Hello,
I've never used a forum before, but this seemed worth doing a bit of learning for.

My partner was varnishing the floor for me in November 1999 as a birthday present. He'd bought a super duper varnish that you had to mix and use within a certain amount of time. Guess there were lots of chemical reactions going on.

He had the central heating on full, downstairs windows open, but upstairs was completely closed, every door, every window. To 3 bedrooms and the bathroom from a small landing.

When I came home from work I dashed upstairs and threw open all the doors and windows, holding my breath for as long as I could, but obviously not long enough.

Next afternoon at work, 18 hours later to be precise, my balance just completely and utterly disappeared for a few seconds. Freaked me out a bit. Got back to my desk and remember telling my colleague about it. Happened again an hour or so later as I was walking along the corridor. I'd been able to stop and hold on to the wall both times else I think I would have ended up on the floor. To this day my balance has never come back and I use a stick or trolley to walk.

To cut a long story short, I had what I called MI (Mystery Illness) for quite some time.

A privately done brain scan showed I had lesions. I was told by an NHS neurologist that there was an 80% chance this was Multiple Sclerosis. Nothing at all to do with chemicals of course!

When I eventually found Dr Downing he tested me for all the chemicals in the varnish my ex had used. At last someone was really making sense.

Lo and behold, I had over 5 times the amount of Xylene in my system as you would expect as a normal background level. And that was a very long time later.

My body was also having trouble dealing with my mercury fillings - I remember Dr Downing mumbling 'metal mickey' when he first looked in my mouth!

I've done alot to try to detox myself - organic foods and juices, and sprouting seeds, having my fillings all replaced. I even gave up smoking!!!!

According to the NHS at the time, there was no problem with Xylene - just a coincidence, nothing to do with my illness.

Dr Downing thought that my exposure to Xylene had triggered the process known as MS (Multiple Sclerosis). I agree with him entirely.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

My MS has lots of similarities to other people's that I know, but seems to have come on very differently. The most common way seems to be strange sensations over many years ending up as MS. Mine took a long time to diagnose as it had not followed the normal path.

All my detoxing, etc has slowed the progression of my disease, I am sure of this. But I think the damage has been done. It feels to me as if some delicate mechanism of the body which is used to constantly repair the myelin sheaths in my brain has been broken. The equivalent of a widget in a car meaning, say, the carburetta won't work. Just a teeny thing, but a big effect. In the same way as I can't regrow an arm if I lose it, I don't think I can regrow this little brain tool. Which is why I sometimes get annoyed with people who are of the opinion you can 'think yourself well' and the only reason people are ill is because they don't think the right way! Makes my blood boil. Funnily, it only seems to be healthy people who make such suggestions! But it's definitely true that a cheerful disposition can make dealing with hardships much easier!

Sorry, I've started ranting and raving so best stop now!!!!

Best wishes to you all and thanks for reading so far,

Mermaid