The Ice Storm

I know this ice storm in New England was potentially lethal for everyone, but the past few days were harrowing for me. I turned 40 on Wednesday, and on Thursday night the power went out – and stayed out for almost 48 hours. The temperature was around 15 degrees Fahrenheit or less at night and for much of the day, and my life turned into a Jon Krakauer novel very quickly. With multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) everything is inaccessible (so if you’re an EMT, firefighter, hospital worker, M.D., nurse, or shelter worker, think about this). Calling 911 is generally out of the question, emergency rooms are full of toxic cleaning chemicals and scented people, and the carbon monoxide from generators or the toxins from wood smoke can be particularly dangerous or lethal (and hotels: forget about it). Because I was weak and sick going into the outage, I was suddenly like that guy in Into the Wild – picture the end of the movie version of the book – who has eaten the poisonous seeds by accident and thus orbiting around this tiny space, trying to stay warm, totally screwed. Fortunately, the power is back on, and I made it out alive. I might post more of the story at some point, but right now I’m just waiting to hear from some other sick friends who are in other parts of Western Mass. and don’t have power and/or power and phones. I just want to remind everyone to think about vulnerable neighbors this Winter, and don’t assume people don’t need more help. The kindness, action, and advocacy of both friends and strangers got me through the past couple of days (and I can't thank them enough), but it was pretty hairy for awhile, and I know how easily people’s needs can be forgotten when the world assumes that everyone can get to a shelter, hospital, or friend’s house. This video was shot some distance from where I live, but it depicts pretty much what the scene looked like here (I can’t find much footage on YouTube from W. Mass., probably because people are just getting their power restored). Beautiful, awe-inspiring, and scary:



Lots of trees and tree branches were blocking the roads in W. Mass.:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Aloha Peggy, I hope this finds you doing better now after the storm. Just wanted to let you know that I spent some time on your blog today and then featured you on mine. Also added you to our blogroll. You had me with the great writing on MCS, but then the quoting of Gertrude Stein was the clincher. I'm a fan! You are welcome to come join the flock at The Canary Report sometime. And I look forward to following your posts here. Be well. Aloha, Susie
6:14 PM
greenwords said…
That sounds like a truly diabolical experience. I'm so glad you had some help in the end. (What a way to celebrate your 40th birthday...)
8:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
The best offense is a good offense: what we need to learn from AIDS According to the CFS Untied blog , the CFIDS Association of America just proudly touted an “advocacy” style for ME/CFS that consists of “using one’s inside voice”: The president of the CFIDS Association of America said that she heard the announcer on National Public Radio state that "we use our inside voices to bring you the news." She likened that to the "inside voice" of the CAA as they pursue their activities of stimulating research, reporting on the success of their grantees, and sharing information about upcoming events and important publications. A quarter of a decade into the crippling epidemic of ME/CFS, we have yet to learn what AIDS activists taught us about inside voices or, more generally, about interiority from the perspective of men who had come out of the closet only to be faced with social ostracism and Kaposi’s sarcoma. Those activists didn’t use inside voices unless the
Read more
Image
Fly Away to XAND -ado, or Where Is Elaine DeFreitas ? The discovery of antibodies to the retrovirus XMRV in the blood of 95 percent of ME/ CFS patients has led to an air of celebration best expressed by these 20+ year ME/ CFS patients who partied with funny hats that read "I heart retrovirii ." It has also led to a new name for the illness: XAND or X-associated neuroimmune disease. But two questions are on everyone's minds: how do we keep the momentum going when the patient community is so frail, and where is Elaine DeFreitas ? First, let me talk about XAND and why it's so exciting . Retroviruses are rare in the general population, whereas most other viruses found in ME/ CFS patients are ubiquitous. Most viruses discovered in ME/CFS patients have been common or fairly common herpesviruses such as CMV , Epstein Barr, HHV -6. A finding of a retrovirus in 95 percent of a patient group argues very strongly for causality. This is why our ME/ CFS luminar
Read more
Image
Dear Friends, As some of you know, my health has worsened substantially over the past five years since I acquired a chronic bartonella infection that caused serious cardiac issues, and since I contracted chronic neurological Lyme on top of my already-severe case of ME/CFS and MCS. Just as things were starting to improve on proper meds for bartonella and Lyme, the worst Ice Storm in 30 years hit Massachusetts. Without power, I lost my heating system, well pump, lights, stairlift, and was thrown into a catastrophic state of emergency. I ended up in the hospital for 4 1/2 days. Hospital stays can be lethal for people with chemical sensitivities and ME/CFS. As ME writer Jodi Bassett states, "It is very common for severely affected patients to spend 2 months, 6 months, 12 months or even YEARS or longer recovering from a hospital trip. For example, some patients have not regained their previous very low-level of health 2 or 4 years after a trip to hospital. Some never do recover, a
Read more