeted me with a big smile and her whole face lit up
when she saw me at the hospital.
-
- For what keeps the MCS/EI editor going, see "Care
Packages"
on
this site.
Help
for Depression
Suicide and Family
Crisis Hotline: call 1-800-SUICIDE in
the U.S.
Teenagers in crisis or suicide
prevention, Covenant
House Nine Line:
call 1-800-999-9999
Look in the front pages of your
phone book for a crisis line
Call a psychotherapist
Carefully choose a priest, minister
or rabbi, someone who is likely to listen
- Metanoia. Talk
to a therapist online, how to choose a competent
counselor, or if you are suicidal, read this first. http://www.metanoia.org
See also Environmental
Speaker, Consultants, and Psychological Counseling
Support for MCS/EI
Share, Care, and
Prayer. Personal support newsletter for MCS/EI, member
directory, and information. P.O. Box 2080, Frazier Park, CA 93225 http://www.sharecareprayer.org
Hands of Hope Ministry.
Chaplain Jim Forbes and Jan Forbes, RN. Rural Route 1 Box 135 B,
Hot Springs, SD 57747 Phone: 605-673-5565. Due
to health considerations, please, no cell, cordless, or
speaker phones. Office hours 11AM- 5PM Mountain time.
Prayers,
Songs and Passages
This space is for
helpful prayers. Please submit your prayer whether it is from
your heart or if it is someone else's prayers in your time of
need.
Your contribution
can help many others! Send "Helpful Prayers" to: maryk555@yahoo.com
Please submit
your name as you would like it to be posted. Specify if you'd
like to remain anonymous, or if you are a relative, friend or an
MCS/EI.
. . .
- Judy Black has been
healed of MCS/EI. She wrote this is song when she was
going through her darkest times. She says, "It's
a song of hope that there would be better times ahead,
and it's really a song about allowing life's storms to
take us to a place of surrender, surrender to God's
perfect wisdom and purpose, which is the only safe place
to be. When I stopped fighting/resisting God's will
completely, that's when I could trust Him to fight my
battles for me, and when God fights the battles...He
never loses."
There Will Come
a Time
- I can't see through the clouds, there's darkness all
- around, I'm so afraid
- I just can't find my way, will there come a brighter
- day?
- I'm swallowed up inside this fury, but every time I
- start to worry I listen to this voice within that's
- speaking to me;
- "There will come a time, when the sun will shine
- again. It's always brightest following the storm.
- There will come a day, when your heart will smile
- again, I know you can't believe it's true
- but there will come a time for you.
- Never fight the storm nor fear. Just listen to it's
- voice, until the messages are clear.
- Let it's wisdom teach you, and let it's fury take you
- to a brighter place, a higher place....
- it's a sweet surrender.
-
- So if you can't see through the clouds, there's
- darkness all around, you're so afraid
- and you just can't find your way, remember...
- There will come a time, when the sun will shine again,
- when your heart will smile again it's true
- there will come a time for you, for you..for you!
. .
.
- Mary Jean Kempf, an
MCS/EI and mother of an MCS/EI, has three favorite
biblical passages.
- 2 Timothy 1:7
- "For God has not
given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and
of a sound mind."
- Deuteronomy 31:6
- "Be strong and of
good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the
Lord your God He is the One who goes with you. He will
not leave you or forsake you."
- Philippians 4:6
- Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by
prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus
."
. .
.
- From the memory of an
anonymous MCS/EI: "This has helped me through my
worst times."
- "Dark Night of
the Soul" by St. John of the Cross. Book Two,
Chapter XVI #7.
- Explains how, though in
darkness, the soul walks securely.
-
- Catholic First-
Information Center
- http://www.catholicfirst.com/TheFaith/CatholicClassics/JohnoftheCross/dark_night/darknight3.htm#CHAPTER
XVI
- My favorite lines are
- ". . . You have never
labored so effectively,
- so perfectly and so
securely as now.
- When God takes your hand
- and guides you through the
darkness,
- as though you were blind,
- to an end
- and by a way
- which you know not . .
."
- Contents