Jasmine wrote: << If you're sensitive to fragrances/chemicals, I have good and
bad news to
share.  The good news is this month's Self Magazine has a two page article
on it - I'm mentioned on page 55.  The bad news is there are perfume
samples/ads in that very same issue, so if you have sensitivities don't
bother. >>

I thought most magazines could be ordered 'unscented' or without the magazine
inserts.  I will have to look for the article next time I'm at a store that
sells them.  I am also allergic to certain perfumes, including a very expensive
one my husband once bought me (can't recall the name).  It was the same one his
dad used to get for his mom.  I am not sure if I am allergic to others but
don't bother wearing them in case others around me are sensitive.  (Our eldest
daughter is asthmatic and when she was 3 yrs. old she had an anaphalactic
reaction (her throat closed up) after sniffing perfumed soap.  (She had a
similar reaction after eating fresh almond ice cream; she either faints or
comes close to doing so after eating peanut butter).   She is also allergic to
dogs and cats.  Despite that, she does quite well--and manages them as
discretely as possible.  In other words, she just asks if there are nuts in
whatever chocolate (one of her  many food 'addictions') she is consuming and
leaves it at that.  Most have no clue of the severity of her allergies.  We
never made a big deal about it and neither does she.  Of course she does carry
an Epipen on her at all times but hasn't needed that since she was younger.
She is lucky to be one of the rare few whose severe asthma has improved to the
degree it has.  I am guessiing her insatiable activty level has helped--often
dances 2 to 3 hours/day of aerobic style-dancing.
The one year she lived in Texas--between college and med. school she
volunteered for an experimental treatment for allergies.  Of course the only
thing she wasn't allergic to was the tree, native to Texas, that they tested
her for.  She had such a severe reaction to the controls they tested her for
that they had to give her extra Benadryl and keep her there for several hours.
Although she wasn't allergic to what she needed to be in the study (for which
she would have been paid), I am sure that once they injected her that if they
were to do it again, she probably would have tested positive for it.
She does best in new environments.  However, after about a year she develops
sensitivities to their native plants and would fare best if she moved on.  It's
funny, though, how she has the wanderlust spirit in her--to the 'nth' degree.
When she was 4 she asked if we could move to another state because it was so
boring living in the same place.
She is now in her 3rd year of medical school on the East Coast and also
co-captain and one of the choreographers of a professional dance troupe.  She
has been to many countries--including the Gambia where she had a co-existence
fellowship to study African dance (when she was 20).  I must say they prepare
Peace  Corps volunteers better than she was for going off to a 3rd world
country.   Then 2 years later she went to Ecuador to do DNA research on an
obscure bacteria in their water--where she organized a hike (for fellow
students from her Spanish immersion class) to a volcano.  I later learned she
separated from the group--and almost got lost--but when they were almost back
in the city they were robbed at gunpoint, tied up, made to lie in a ditch, and
pepper sprayed.  She figured out how to be tied less tightly (psyched the
robber out) and sprayed only once by coughing extra hard during the initial
pepper spray.  She recovered quickly and wasn't at all phased by it.  However,
her backpack with her inhaler was stolen.  We had to send it overnight
delivery--hoping it would get to her and because her credit card was stolen (an
ATM bank card--which I warned her never to get for that reason).  We were able
to cancel that and sent her a minimal amount through Western Union every few
days.  We (my husband and I got a few gray hairs).
Excuse the off-topic bragging, but it does my spirit good to occasionally share
some off-topic, good news and helps me forget about b.c. for the moment.
Interestingly, she is not at all interested in a specialty at the moment such
as allergy--is thinking of going into family practice (so she can work with the
'whole' person and all ages) and applying to a 3rd world country to volunteer
her services for a year...
If anything, she knows how to think and reason and of course having me for a
mom--am her most difficult 'patient' from an intellectual and medical
perspective...