Just Like Seasonal Allergies

This person I know, who shall remain nameless, said something rather shocking to me the other day. So shocking that I think my jaw hung open in a most unflattering way.

Before I get to what this person said, let me say that this is not a friend, but an acquaintance. A person with whom I have discussed my chemical sensitivity problems over the last several years. We have talked, make that I have talked, about my physical reactions when I go to Target, the grocery store, his office, a friend’s house. How the last movie I saw in the theater was Gone With the Wind… just kidding! I’ve talked about my very difficult situation of employment. I cannot work in a conventional office as I used to. And working from home is challenging to say the least.

I have described my physical reactions of headache, dizziness, fatigue, exhaustion when I am exposed to these common places. And how sometimes, I don’t “smell” a thing and still may get a migraine.

That should all be pretty darn clear, right? So, we’re talking the other day about my Web Design work that I do from home and how slowwww it is right now.

Okay, here it is. He says, “I was talking to to this woman who has allergies and works in an office. And I asked her what she thought about someone not being able to work (in an office environment) because of allergies, and she said she can do it. She just takes some medicine when she gets home.”

(Insert blank stare and the sound of crickets here)

Really? She has seasonal hay fever and sniffles and you are implying that there is some similarity in our conditions? She pops some Benadryl and everything is fine, so why don’t I try that? During certain months of the year she sneezes and splatters her computer screen. While all year long I get tachycardia and migraines followed by two days of complete exhaustion if I go buy sneakers at JCPenney.

That’s like a person with a pulled muscle berating the person with the broken leg for not finishing the race.

No matter what, some people don’t get it!