's Story

[Guest guest]

We live in Conroe, Texas. We are about 40 miles North of Houston.

My family suffers from numerous illnesses. However, my oldest daughter is

sicker than anyone else in the family. I believe that we were and still are

being exposed to some horrid chemicals or toxins in our neighborhood.

Several neighbors have the same sorts of health

problems as we do. I couldn't understand what was happening and why my

family was getting sicker and sicker. Then, in 1996, my daughter became

pregnant. At 18 weeks gestation her baby was diagnosed with anencephaly.

If you are not familiar with this birth defect, it is where the babies

brains don't develop and the cranial vault is absent. It is a neural

tube defect, and has definately been associated with environmental

contamination. There is a high rate of this particular birth defect

in our community. I had no idea of this until it happened to my

Grandson.

My daughter has been to many doctors trying to find out what is wrong with

>her. Of course none of the Dr.'s are in agreement. Her most bothersome

>symptoms were as you said, severe headaches, chronic candida, chronic

>fatigue, and problems with memory and thinking straight and she is

>definately chemically sensitive. Any type of chemical or toxic odor

>causes her to sneeze, cough, her eyes water and she has trouble

>breathing. As an example: going into a grocery store really upsets her

>system. Especially if she gets near the detergent isle. She was finally

>referred to a Neuro-surgeon who did an MRI on her brain. They found that

>she has a pineal gland cyst. The Neuro-surgeon said that this was not

>serious, but it was also not the cause of her severe headaches. She has

>been prescribed many different medications but none of them helped her.

>I now have her taking Fever Few, as I have read this is very safe and

>helpful. Just recently she was diagnosed with uterine fibroid tumors.

>She is only nineteen years old, and from my view point too young to

>have so many health problems. She is now married and has a new baby. He

>is almost four months old. He has had thrush since he was about 3 weeks

>old. He has been prescribed nystatin (sp)? four times, but the thrush

>has not cleared up as of yet. He has also had an ear infection, and

>upper-respiratory infections all with in his short little life. He was

>referred to Texas Children's hospital by his Dr. for an immune system

>work-up. We don't have the results of this testing yet. They said that

>he probably got the thrush from being on antibiotics. However, he had

>the thrush way before he was but on antibiotics. He only had one

>prescription of antibiotics anyway. I also believe that his immune

>system is not working properly. It is very frustrating as I am sure that

>you know, to not be able to figure out what to do when my family's

>health is declining so much. I have read a great deal about all of this,

>and wish that I could afford to take my daughter to an alternative Dr.

>who could tell me exactly what to do to help her get healthy, but I

>can't afford to do this.

>If you have any advice that you would like to offer to a Mother and

>Grandmother who is at her wits end, it would be greatly appreciated. I

>just now found this website with your article, and haven't had a chance

>to read the other articles. But I am going to.

>Thank you for taking the time to read this. It is good to find people

>who understand, and have simular problems.

>sincerely,

>

>

I never knew much about environmental toxins before all of this happened

to my family. I never worried about where we lived, and had no idea that

we lived around anything toxic. However, I have learned that there are

some very serious dangers in our neighborhood. Within a 1-2 mile radius

of my home there is: A medical waste incinerator, three landfills, a

creosote superfund site, and another creosote plant, which has just

recently closed. I understand from experts that I have talked to that

these are all very dangerous. The creosote being #1, and the medical

waste incinerator being #2. We are just trying to protect ourselves

until we are able to move out of here. We have had water and air

monitoring done by the EPA and the State, but if you have ever worked

with either of these agencies you will know what I mean when I tell you

that they do not tell you the truth. It has all been a very long and

frustrating fight to try and find out what is wrong here. We didn't want

to have to move if there actually was no danger, but as we cannot afford

to have our own testing done, we will probably never know the answers.

But we know that from all the problems that we are having, along with

our neighbors health problems there has to be something going on. We

worked very hard to get our home paid for and had no desire to have to

uproot and move somewhere else. But it looks like we have no choice in

the matter anymore. The problem now becomes where do you move to? I

realize that there are environmental problems everywhere to a degree,

and I have been told that there is no guarantee that we will be able to

find a safer place to live. I am so tired of trying to figure all of

this out. The worry and stress will probably kill me before the toxins

do...

What kinds of health problems do you and your family have?