Sequence of Noticing

First, a note –

A “sequence of noticing” does not mean “in what order I was affected” with environmental sensitivities, because I don’t actually know that. It can take different lengths of time and levels of exposures to do things to various parts of a human body.

And I could have been “affected” for a long or a short time before I noticed anything amiss.

Before I list my own “sequence”, I want everyone to understand these three basic points:

1. Variations exist and it’s scientific that they do. (The variety that is seen in both symptoms and sequences for environmental sensitivities can make some people doubt the validity of them. So it is an important principle to recognize that variations are OK to have.)
2. The basic pattern is —- a come-and-go of symptoms which appear or worsen with certain environmental exposures, and disappear or improve when the person has been in a better environment for a short time.
3. Any explanations and solutions should always fit with logic and common-sense. Understanding environmental sensitivities can be complex and needing more studying BUT the truths about it are based on logic that ordinary people can understand sufficiently.

Variations Exist!

I want to be clear in saying that, what my sequence is, is not the same for everyone else who suffers with environmental sensitivities (EMF MCS)!

We should be thinking of EMF MCS as environmental injury (from various specifics or combinations of factors within that environment) to individual bodies which have unique background histories of exposures.

Yes, for sure we will share similarities for some general aspects of EMF MCS but each person is an individual, with unique experiences and backgrounds.

Sensitivities can only be predicted to a certain extent and will NOT be exactly identical person-to-person. The variability of factors is too great for that. It’s somewhat like predicting the weather. (Weather is a science thing that has a lot of variability to it.)

People should accept that EMF MCS is not like some medical conditions which have more predictability to a specific sequence of symptoms.

Variability exists and it is accurate and scientific to accept that it does.

To read more about this point about variability, please go to this page: “Why Don’t I Know More Cases Like Yours?” (linked here hopefully soon when it gets posted) And to read more about why it is better to think of EMF MCS as an injury or “functional impairment”, you can go to this page link when that gets posted.

The Basic Pattern

The basic overall pattern is that symptoms come as a result of a person getting too much of something in the environment and go (or lessen) when the person is away from those exposures or has been away from it (for hours or days as a person heals from recent exposures).

I mentioned “lessen” for the sake of people who have had permanent damage and cannot recover fully-free from any results of those exposures. For example, my eyes get damaged from RF. They recover in the sense that the epithelial cells regrow, pain disappears, vision improves again. I’ve even come to the recovery stage of not needing eye drops for several months but instead, am able to handle the pain/ripping from ‘milder’ RF exposures without using eye drops most of the time. But I do need eyeglasses now to see normally. RF-EMF (wireless signals/microwave radiation) made a permanent impact on my eyes due to the level of exposures that I’ve experienced, and continue to experience, under further RF exposures.

The pattern of symptoms remains a “come and go” type of pattern, as a direct result of what one is exposed to in his/her environment. (It’s also true that, in time, too many exposures can cause too much weakness of a body that cannot recover because it’s been injured too much and is overwhelmed. I mention this in my post called, “It Can Be Long”, linked shortly here.)

Common-Sense and Logic

Any explanations and solutions should fit with logic and common-sense. Remember –

1. If something sounds weird and tends to question what we already known for years as laws of science, claiming to be “new ideas”, it likely will mislead people into trusting something that isn’t good. Be careful what/from whom you are learning from and don’t buy into foolish ideas even if they’re labelled “wise” or “scientific” or “expert knowledge”. Think – “Does this make sense?”

2. No piece of knowledge or “solution” ever needs to be found through a ‘sub-conscious state of relaxation’ where a person is vulnerable to suggestion because they’re trying to let go of their thoughts/thinking/emptying a mind. Common-sense teaches us to consider, think, reason with our minds whenever we try to learn about something! Keep your ‘thinking cap on’ unless you’re going to sleep! You can still think while you rest on breaks from working. It’s good to think and control your own mind!

So about environmental sensitivities…

When a people encounter something harmful in their environment, people get affected. But because people have individual factors, backgrounds, variability, “how” and “how much” they get affected in that same environment can certainly be different! It shouldn’t be anything other than logic and ‘common-sense’ to grasp the idea that people can get symptoms as a result of unnatural things in their environment. These are scientific principles we have known for years!

