Posted by NickD, (209.83.94.79) on March 28, 2000 at 09:37:39:
I argued with several of my neurologist that I don’t have clusters, they just don’t come out of nowhere, last for several weeks and then disappear for years, and the best cure I found for my condition is fresh air. But you can’t argue with a neurologist, right? I was told that I have clusters and that word is used zillion times in my medical records. I did some web searching under the exact phrase “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity”, and came up with over a thousand sites on this subject. Ironically one of the symptoms is inflamed nasal passages resulting in a severe headache, sound familiar. MCS as it is called, can be a low level long term exposure or something drastic, in my case, I was involved in a chemical accident ( I love that word accident, a bunch of idiots were fooling with highly toxic chemicals and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) that knocked me out for a week, all of my sinuses and passages were swollen to over twice their size, I looked like an alien from outer space. Ever since that day, I experienced odor related headaches, never had that problem before.
Anyway, many states are now recognizing MCS as a disability, there are support groups, and from what little I have read, the treatment is the same as CH, in others words, not very hopeful except staying away from chemicals. If you feel this is you, take a look at
http://www1.shore.net/~dmoisan/disability/mcs.html
but there are other sites, maybe you can e-mail me and we can work together on this, another thing I learned is that the headache lasts as long as the exposure, it was nice to read that my four day and night event of constant severe pain with a nose so badly swollen and that terrible spike like pain in the eye was finally in print somewhere.
I didn’t think I had the traditional clusters even though the symptoms of MCS are identical in many aspects. I said that I would never post here again, but this post is directed to the friends that I have made and have symptoms similar to mine, in particular, the “triggers” and the super long terrible headaches that don’t go away in 45 minutes and 32 seconds, maybe we can find a less hostile home and support each other in a compassionate manner.