|
Read Others' Stories |
||
|
Wouldn't it be great if you could eat what bugged you? |
||
|
Barbara Rubin gemdialog@aol.com From: NY (IP Address: 152.163.205.78) Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; AOL 5.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90) Added: Sunday, May 20, 2001 6:54 PM Comments: I was wearing my particulate mask in a Whole Foods Store when a young (maybe 6 year old) child saw me and started to cry. I felt terrible because once in awhile, a child is startled but rarely that frightened. Most just want to ask questions that mortify their parents but which I find encouraging. Well, it wasn't fear - it was outrage! He went over and tugged his mother's skirt strongly. Pointing at me, he yelled, "Mommy! You didn't tell me it was Halloween!" |
|
Patt Griffin grtdane@bellsouth.net From: FL (IP Address: 216.77.204.100) Browser: Mozilla/4.7 (Win98; U) Added: Sunday, January 7, 2001 5:34 PM Comments: My wife asked me to buy ORGANIC vegetables from the market. I went and looked around and couldn't find any. So I grabbed an old, tired looking employee and said, "These vegetables are for my wife. Have they been sprayed with any poisonous chemicals?" "The produce guy looked at me and said, "No. You'll have to do that yourself." |
|
Jacki jacki@ourlittleplace.com From: Florida (IP Address: 199.44.53.3) Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC) Added: Friday, September 8, 2000 9:59 AM Comments: I have 2 funny "mask" incidents to share! The first one happened while I was in the waiting room at a doctor's office with my husband. A little 3-year-old girl was sitting with her mom across the room and suddenly pointed at me and shouted, "Mommy!!! Look!! A GHOST!!" (My mask is white!!) - We laughed so hard at this one, but the poor mother was terribly embarrassed! The 2nd incident happened while I was wearing my mask at the mall. This was back when I couldn't walk very well due to the balance problems and dizziness caused by MCS, so my husband was pushing me in my wheelchair - I must have really been a sight! Anyway, this little 5-year-old boy looked at me and then asked my HUSBAND (guess he didn't think I could talk!) - "Why's she wearing that mask?" (while pointing). Gorden tried to think quickly of how to best respond so that a child could understand, and he finally said, "She's allergic." The little boy thought about this a minute and sort of scratched his head and got a strange look on his face and then blurted out, "To AIR??!!" We cracked up laughing!! Of course - the boy was right! I WAS allergic to the air in the mall!! |
|
Todd Frowny@talon.net From: Pennsylvania (IP Address: 207.8.229.148) Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98) Added: Saturday, September 2, 2000 2:35 PM Comments: We take our children to playgrounds carefully avoiding times and locations which would exacerbate my medical condition. I have one 3 year old and one 5 year old children. One day this summer, We took my 5 year old to a playground at a school. As we got out of the van, she eagerly ran off ahead of us toward the play area. As she approached the play area, and a middle-aged woman with a small child, she turned to yell back to me: "DON'T COME OVER HERE DADDY, THAT WOMAN R E A L L Y STINKS WITH PERFUME!". Children have no inhibitions! Of course I was initially embarrassed when this happened, and the woman really looked shocked. However, my wife approached the woman and explained the situation to her. Surprisingly, the woman said she has some trouble with some perfumes, so she wears this one because it doesn't give her trouble (GO FIGURE!). She empathized about my condition, but it never occurred to her before that this perfume might cause trouble for another person near her. After a discussion with my wife, she said she understands and will have to stop wearing any perfume in the future. Anyway, sometimes it takes the open inocense of a child to break the ice. She has been with me through many MCS reactions and is very aware what might be problematic for me. Since I can't smell most of my MCS triggers, it is good to have someone with me whenever I venture into semi-public areas. Sometimes I think my best advocate is my 5 year old. ;-) |
|
Bunny Snow sksnow@worldnet.att.net From: (IP Address: 12.73.250.143) Browser: Mozilla/4.7 (Win95; U) Added: Friday, September 1, 2000 8:54 PM Comments: Alike Suzanne, I cannot remember what I read or if I've done something I said I was going to do. I've put eating utensils in the freezer, and to my dismay, frozen food in the cutlery drawer. Such were tricks that my daughter used to play on me when she was a teenager, because she knew I was absent minded. But, alas, it's been ten years since she was a teen and now she's in New Zealand. Yet, the haunting are still occurring. Currently, I'm trying to decide whether or not to take a beginning studio lighting course over again, as there was so much I could not remember the first time. This is basic information that I've temporarily forgotten. When I'm in class, I know the answers before the teacher finishes explaining or asking the question. But, when I'm in the field or on a job, I fumble around trying to bring it all together. Stuff that I know --have always known, I cannot remember. I'm also trying to decide if I should buy studio lights and what kind are needed, as I used to be a professional photographer. But, now have trouble remembering important information that I just read, so that I can make that decision. It's easier to make a decision when you can remember what you wanted to decide upon. I cannot. I go back and forth and round and round, driving everyone crazy in my path. I'm like my mother who is having memory and decision problems at the age of 85. She sent me a sapphire diamond bracelet as a gift because she wanted me and my daughter to receive it before she died. And then, after she received a letter from my brother (who gave it to her) and wanted it willed to his wife, my mother changed her mind and asked for it back. She didn't know what to do, so she asked for the gift that she gave to me, back again. Since it was hers, I returned it. Her indecision was driving my stepfather crazy, also. He said he'd put it away for Heather, my daughter. But, before he could do that, she misplaced the bracelet and no one has seen it since. Is this what I have to look forward to, a brain that can never make a decision or remember the data to make a decision? Because it's happening to me now. A couple years ago, I was planning to drive to Baton Rouge (an hour east of my home) to go meet several friends and to go to the legislature. I ended up in Jennings, on the way to Lake Charles which is about an hour west of my home and the entire opposite direction. I no longer drive out of town. No telling where I'd end up. I recall a few years ago, being stopped at an intersection at the red light in Lafayette, where we live. I was first to go when the light changed. Suddenly, I could not figure out which lane I was in --should I turn left (in the left hand turn lane)? Go straight? Or, turn right. I was frozen. Turned out that I was in the lane to go straight, where I wanted to be, but something in the air confused my brain. A horn behind me, prompted me into action -- any action. The next day, I read in the paper that the Exxon gas station at that corner had a gasoline leak. Ah, ha! Gasoline emissions were the reason my brain went blank. All the solvents in gasoline which are known to cause confusion, short term memory loss had effected my brain that day. I wonder how many accidents occur to other people that have become chemically ill and don't know about it? |
|
k a tucker kattuk@earthlink.net From: NC (IP Address: 38.30.10.29) Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98) Added: Friday, September 1, 2000 8:33 PM Comments: i have double vision. to read, i paste one eye shut with masking tape. at the bookshelf i find a great book i've never read! but DH informs me i've read it before (see the margins you marked?). no matter, i have a new book to read. hah! i have a great new library to read! i have seizures a lot. by some miracle, one of my dogs can tell, and when i "come to" the dog is madly licking my hand. good dog! |
|
|
||