Let’s not lose sight of common-sense and using our observational and abilities to think on something as plainly as this is.

We don’t need to depend on ‘rocket science degrees’ to realize what is going on here. And we don’t need to add strange philosophies to it either.

A Lesson from Winnie-the-Pooh and the Other Characters…

We sometimes have watched “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”, a set of several good and funny stories that teach many lessons such as the value of everyone, even if their ideas are not always very valuable.

I like how they talk things through and emphasize simple truths that the characters learn in their adventures. They each have a different response on situations which reflect us people too –

A “bear of very-little brain” has great ideas and empathy to help others, a rabbit has to learn that he’s not always able to control what he’d like, a piglet can cheer others up but does need encouragement to be courageous, a donkey likes his own tail because he’s rather attached to it, and so on.

It’s fun for adults of any age, not just kids, to watch these traditional stories!

The reason I mention it here is because the kids were watching “A Day for Eeyore” portion when I was typing this page and I had to stop and watch it with them because it was so funny and remarkable!

These characters remind me, that there is just so much sense in noticing the very obvious!

Here is a link to watch a portion if you don’t have the whole movie yourself to pull out and enjoy…

Eeyore is stuck, upside-down in the river and his friends try to solve the problem to get him out.

Roo says, “He’s spinning ’round and ’round!”

Eeyore says, “If I decide to practice a slight movement from right to left or left to right, it’s nobody’s business but my own.” (And later, “I like turning – especially, ’round.”)

Piglet says, “What can we, I mean, how sh-sh-should we, d’you think if we?”

Eeyore replies, “One of those would be just the thing.”

Pooh says, “I’ve got an idea. But I don’t suppose it’s a good one.”

Eeyore replies, “I don’t suppose it is.”

Rabbit’s interest is perked – “Go on, Pooh. Let’s have it.”

Pooh explains, “Well, if we all threw stones into the river on one side, the stones would make waves, and the waves would wash him to the other side.”

It works although with a bit of pain because the plan wasn’t quite as perfect as they had hoped but Eeyore did get upright so he could get out.

Piglet exclaims, “Oh Eeyore, you’re all WET!”

Eeyore replies, “That happens when you’ve been in the river for a long time!”

My Sequence of Noticing

Environmental sensitivities (ES) is a term I sometimes use on my website. It includes both the emf sensitivities (to manmade electromagnetic frequencies such as cell phone radiation, electricity, etc.) as well as chemical sensitivities (e.g. to some synthetics).

I’ve lived longer with ES in comparison to the people who are just noticing they are sensitive in recent months or years. I’m one of the “earlier cases” who has not just survived two extremely severe periods of debilitating symptoms in my lifetime, but today, have recovered enough to manage life very well overall.

Here is my basic sequence of when I/we noticed that symptoms, indicating a real problem, were affecting my life:

1. Skin – some sensitivity to a few soaps/detergents in childhood

Skin is a “first barrier” of defense/protection for the rest of the body from the environment. If ‘something from the outside’ is affecting a body, we should expect that there is a good possibility that the skin would be affected. This is well-understood with chemical sensitivities but less-understood when it comes to wireless phone or cell tower sensitivities.

Interestingly, at least one research study years ago in Europe has looked at skin cells of both the people noticing a sensitivity to EMFs from computer monitors as well as people who did not notice. And the study showed there were actual skin changes in both kinds of people! I mention this study in my post about “SKIN” (linked here when it gets posted hopefully soon).

2. Other symptoms related to multi-chemical sensitivities began as a young adult…

I was able to tolerate various environmental hazards up to into my early 20’s. For example, I worked with some chemicals in science labs as a student. I had been fine being around ungrounded electricity and being near an electrical power plant where my dad had worked.

But then, as exposures to some environmental things increased in amount or had me spending more time in them, causing some harm, my tolerance changed to a sensitivity instead because my body was saying it was too much to tolerate.

Because we did not recognize the cause as being environmental, exposures continued, as did symptoms, and I became quite ill. I had to stop university studies for a time and live under my parents’ care while seeking answers to “why” and “what”.

