4 ms·

A few years ago I found occasion to rent a car. The clerk noted I was lucky - it had only 400 miles. I thought that was great until I remembered what it meant.

A few years ago I found occasion to rent a car. The clerk noted I was lucky - it had only 400 miles. I thought that was great until I remembered what it meant. The car smelled strongly like glues, and unfortunately the windows were designed in a way that I couldn't get air blowing on my face. I was doing a run about an hour away to Los Alamos. While driving, I started feeling tense in the face. My arms were stiffening and my mouth going into a circular shape. I felt strange like I was going to pass out. I was so concerned that if I went home I might be calling an ambulance. Luckily there was a fire station . I couldn't figure out how to ring their doorbell and collapsed in the front. The EMTs there came out, stuck me in an ambulance and took me to the ER, where the doctors couldn't find anything wrong besides a low potassium level. I'm still wondering what happened exactly. I have some sort of sensitivity to all sorts of fragrances, especially synthetic, probably related to my immune/autoimmune diseases. It's extremely uncomfortable for me to be near air freshener, dryer sheets, laundry detergent, cologne, perfume, shampoo, hairspray, and other scented products. The fragrance industry has been hard at work expanding fragrance into new products as well, like garbage bags. Prior to the ER incident above I had been weakened by digestive problems (apparently the aftermath of celiac/precursor of type 1 diabetes) and weighed 8% under a healthy minimum weight, so I can't surmise it was 100% the car fumes.

linuxftw 6y ago
Hi. Your symptoms (minus the collapse) sound very similar to a close friend of mine. Digestive problems continued until almost all foods were eliminated. A few things seemed to work over a period of a few months with a Dr's supervision. First, treatment for MTHFR. This was basically taking some methylated B vitamin available on Amazon, they're not very expensive. Next, great improvements were found with traditional chinese medicine. My friend found a practitioner from China trained in the 80s that lives in our area, rather than a western person. They prescribed a number of supplements to aid in digestion issues. The final component is electrolyte water. That seems to be the best way for my friend to stay hydrated. Since doing this, while still intolerant of certain perfumes and such, my friend is living a normal life now.
- code_duck 6y ago
  I ended up paring down my diet to almost nothing but chicken and honey for a while, then slowly adding things back. I had the most problems with grains. Since I've been diagnosed with celiac, which is in my family, I still have to stay strictly gluten-free. To my knowledge, it's not reversible. definitely could be related to nutrient malabsorption, which is common with celiac. Following the hospitalization, I got liquid electrolytes and added them to water, along with potassium citrate. That seem to help a lot. When I was hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis a year or two later, the ICU had a lot of problems getting my electrolytes back into balance.
f430 6y ago
Sounds like a stroke? That is scary
- code_duck 6y ago
  They would have been able to detect a stroke or a heart attack. I've had a few incidents like this, where I've passed out, at various times in different states of health. Once at Walmart after a convention, once in the morning after throwing up some blood, and this time. I've had a lot of health work since then but have yet to find an explanation for these episodes.

linuxftw 6y ago

Hi. Your symptoms (minus the collapse) sound very similar to a close friend of mine. Digestive problems continued until almost all foods were eliminated. A few things seemed to work over a period of a few months with a Dr's supervision. First, treatment for MTHFR. This was basically taking some methylated B vitamin available on Amazon, they're not very expensive. Next, great improvements were found with traditional chinese medicine. My friend found a practitioner from China trained in the 80s that lives in our area, rather than a western person. They prescribed a number of supplements to aid in digestion issues. The final component is electrolyte water. That seems to be the best way for my friend to stay hydrated. Since doing this, while still intolerant of certain perfumes and such, my friend is living a normal life now.

code_duck 6y ago
I ended up paring down my diet to almost nothing but chicken and honey for a while, then slowly adding things back. I had the most problems with grains. Since I've been diagnosed with celiac, which is in my family, I still have to stay strictly gluten-free. To my knowledge, it's not reversible. definitely could be related to nutrient malabsorption, which is common with celiac. Following the hospitalization, I got liquid electrolytes and added them to water, along with potassium citrate. That seem to help a lot. When I was hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis a year or two later, the ICU had a lot of problems getting my electrolytes back into balance.

f430 6y ago

Sounds like a stroke? That is scary

code_duck 6y ago
They would have been able to detect a stroke or a heart attack. I've had a few incidents like this, where I've passed out, at various times in different states of health. Once at Walmart after a convention, once in the morning after throwing up some blood, and this time. I've had a lot of health work since then but have yet to find an explanation for these episodes.