Terri Gray
Message 1 of 1
In 1989 I was employed by a company who sewed a material called "Woven Polyprophaline" into huge cargo bag's.I was in direct contact with the material because I kept the sewer's supplied with it. Within a week or so after beginning work there, upon entering the breakroom 15 minute's prior to my shift beginning I started getting these little tiny whelp's on the back side of my wrist's, I ignored them thinking it was ant's or flea's but I could never find any. I'd go home and they would dissapear and be gone when I awoke the next morning (I worked the 3rd shift). I'd go back to work and wait for my shift to begin again, and I got the whelp's again and again except they got bigger and protruded out further to about 1/8th of an inch and itched like the devil. The next symtom was my hand's swelling,itching and aching really bad.(My boss lady had me rub cordizone cream on my hand's and it helped relieve the aching and itching at first.)A week or so later I started getting hot flashes and feeling real flustered, short winded, and just flat tired after only being at work about an hour. And my whelp's wern't going away at night anymore either.They sent me to their doctor because of the internal and external whelping on my hand and forearm's. He told me to just quit and I told him that I had a 5 year daughter to feed & I was a single mom and that I couldn't "JUST QUIT" I needed my job to bad.(Beside's after being there a little more than 1 month I was being trained for lead person, and if I could have stayed there I would have made it to a Boss with a Salary, I felt like me and my baby girl had a future for the first time and I did it on my own by bustin my butt and not waiting around to be told what to do, so I just couldn't throw our future out the window.)So I told him to just give me somethin to fix it and make it go away...LITTLE DID I KNOW.If I'd known now what I didn't know then he wouldn't have had to tell me to just QUIT,I wouldn't have even went back for the second day of the job. Needless to say I was there only 2 month's and it nearly killed me. By about the 6th week I was running on fume's trying to work & they noticed my decline because I would catch the two main people there lookin at me and talking with there hand's over there mouth like they were in a serious discussion.I was leaning over a pile of bag's to be sewen catching my breath and trying to figure out what the heck was going on with me the first time I saw them discussing me,I tried so hard to do my job but it just got harder and harder, and the simptom's just kept getting worse and worse. By then my joint's were aching in my knee's, and I thought in my rush I had just bumped it on a machine and paid it no mind, until the ache went into the other knee, it felt like someone wacked it with a hammer or something. Anyway's by the 7th week I wanted to quit, just not ever go back in there anymore for I knew there was something terrible wrong going on inside my whole body,and none of it went away when I went home, but my father said you can't "quit" you have to let them fire you because if this lead's to expensive and long term medical bill's they'll be responsible for them because it's job related otherwise you are if you quit. So I made it one more week and they "FINALLY TERMINATED" me. I left in tear's relieved that I didn't ever have to step foot in that building ever again,and because all the dream's for me and my baby girl went right out the door with me...and worse than that by then I wasn't half the person I was when I first walked in that building,and unknown to me at the time I would never be the same again.For what followed after that was 4 year's of nothing but aganizing pain, huge internal and external whelping. The internal one's felt like a hammer had been taken to what area was afflicted-usually in a joint.(Usually hand's and feet.)They ached and itched so bad it was almost intolerable,the bottom's of my feet felt like they were a solid stone bruise. I couldn't go barefooted anymore and had to walk real easy because even the slightest pebble or anything unlevel would cause more internal whelps on the bottom's of my feet. And before it was over it didn't matter what I did because all I had to do is sit down, and even the elastic on my underware left welp's on me, if I leaned back in a chair I got a whelp all the way across my back where the back of the chair was. I leaned over the hood of my car watchin my father changing a water pump for me and I got whelp's on my elbow's and all the way across my stomach where I was leaning on the front of the car.I couldn't even go to the mailbox (app. 40 ft.) with out resting because I was so out of breath and just basically worthless. I was 28 at the time and I honestly felt 100, every joint in my body hurt. I no sooner got over one chest cold and here'd come another one. I told my mother one day "If this is how