Depending on the type of chemical and the amount of exposure, I could have different symptoms and different levels of reactions (mild-severe). These still included a ‘predictable pattern’ such as getting away from the area (e.g. into fresher air) and similar measures which resolved my reactions. (We just didn’t realize it at the time – we just thought that ‘whatever it was’, had run its course this time when I was doing better again.) Moreover, in some situations, I also believe that it has been only God Who has brought me through, in answer to prayers.* There were times when doctors and specialists either wouldn’t or couldn’t help as well.

When someone reacts to a chemical in their environment, most people think that means typical allergy symptoms with possibly a need for an epi-pen. But those might not be the symptoms nor the way a person is affected by the chemical. Chemicals aren’t limited to affect in just one path in the human body; it again depends on the specific situation such as types of chemicals, concentrations of, and how an individual gets affected. Symptoms might not resemble an allergy/immune system path of reaction. It could be another type of reaction going on instead. See my posts on “MCS” to learn more about multi-chemical sensitivities (a “library” page to those linked here when that gets posted hopefully shortly).

* Am extra note about the idea of God working supernaturally versus laws of science: To summarize the difference between natural laws of science and the supernatural, I appreciate this quote from Creation Ministries International – “…Physical [science] laws describe what happens apart from any outside force. When an apple falls from a tree, it falls to the ground unless something from outside the system intervenes. A person could reach out and catch it, for example, but this is not a violation of gravity. No laws were broken or disobeyed. Gravity is still operating on the apple even once it’s caught, but another force has overcome the gravitational attraction, which the law permits.” (end of quote) I/we believe that God can answer prayer or simply work His will, regardless of the hopelessness of a situation. He can allow things or He can intervene, whatever He chooses to do; He is not limited by anything other than staying true to His character.

3. Fatigue/Weakness – poor sleep quality

Fatigue is often one of the initial symptoms of any injury to the body; and it is a main component of most medical conditions. When something is going on that “isn’t normal” inside the body, that the body will take extra effort to try to correct the problem and get back to normal (e.g. homeostasis). This means that the body will be using extra nutrients and want extra rest to be able to do this sort of extra work.

Because there can be vast reasons for “why” someone is tired or exhausted, it can be difficult to narrow it down to a specific cause, especially if ordinary tests come back “normal”. It might take more than just the symptom of “fatigue” to figure out the cause.

However, if one knows about how certain things in an environment can affect a person, if their fatigue is environmentally-caused, they might be able to at least guess about a reason sooner just by doing simple trial-and-error and observation themselves while they wait on other ideas to be confirmed or eliminated.

With learning about electromagnetic fields and their impact from building biologists and engineers as well as hearing stories of various people, I understand that fatigue is a very common symptom, sometimes the first one to be noticed for environmental sensitivities (even though it wasn’t the first one noticed for me).

Electromagnetic fields coming from outside of the body are known to affect the body in various ways:

• Skin does not stop electricity; it conducts it instead, through the body. (See this short physics experiment.) The electrical current in the body moves along nerves in the nervous system. (BTW, the energy in the human nervous system do not run along ‘meridian lines’. The “energy” referred to by mind/body philosophies is a spiritual/magical, not a physical energy idea and has no physics or biology behind it. I write further about this at this post link.)
• Our sleep cycle is neurologically-controlled which means there are electrical signals in brain wave patterns. Electromagnetic frequencies such as household electricity can impact the sleep cycle brain wave pattern.
• Electromagnetic frequencies can impact the body’s natural production of melatonin too.
• (An extra note: “Brain fog” or poorer concentration can result from fatigue/poor quality sleep and/or from being in the actual environment of high levels of emfs. Fatigue is not always the cause of poor concentration/brain fog – “fog” can sometimes clear up when a person simply goes outside away from the electricity or as one reduces exposures to RF (wireless signals). Some people find being in offices (wireless or types of lightbulbs used) and/or places such as malls (wireless) more difficult to concentrate in but might feel better on the weekend or vacation away from it or just going outside.)

With some changes in where I lived (e.g. moving) and knowing some things to avoid exposures to, my health greatly improved overall. (This concluded the first period of environmental illness.) I graduated from on-campus studies, married, and had children.

4. Skin – to a cordless phone

I’d get temporary burns of the keypad imprinted on my face if I was using one for longer than just a quick phone call. Our kids thought it was funny. I phoned the companies that made the phones I was trying to use but there were no explanations. So we simply replaced the cordless with a corded phone (and added an extra-long cord because I was a young mom who preferred some convenience).

