It seems that there are more and more people in my far flung network of friends and acquaintances who are coming to grips with chronic illness in their lives of. Part of this is probably because my peers are aging and what used to be a young person’s physical weakness has settled into a middle … Continue reading
I got the most wonderful letter from a fellow canary which inspired me to some soul searching and a heartfelt conversation between us. She has graciously agreed to let me share her initial message to me and my response to her. Hello and thank you for your wonderful website! I am a 39 year old … Continue reading
The viruses won the battle in our house the last few weeks and the kids and I went down. The germs will not be allowed to win the war but the blog has been silent while we struggled. We are nicely recovered now, just in time for extended family to come visiting. Fortunately, these are … Continue reading
12,000 Canaries Can’t Be Wrong by John Molot, M.D. Hardcover 272 pages. 2014. Toronto: ECW Press. Available from Amazon or ECW Press. Learn more about the author at http://www.johnmolot.com. Dr. John Molot is a Canadian physician with thirty years experience in clinical practice, expert opinion and medical advisory roles in environmental medicine. His recently published … Continue reading
I think the worst part of having this restrictive disability is feeling useless. I am lucky enough to have survived the other horrible parts like the phase where I thought I was going crazy, the stage where I believed doctors who labeled me with somatoform disorder, and the many times where I explained this illness … Continue reading
In looking back over my little blog that I started 15 months ago, I am reminded of quite a few victories. That’s not why I was looking over old posts; in fact, I cannot remember why I was reviewing it. It probably had something to with a big picture grand plan which I promptly forgot. … Continue reading
One of the most disturbing conversations I have ever had with a doctor was during my month at COEM (Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine). That was an overwhelming time for me, and I suspect many of my fellow patients can relate to that. After years of failing health and the medical profession failing me, … Continue reading
We pulled off another (ok, just our second) major road trip this summer. Using our pop up camper, some friends’ homes, and the occasional hotel, we toured the southeast for two weeks. We were largely successful, in that we all had fun, spent a lot of time outdoors, and I had few chemical reactions. We … Continue reading
I am changing doctors again which, for me at least, can be a stressful time filled with second guessing. (My autocorrect just changed that to streusel time and wouldn’t it be great if every stressful time was indeed streusel time? Especially if I could eat streusel?) I started working with Dr. Grace Ziem in 2009 … Continue reading
Well, that didn’t go as planned. By that, I mean our road trip and the home renovation. Imagine all the clichés ever written about God laughing when you make a plan and I agree. However, planning is a big part of my personality and a key survival skill for anyone with chemical sensitivities. So I … Continue reading
