10 year update: Still Healing! Yay!! Life Is SO Different Now.

I've recently been getting emails from readers who have found this blog and it made me realise that it's been years since I've posted!  Maybe I'll update a bit for those who find this blog and wonder if my improvements have held.
I'm a nutshell: yes. They have. And they've continued beyond my wildest hopes.

Wow. 5 years!!!

Life has been progressing and my continued healing has opened the world up to me again.
It's amazing, and what's more amazing is that this is now the norm.

I ride the bus, crowded in amongst people wearing scented products, drive with friends in their new cars, go to regular appointments and events, get togethers and parties, concerts, movies, swimming in chlorinated pools, rollerskating in rented skates that have been sprayed with air freshener, go for medical procedures including IVs, meds, medical tape, medications, etc, go to a ten-day music festival in the woods with 1500 people (many covered in bug repellent and sunscreen, much smoking around me, though thankfully there was a rule of no smoking on the dancefloors )...

... I can read brand new books, magazines, and newspapers, and use many art supplies including acrylic paint and pencil crayons (I used to be unable to be in the room with a single one due to reacting to terpenes from the wood).
I'm able to use some select mild amounts of essential oils. I can be around coffee, orange peel, fresh cut mint, vinegar, and more.

Some of those things, with long enough or intense enough exposure, still cause reactions but the symptoms are generally mild and I recover quickly.
They rarely interfere.

The are still things (eg solvents, chlorine bleach, nail polish, ammonia) that would cause more severe reactions but my experience with those has changed as well. Things that previously could have been life-threatening and landed me in the hospital or ill in bed for weeks, might instead cause mild coughing for a few days, or a tight chest and difficulty thinking clearly until I get to fresh air. I avoid these things when possible but am calm when I'm exposed.

Spending time with people who are covered in scented laundry or personal care products, or in spaces with lit incense/scented candles or air freshener are still things that I avoid when I can, and often get headaches or migraines if I do choose to expose myself, but this does not amount to a life changing limitation.
I rarely wear a mask. I can't recall the last time I did. Perhaps it was on a many hours long road trip in a car that had strong gasoline fumes inside it.
Or if I was painting an entire wall in my apartment.
The poor masks are lonely in their box and I bet the local safety supply store misses my business.  ;-)

Well, that's all for now.
Wishing you all well.

**For those asking if I used a specific protocol to heal, no. But in the upper ride hand sidebar of the blog, there is a list of links to things that were important components of my own healing journey.
We are all individuals. Maybe some of those may benefit you, maybe you'll discover your own approach! Listen to your intuition and inner wisdom. That is what guided me to my path. It can be really hard to listen when fear and suffering are almost all we know. It's okay to start with very tiny baby steps. That's what I did.

💗💙💗