5. Fatigue and Muscle Spasms –

These symptoms would occur at times over the years if I was in places where there were electrical wiring errors; sometimes we knew there was something strange with the wiring and other times we didn’t learn it until later when trying to fix something. Ironically, for one really bad time of muscle spasms, my physiotherapist loaned me a TENS machine to relieve the pain (which helped), amid other remedies of walking outdoors and rest for weeks.

6. Occasional ‘Dry Eyes’, Poorer Digestion –

Caring for my family, including young children and my elderly parents, kept me busy often at home, where we enjoyed a more-natural, old-fashioned lifestyle and computer systems were wired. At first, the feeling of dry eyes was just occasional and easily addressed with typical drops, used especially if I had been out to the city or in a health facility. So I wasn’t concerned much about it.

The poorer digestion about a year later correlated directly when our community (including inside a church) added Wi-fi and I went out on weekends. It also matched a pattern of low-energy/fatigue that could not really be explained. I’d be “normal” by mid-week repeat it again on the weekend (because I’d go back out for shopping and church).

Eating probiotic yogurt made the digestive issue manageable. But we didn’t figure it out until later that it simply followed a pattern of RF exposures. (In other words, I didn’t actually need probiotics to manage a problem if I stayed away from strong RF but if I was out in strong RF, the probiotics again would help my food stay inside me long enough to be better-digested. Or I could also just wear a covering of “shielded fabric” which reflects a fair amount of RF away.)

Around these months and into the next point (#7) is where I put the start of my “second period” of environmental illness, (even though I know that ES remains life-long with times when it can wax or wane depending on how long and the kinds of levels of things an individual has to recover from at a time). And not everyone gets large chunks of time when it is really noticed versus when it isn’t as much a part of life because not everyone experiences sudden or as many of the types of changes I did.

For many people, EMF sensitivities seems to creep up on a person. For me, it was more sudden-like and vividly apparent to people to knew me.

If you have not yet read about the “bucket analogy”, please go to my post called “Management of the Bucket Part 1” for a good and easy-to-understand explanation.

7. Eyes – More Severe and More Frequent

Dry, burning, ripping, crumbing, corneal layers – we eventually learned that the RF radiation in 4G can impact eyes, more than 1G, 2G or even 3G has done for people. (I personally didn’t notice eye symptoms at all when communities were only under 1G or 2G.) See also my post about “EYES” (linked here when it gets posted hopefully soon).

Was it just a “sensation of dryness” or a “sensation of something/crumbs being in the eyes”? Sure, I sensed it so it’s a “sensation”. But it’s more than that. There was actually something in my eyes – crumbs, tiny or bigger (from burned/dead cornea epithelial cells)!

(My eye glands are working well to produce fluid but they simply can’t always naturally keep up with the demand from such injuries so eye drops help in the meantime. With the injury/inflammation of the burning/peeling going on, it takes a bit of time to rebalance the fluids in-between those cornea epithelial layers, thus they’re drier until they heal.)

I’ve had corneal bandages at times because there were too many layers (too deeply) burned/peeled off sometimes. I often saw my optometrist in those months of severity and he saw the damage.

The pain, etc. has a physiological cause – that if the cause repeats, the pain, etc. will also. This is just logical/”common-sense”. And again, like the basic pattern — fewer exposures means less damage, less pain, more sleep, and better vision.

8. Skin – especially to RF (but EF also has an influence)

A few weeks after the eyes became severe, we noticed the skin becoming an issue. We would eventually learn that the dry, burning, peeling, and slow-to-heal skin could come as a direct result of frequent RF exposures – being around microwave radiation such as being near cell phones, cell towers, under Wi-fi, etc.. But skin issues are otherwise good if I have no RF exposures.

(A secondary issue of dermatitis is also possible if there is broken skin from the peeling of the burns.)

My skin issues can be healed quicker if I’m away from all manmade EMF (including household electricity). Also, working or simply sitting for a while in natural sunlight helps my skin to heal faster.

(Nowadays, unless I’ve been in a high level of RF exposure, other people might or might not notice my redness/peeling compared to what people used to notice. I not only heal faster now but also, the burn tends to be a lighter red. It’s still burned, but thankfully less-so. It still results in broken skin. But it peels more in fine dust and itchiness the next day; this is contrasted to the larger flakes and redder skin that I had when strong and/or frequent wireless RF exposures.)

