Mom has been to a psychiatrist as the bugs are not real. This has been going on for 2 years and she is changing clothes 4 and 5 times a day. She insists on vaginal medicine that she keeps getting prescriptions for that. Her doctor said diabetics often have yeast problems. She is constantly complaining at the age of 79 and thinks all drs are just getting money and not listening.. I realize she is getting old and there are lots of little issues. But the "bugs" are making her life miserable and me too.
I had been having some shortness of breath as well as itching, the latter of which occurred after driving. I found nothing in the car to cause itching, but suspected it might be because that was during the winter and the car heat wasn't humidified, so my skin was probably drying out (an unfortunate side effect of aging?).
The breath shortness couldn't be attributed to anything so I started experimenting with foods that I liked and ate a lot, of which celery was one. Doing research, I realized how contaminated celery is with pesticides, which DO NOT wash off; they're absorbed as systemic pesticides. Two of the side effects were itching and shortness of breath.
I cut out celery, let it clear from my system. No itching, no breath shortness. I ate more celery to see if the conditions returned, and they did.
So it looks like I'm going to plant half of my garden with my own organic celery this year!
And as I've recently discovered, foods that high in pesticides can cause some very weird reactions.
This sounds like one of the stories that might be featured on that Learning Channel program of unsolved medical mysteries. Hopefully not, and I don't mean to be crude, but perhaps she picked up a parasite. It's surprising how many people and places don't wash produce in hot soapy water.
How sad that the neighbors use toxins to control weeds. Our country needs to see weeds as plants that are growing in places that the majority of people don't want them to grow, not as horrors to be chemically eradicated. I've seen finches nibbling on dandelions, but so many people think they're just weeds. Imagine the poor finch that might nibble on a dandelion sprayed with a pesticide to kill it.
I assume there's no way your community controls use of pesticides? I'm guessing some had Diazinon before it was banned but just kept using it. Do you think an anonymous report to the EPA might be helpful? Probably really wouldn't do much good, unfortunately.
Do you have to keep all your windows shut to keep out the odors? That's disgusting.
Sometimes I wish I had gone to law school; I would go to work for one of the environmental groups and help sue manufacturers of pesticides. Making use of pesticides subject to prior notice to surrounding neighbors would be a good project as well.
Lo and behold, the coughing was cut down by 75% after I finally retired my 30 year old vacuum and bought one of those vacuums where you don't use a bag, but you actually see what you are vacuuming up. Good heavens, i could not believe all the cat hair and dust bunnies that thing picked up. And here I thought my old vacuum was a work horse, but nothing compared to that Shark I had bought [ok, I am beginning to sound like an info-commercial].
Anyway, if my sig other skips a week or two of vacuuming [he's the master of excuses], then that annoying cough comes back.
Now, if only I could find a cure for my panic attacks while driving. The past couple of days I have cut back on eating or drinking chocolate to see if that might be a trigger [I hope not].
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