After 30 years in the business world, I wanted to be my own boss. My interest in art led me to a career in the restoration of antique procelain. My home business grew rapidly, and soon I was working eight to ten hours a day, six or seven days a week.
I worked with very toxic materials on a daily basis, but wore an approved respirator and gloves and worked in a large ventilated spray booth. Over time, however, I noticed that I was becoming sensitive to food, clothing, odors, or anything that had chemicals in it. I switched to organic foods, but after a while even those bothered me. I suffered progressively worse reactions from head to toe, including great weight loss, loss of memory, and severe digestive problems. So I existed on the only foods I could now tolerate—exotic meats raised specifically for people with chemical sensitivity.
I put myself under the care of a doctor who specialized in environmental medicine, but found it to be of no help. I also started to look into alternative methods of healing. Over the next several years I took acupuncture, homeopathy, and alternative treatment from a chiropractor. Still, the problems persisted and continued to worsen.