I'm gonna be the rest of my life then I don't wanna live." and I meant it. I was not only miserable every second of the day, but I was absolutely worthless, beatdown by this thing whatever it was inside of me and it was continuing to win every day. And I know in my heart that if they hadn't of sent me to this one doctor when they did I'd have died, because there was nothing much more to take from me but my life and there wasn't much of that left. Anyway's then came this miracle of a doctor, and after being sent to numerious doctor's and trying countless drug's he came up with the "PERFECT COMBINATION" for me.It was 3 prescription's : (1)."Sinequan" which is a Tricyclic Antidepressant) (2.)"Colchicine"-Which is used to treat Gout...eg: Gouty Arthritis (3.) "Dapsone"-Which is a anti-inflamatory. Anyway's he is truly a miracle worker as far as I'm concerned. The medication's started working imediately,I don't remember how long it was till my next visit with him was, but the next time I went to see him I thought I had another lease on life for I walked in with a smile and a whole new out look on what my imediate future might be. And when he saw me his face lit up because of the improvement. (For a person contemplating suicide, this was a major step for me.)I told him "You did it you found the perfect combo for me." Anyway's to make this shorter. I stayed on those same medicine's for 3 year's or so until my medical ran out. I am doing fine with out them now. **I am nowhere near the person I was when I walked in that plant...I still don't have not very much stamina, but that sure beat's the 100 year old stamnia that I did have. **I only get minimal internal whelping on my hand's and feet, it just depend's on what I do. I can go barefooted now though, it has just become second nature to watch how I place my feet on the ground and what I place them on. So being as it is second nature for me to do that I have minimal internal whelping on my feet.And it's the same with my hand's I just watch what I do and try and not do anything redundant or with much force with them. (Considering I used to have major internal swelling and irritation with my hand's just from the vibration of my steering wheel what I have now is nothing.)** One thing that does bug me is if I get anxious or upset about something sometime's I'll get those tiny fleabite looking bump's on my face and neck. So I figured this has also permanently affected my nerovous system too. But I can live with all of this and do it happily, sound's like a compromise I know, but considering where I have been with what ever this is called I think I'm still a winner thank's to that one Doctor who I think literally saved my life. ****Anyway's the whole reason I am writing this is because I stumbled upon your website concerning "Anaphylactic Shock" and I'm thinking that sound's like what was wrong with me. I was never really diagnosed to my satisfaction and alway's thought it should be something more than that which was "Acute Dermatitis" or something like that. They told me it amounted to what was called "A Total Body Inflamation".That part I agree upon, but the dermatitis part sound's a little vague to me. Anyway's please tell me if this (Anaphylactic Shock) is what I had, you should be able to tell from all of the symption's that I've given you weather it was or not, and if this is not what I have can you please tell me what you might think it is or at least steer me in the right direction? **Thank You Very Much** Odie **P.S. A word of wisdom from someone who found out the hard way. .....I'm not claiming to be a Doctor or anything, but this is my 11th year of living with me the way I am now, which is not to bad considering how it was and could have stayed, but I know now that what I thought were those tiny ant and flea bite's actually was my body's early warning system letting me know that something in my environment was clashing with my immune system and if I'd known that then I would have never went back there ever again, in fact they would have had to mail me my check.I hope that someone reading this may be helped in some way and perhap's be prevented from doing the same thing that I did. I was the strong invincible one...so I thought, but once them little toxin's get into one's bloodstream and start doing there thing it's just a matter of time before one see's just how fragile he or she is.I didn't know I was wrecking havic on myself by staying and trying to continue to work until it was to late, I was lucky because they terminated me finally before I stayed another week or so if I'd been able, and probably would have done irreversable damage to myself, if not death. And ya know what ain't no job or no amount of money worth what I had to go through, because of my own stupidity. Just remember nobody's invincible no matter how young you are, so take heed to the early warning mechinism that your body is built with.