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Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Rare Allergy Makes 41-year-old Stay Indoors

by Julia Samuel on Apr 10 2017 4:49 PM
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Highlights

  • Severe allergy to the surrounding environment leaves Ameilia Hill locked up in her house.
  • The allergy began when he was exposed to termite spray at the age of 15.
  • She sometimes experiences 24-hour non-stop loops of ’symptomatic mayhem’ that causes her immense physical pain, rashes, fatigue and can leave her unconscious.
Amelia Hill, nicknamed "woman in a bubble", lives as a prisoner in her own Adelaide home and is struggling to survive as she is allergic to everything.
The 41-year-old is forced to live in a single sealed, toxin-free room and sleep on the bathroom floor as she is allergic to almost everything in the outside world.

The former fashion designer worked with luxury brands but by the time she was 30, Ms Hill’s crippling hypersensitivity reached its peak and stopped her from realising her dreams as she was forced to accept she would never regain her health.

Severe Allergic Reactions

Hill says she suffers disabling ’allergic’ type reactions that can last from hours to weeks ever since she was exposed to termite spray when she was 15 years old.

Everyday items like televisions and telephones were added to Hill’s seemingly never-ending list of triggers and she was forced to lock herself away from the outside world in a chemical-free "bubble".

"Stripped bare of all potential triggers, my single room existence equalled a tiled floor and a small fold out bed. All my possessions went into storage. I spoke to people through a glass wall. Days were sent immobilised in a bed or chair. My Mum became my full-time carer," Hill wrote. She says she sometimes experiences 24-hour non-stop loops of ’symptomatic mayhem’ that causes her immense physical pain, rashes, fatigue and can leave her unconscious. Something as simple as the waft of a cleaning agent can send her into a dizzying symptom relapse, which she says closes her windpipes and almost kills her.

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Hill spent years without a concrete diagnosis and suffered her inexplicable symptoms alone while doctors labelled her a hypochondriac.

She was finally diagnosed at the age of 33 with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Electrohypersensitivity.

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Her diet is restricted to a small number of bland foods and she has been forced to sleep on the floor of her bathroom for the last year.

Everyday items like televisions and telephones were added to Ms Hill’s "seemingly never-ending" list of triggers and she was forced to lock herself away from the outside world in a chemical-free "bubble".

The 41-year-old’s diet is restricted to a small number of bland foods and she has been forced to sleep on the floor of her bathroom for the last year.

She cannot be exposed to outside chemicals - including fragrances, paint, ink, dust or mould – and has been left to live a "stark, austere existence".

But despite her health challenges, Hill has taken solace in detailing her journey on a blog and even managed to write a book.



Source-Medindia


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