LONG VERSION
After suffering from migraines, digestive problems and some food and chemical sensitivities since I was 9 years old, at 45 I was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity and later in 2006 I was diagnosed with MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity), chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia followed. When I got the full blown of MCS my life went upside down, I couldn't function anymore as a "normal" human being, I had to isolate myself from the world and my life became a nightmare, I couldn't believe what was happening. I lost my ability to work, my income, I couldn't go to the movies anymore, to a restaurant, to visit my friends and family, they couldn't come to my home either if they don't follow a fragrance/chemical free protocol which is very difficult to adhered to when you live in a soup of chemicals like everybody else. I use to fly to Argentina where my mom and most of my family live once or twice a year, it's being 16 years now that I couldn't visit them! I mean the losses were immense. I was lucky that at the time of MCS I was already seeing a leader in functional medicine for my migraines, Dr Frank Lipman in NYC where I was living at that time, Frank said to me "you got MCS, and then "please don't let anybody tell you that is all in your head" "this is a real condition that most people even physicians don't know about it".... That was interesting I thought, why someone would suggest to me that I'm crazy? I was so naive.... I mean this was an important loss that I was going to start experiencing, the loss of my credibility and dignity, trying to justify myself to people that I love and other people that knew me for decades that I was really physical sick not crazy or obssesed, that was really hard for me to swallow. But I am strong willed person and repeat to myself many times everyday, no matter how hard the challenges were "I can, I can, I can (go thru them and I will)" After a year Rafael my husband, daughters and I moved to Florida so I could have a better air quality to breathe. It was difficult to make such a decision, it meant that Rafael would have to quit his job, the girls have to leave their friends and school and start everything new in Florida. So I remember saying to Rafael "we need to talk" so we sat and I said to him I can't live in Manhattan anymore, I can't breathe, I need to go near the ocean in order for me to get better, with you or without you this has to happen. Fortunately they came along with me to this new adventure. It was no easy, the market went down as soon as we moved, Rafael had to come back to New York to work at his former job for almost a year! Meanwhile my health was deterioriting, couldn't find any FM doctor or Enviromental Doc in Miami or near at that time, until I found doctor Albert Robbins in Deerfield Beach a couple of miles from my home.
.8 (and at the same time in the process I found out that inside myself was this strong and happy person that not matters what was going on, no matters the challenges I knew I was going to got thru them and make it)
