From Lou Morris, Odessa, Texas

January, 2002

        When I was young, I was assigned the job of gathering the okra because I wasn’t “allergic.” Then one day my hands itched and burned so badly that I wanted to cry after I had gathered them. So I was told to wash with soap and water and put alcohol on my hands. After that, I used work gloves to gather the okra. When I buy okra, I use rubber gloves to cut it up.

        I also reacted to some weeds when I went walking on the farm. After that, when I walked in the pasture, I wore socks to protect my legs. I wear gloves, long sleeve shirts, pants, and socks with sturdy shoes to mow the grass now.

        Those were my first allergic reactions that I am aware of. At some time during that period of my life, my father bought DDT to spray for house flies that gathered on the porch in the summer. They used it several times before rumors began that it wasn’t safe for people and they stopped using it.
I am allergic to several weeds, flowers, and trees—usually in the blooming or pollen stage. If it is necessary to be around them, I try to shower and wash my hair as soon as possible. If I can get some natural local honey and eat one tablespoon of it each day, it seems to help prevent the sneezing, runny nose, and congestion.
I use a feather pillow and try to take it with me on trips. “They” say that foam pillows release a gas as they get old. I know that I become more sensitive to odors after I have slept on a foam pillow.
I react to men’s cologne and aftershave—some of them more than others. When I buy groceries, I walk ahead of the store employees who takes my stuff to the car. If the breeze brings the scent to me and I begin to choke up, I move to the upwind side.

        I am allergic to cigarette smoke—it feels as if my lungs have clamped down and I can’t get any air into them. If I go to a restaurant and have to walk through the smoking section, I can’t seem to get enough air to eat and breathe at the same time. So there are several restaurants that I won’t go to any more. I cover my face and turn my head away if I have to pass a person smoking in from on the doorway to a business.

        I keep my car vent on the place that circulates the air in the car. Diesel fumes cause my throat to close up and then I start to talk “funny.” To stop that spasm, my friend passed along the following hint: Say a sentence using the sound of “H” and drag out that sound. For example: “He has a huge house.” The letter “H” is pronounced from the throat. Sometimes several such sentences are needed to stop the throat spasm.

        For a time in my life, I would smell a perfume before I bought it. Sometimes I would notice a headache immediately. The next test was to put a dot on my wrist to see if I had a reaction If my body chemistry didn’t react unfavorably with the chemicals in the perfume, I might buy a bottle of that perfume. If I started to react, I had to wash it off with soap and water. Now I mostly use baby powder and unscented grooming products.
I use liquid unscented detergents. I seldom even walk down the grocery store aisle where the detergents are displayed. The Walgreen Drug Store here has an unscented liquid detergent displayed on a separate island apart from the scented ones.

        When I was in my thirties, I went to a doctor because of terrible stomach cramps. He said I had “colitis” and put me on a very restrictive and bland diet. I was also having breast cysts. Another doctor showed me an article in a medical journal that said caffeine could cause breast cysts. So I got off caffeine and my stomach aches stopped. The cysts continued but I was so glad to no longer have the stomach aches that continue to avoid caffeine. And when I’m not regularly drinking anything with caffeine, I can fast without getting headaches.
One day I took a bite of cake and thought it was a carrot cake. However, it was chocolate, and I had a stomach ache for two weeks. That experience caused me to start turning down anything with caffeine in it. Without the caffeine, I can eat onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and all the other foods that were restricted on the colitis diet.
There are many conflicting reports on what a person should or should not eat. I base my decisions about what to eat first of all on what I read in the Bible. (For example, the Bible forbids eating the meat of “unclean” animals, speaks of a land flowing with milk and honey, and says “drink a little wine for your stomach’s sake.”) And we would probably be healthier if our foods were natural and had not been “improved” by human beings. I also try to avoid the things that I am allergic to, such as certain foods and some spices.

        I met a man one time who had fought in the Viet Nam War. He told me about how he had to parachute into a forest that had been sprayed with Agent Orange defoliant. I found it interesting that we now have some of the same allergies. It makes me think that maybe I have those allergies because I may have absorbed a lot of chemicals in my life.

        I hope my story helps some.