From Ronda, Dallas, Texas

January, 2000

I have found different chemicals effect me.  These can be from specific detergents, perfumes or simply soaps.  Soaps and detergents are contact sensitivities.  Perfumes can aggravate my asthma or else I have a simple allergy reaction of runny nose and eyes.  Some reactions are as bad as  triggering a migraine or my asthma. Others just have itching or scratching symptoms and yet others cause my eyes to water and nose to run.

I have medication I take to diminish the symptoms and I have inhalers that help my breathing.  I also have to be very clean around the home--some would call me a perfectionist but I have no other way to decrease the allergies (esp. since we have a dog and parakeets).  I am stuck using the same detergent and soap that my mother found didn't make me react when I was a child.

I ask my husband to do jobs that require chemicals in areas that don't have a good air flow (this is how my husband got the chore of cleaning the bathroom).  When I use cleaning chemicals, my hands peel and "look hairy" from all the tiny flakes of skin.

My doctor shows concern and is most bothered when my asthma becomes exasperated in any way.  He also has shown great concern about my migraines and at one point I was going to be put on an antidepressant to control them until the allergies were shown to be connected.  The doc even get me get blood tests and inspirometry ( a check of my lung volume).

I have allergies to specific molds as well as seasonal allergies.  Here is what I think happens when I inhale colognes and other heavy scented products.  They are irritants to my air passages.  This in turn triggers a swelling in those passages that creates the asthma.  The asthma decreases the amount of air I can breathe and thus I get less oxygen and end up with headaches.

As a professional, I have had to ask patients that I was seeing to not use or not refresh their colognes and perfumes on the day that they are seeing me.  In some cases I've just asked them to shower before seeing me, when that is possible.  In the crowd setting, I try to find a "windy" area--an area with more than adequate air circulation--this can be found in some cases by sitting under a vent for the heating or air conditioning and sometimes it's as simple as finding a breezy spot outside

I was born an asthmatic.  I have a niece who also has asthma and shows similar sensitivities and allergies.  Being born premature with no medical care probably didn't help me get a good start.  But as I was growing up, I only noticed the problems in the winter.  When I went to college was when I really starting getting sick.  That was when it was found I was allergic to mold, as my dorm room had mold problems.

Besides my own experience, my education in all this has come from info from my doctor and that has helped me the most in dealing with my sensitivities.  I've also learned that deficiencies in certain vitamins can trigger sensitivities that would otherwise remain dormant.