I’ve known of other people who feel the burning sensation when they’re working under strong Wi-fi (but not if there is no RF). They go to look in a mirror or take a photo of themselves and, their face IS red (burned)! It’s not just a sensation for people like this – there IS some skin damage going on.

9. Muscle, Sleep-related, and Other Odds and Ends

Sometimes sensitive people will get headaches or dizziness or leg pain in the pocket they carry their cell phone in or ringing in the ear if they use their cell phone on one side of the head regularly or other symptoms. Remember, environmental sensitivities can include a variety of possibilities depending on the individual.

Personally, I had a return to more of the same sleep-related issues, as well as a greater sensitivity to chemicals during that period of time, which were increasing in severity getting closer towards what I had experienced in the first period of environmental illness.

As that period of time continued and I worsened, I also added muscle weakness after strong RF exposures which made climbing or running less easy until I recover again and then I go back to doing those sorts of things like normal again.)

We were living in a home that had higher-than-average electrical fields, in the range that building biologists would consider severe to extreme levels. This was eventually discovered over a couple of years to be due to a stray voltage from grid and a household grounding system that had become nil. What we knew about and could, we fixed. But not everything was under our control (e.g. the power company decided their measurements were not enough to fix unless we had dairy cows, in which case, they might have fixed the barn but not the house, because humans are supposed to be OK at levels some cows are not).

In the meantime, we found much relief by sleeping outdoors in our backyard in the warmer weather. I also spent a lot of daytime hours outside, including having a few lawn chairs and a folding table in a greenhouse during the winter. (The sunshine made it very comfortable.) I also ended up going into town twice a month for a while, because it could take up to 2 weeks to recover each time I went out because I was severely affected in an area that was increasing its wireless by strengthening towers and more places getting wider coverage. I could no longer travel to some places. So I experienced a level of isolation (before covid times) in order to manage pain, strength/fatigue, and vision, but not because I wanted to be isolated.

My “bucket” was often full without much of an opportunity there to recover enough to tolerate more environmental harm.

Then –

We cannot change the past nor all circumstances. But we can make some choices which can be preventative and supportive, including considering hard choices of moving away from the familiar, if doing so can provide better opportunities for well-being, including to participate more in community with others.

We moved to a better environment so I’d have the possibility of recovering. Either the harmful environment has to change or the person has to make changes to get a better environment if he or she will truly recover well. (This is like leaving smog if smog is causing illness, of quitting smoking, etc..)

Overall, I am again, managing sensitivities well and doing well in general health.

The frequency of symptoms has decreased because my exposure levels have decreased. (That means I can participate in activities more again.)

The severity of most of the symptoms also is less-severe because I’m not often in as high of levels, and even when I am, it isn’t for long, and even then, I have more room in my “bucket” for short things like that, compared to having an almost full “bucket” with adding to it the same amount.

Recovery and healing from environmental sensitivities does NOT mean that you don’t get affected by the problem(s) again. It simply means you might be able to heal relatively well from the injuries as they occur.

Do I still get symptoms due to exposures?

‘Yes’, for RF exposures. Although, as mentioned above, it’s fewer and less-severe symptoms.

‘No’, for some electrical exposures. I still have some limitations for how much I can be around electricity but I’ve regained more tolerance for using electrical items compared to the limitations I had before. I still can notice a difference if I don’t spend as much time outside as I should. But I certainly don’t notice problems as much as I had.

Many people miss the beauty of God’s natural world and my situation causes me to need to be right in it often – what a blessing!

Can I go anywhere?

No. I will always live life in this kind of environmental issues in society with limitations. If I want to manage well, I have to choose where and how often to go out. That’s reality even if it’s bothersome.

Yet going out at least some of the time is something I still highly recommend, even if it is a fine-balance to say ‘yes’ sometimes, and ‘no’ for other times. We all need to have a social life being around other people and places, in order not to get too isolated/lonely trying to avoid the pain and frustration and in order to not miss opportunities to serve other people, not just look after ourselves.

True friends will make an effort to be considerate. Loving family will too. Be patient and seek relationships which are supportive.