In about six months it will be the springtime after my 42^nd birthday.    At this time I will have lived with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) for half of my life.  This will mark a time that I have long since hoped would see the end of MCS.  MCS may still be a element of my life but, thankfully, today it is a largely a manageable component.  MCS has not gone away but it’s effects are not felt on a daily basis as they once were.  I have not only found how to avoid many triggers, I have healed my body enough that many small triggers are no longer a problem.  Nine times out of ten I now feel that I control MCS, not the other way around.

 

I have not had a drink or a cigarette in almost eighteen years.  I have developed a sense of the spiritual.  I have overcome social anxiety and largely feel comfortable and happy in my interactions with other people.  Many of the demons that drove me the brink of death and into the arms of MCS have been put to bed.

 

On the whole life is pretty good.  I have become accustomed to spending prolonged periods without any MCS reactions.  Of course I keep an eye on my surroundings and take precautions that have become largely habitual.  As long as I remain mindful of my circumstances things go pretty well most of the time.  This is a life that I could have only dreamed of ten years before. 

 

The vast majority of days I wake up and look forward to what the day will bring.  I know that I can create an experience that is happy and good.  Things are not always great but I wouldn’t trade what I have to day and where I expect to be going for anything in the world. 

 

To make a long story short, I am not fully recovered but I’m farther down the road then I would have thought possible at times.  I have more to go and I have faith that I will get there, hope for the future is a luxury I did not have for many years. 

 

For all that I now have I am very thankful.