Tuesday, February 10, 2015

You might soon spot me wearing a mask

Since I stopped the Quercetin between the eleventh and twelfth week of pregnancy things have continued to worsen. Right now I am about 24 weeks pregnant.  Everything with the baby is going well and we currently have no concerns regarding development..

I am having escalating reactions every time I leave my house again.  I am experiencing severe headaches, sore throats, nasal swelling and itchiness.  For the remainder of the day, I am exhausted and feel very overwhelmed. Currently, I am still on the max dose of Diclegis for morning sickness and it contains the Class A antihistamine doxylamine succinate.  The instructions state not to take any additional antihistamines while taking Diclegis so I am not sure what medication I can safely take when I leave my house.  I have had to take Benadryl a few times.

I did send my midwife an email but I do not really expect her to know what to do.  Since I obviously don't want to hurt myself or the baby with medication or anaphylaxis, I am looking at buying a high quality mask to wear when I leave my house.  The two that I am most interested in are:



Does it shock you that enough people have environmental, fragrance and chemical sensitivities that numerous companies sell reusable masks with carbon filters?    Are people like me the canaries in the coal mine and soon nearly all of us will be wearing masks because our air quality is so poor?

I would like to add that I have zero conventional allergies and these reaction don't occur when I am outdoors away from people.  Reactions above my baseline symptoms occur indoors or when I am with a group of other people who have put some sort of fragranced product on their bodies or clothes.  I actually am unable to live in an apartment or a building with doors opening into a common area.  I absolutely can not share laundry machines with another family.  I have to wash clothes given to my family as many as ten times before the leftover fragrances stop making me ill.  Some things I have to toss or give away.

This illness is an isolating one and my natural tendencies are toward withdrawal  There are some specific ways that you can pray for me regarding this:

1.  Pray that I would have discernment to know when I can handle exposure and when it would be too much.  Pray that fear and the desire to withdraw would not play into my decisions.

2.  Pray that I would have the courage to wear a mask even though others will likely react negatively to it.

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