The Mono

Today I got a formal diagnosis of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity to ethers.

I first got injured in 2000. Kaiser had no idea what to do with me. I saw Dr. Halpern for a while, and while she ordered copious tests (which all came out normal), she apparently did dick shit for documentation. When I saw Dr. Kaplan in 2005, I was only looking for a CFS diagnosis, and that's what I got.

Dr. Brown was quite mellow about it today, admitting that since there are no tests, it defaults to empirical data -- but after nearly nine years of such data, with much work having gone into pinpointing the source of the problem, he had no issue with writing a note on a prescription pad to the effect that I'm hypersensitive to certain cleaning products containing ether. He also promised to pass along a full dictation to my physician to back it up.

Let's see whether this opens any further doors for me.

Scratch Lenscrafters off my list. I've been going there for glasses and eye exams ever since I dropped Kaiser at the start of the decade, and haven't had any trouble. I walked in there today to discover that they cleaned the place with something containing ethers. Beautiful.

I hung around long enough to tell a counter clerk I had to cancel (I was debating walking out and calling instead, but I was right there, and surely I'd get to talk to someone any minute now...) I told her I couldn't tolerate whatever it is they clean with, and I'd have to cancel. She asks me, "Would you like to reschedule?" Uh...

I repeated what I had said, that I can't tolerate the store at all, and left. I had lost enough brain cells without spending more time trying to figure out how to respond to brainless (or simply reflex) questions.

I spent twenty minutes standing around at Costco to find out that I can't get an appointment there until tomorrow at the earliest. Yay for bringing my book, boo for my poor feet.

I'll try Costco tomorrow. If I strike out there, I'll try Penney's. I need new contact lenses by the end of the week, and to do that I have to get a prescription. (Why? Why do you have to get a doctor's prescription to obtain something that can, at its worst, give you eyestrain and a headache? WTF?) I'm just so tired of this whole song and dance sometimes. Why couldn't I have gotten sensitized to something less common?