My Reaction to Insecticides, Pesticides, and Herbicides

The other day I was in the house when I heard a plane. It was flying low, I could tell by the sound of the engine. I live in a rural area where there is a lot of crop dusting.

Crop dusting is done by small planes, they're actually called "crop dusters." The duster flies over the farmers’ fields coming in at close range then quickly goes up at the end of the field, just to circle back and do it all again. It's like doing giant loops in the sky from one end of the field to the other.

Depending on the time of year they could be dusting anything! I don't have a problem when it’s seeds or fertilizers, but I personally really do have a problem when it's insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides.

Exposure to chemicals

My ex-husband went to college for agronomy. Although he never did crop dusting, he got his license to use these chemicals on fields, which he did for at least the first 10 years we were married. Now mind you, I was having symptoms of MG long before I ever met him!

While farmers spray insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides regularly in the fields, they aren't the only ones that spray these chemicals. Some people use them on a regular basis and don't even realize it.

My reaction

For example, my symptoms were acting up. I was out doing some yard work. Where I live, poison ivy is everywhere, so we kind of have to keep it knocked back. Unfortunately, chemicals are about all I can used to keep it that way.

I had spent about 2 hours walking around the trees in the yard spraying a chemical that would kill poison ivy. This isn't a special chemical, it's one that any homeowner can buy for weeds of any sort.

I was physically worn out, after all our yard is about 3 acres. For anyone who can't picture 3 acres, that's like 3 football fields put together. Over the next several weeks my symptoms were getting worse to the point I couldn't do anything. This really surprised me.

Symptoms flaring quickly

After I had pretty much recovered, I called the exterminator because spiders were so bad that year! I wouldn't have guessed that the very next day after he was here, I was right back to not being able to do anything.

This spring wasps were everywhere around my house. So yep, you got it, I got out the wasp spray. This time though my symptoms reacted in less an hour! Yeah, that was my mistake, I should have known this would happen after the exterminator!

The same response

I am a type 2 diabetic and became insulin dependent the last year because of prednisone. I really don't like diet soda, but couple times a year I do find myself wanting one.

For me, I discovered that I react the same way to the artificial sweeteners in soda as I do to pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides! I experience a flare of symptoms every time I have any. This has been going on the whole time, without me knowing it.