A 41-year-old woman has lived in virtually one room for more than six years, as she is allergic to almost everything in the outside world.
Amelia Hill from Adelaide has been dubbed ‘the woman in a bubble’ as she is forced to live in a sealed, toxic free home and sleep on the bathroom floor.
The blogger says she suffers from ‘allergic’ type reactions after she was exposed to termite spray aged 15.
Fragrances, fabrics, furnishings, food, cleaning products, dust, even electrical appliances like computers, TV and WiFi technology, as well as much more, can all be a trigger.
‘The list of triggers can be vast, perplexing and seemingly never-ending,’ Amelia wrote on her blog. ‘Minimal exposure to some or all of these items can make someone horribly, horribly ill with disabling and sometimes life-threatening ‘allergic’ type reactions lasting hours, weeks… sometimes a 24 hour non-stop loop of symptomatic mayhem.’
She was finally diagnosed at the age of 33 with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Electrohypersensitivity.
‘Day after day, month after month, year after year, I remain separated from all of the wonderful and fantastical things that make life amazing,’ she wrote. ‘My beloved family and friends, my greatest passions, my most treasured possessions, long hugs, delicious food, milestone moments, the blue skies above my head, the most awesome dreams I ever dreamed for my future… the ENTIRE world.’
Her mum became her full time carer and she was forced to speak to people through a glass wall.
‘My surrounds looked very different from the amazing life plan I had envisioned for myself,’ she wrote. ‘I could no longer walk down the street. I couldn’t visit the doctor, dentist or even a hospital. I couldn’t go to the shops, visit a friend or go to any public place. I couldn’t read a new book, magazine or be around almost any newly manufactured item or regular everyday objects, furnishings, clothing or bedding. Considered necessities like a computer, TV, telephone or heater render me make me sick. I survive on a handful of foods on a mono-rotation diet.
‘It’s been a stark, austere existence.’
A friend has now set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay for Amelia’s ongoing medical expenses.
‘Her situation is so dire that she’s regularly forced to choose between food and medical expenses,’ she wrote. ‘She can no longer hold her body upright, and her respiratory muscles are so weak, making it very difficult for her to breathe 24/7. No one is sure why she has deteriorated so dramatically.’
Another friend, Zoe Watson, added: ‘In all of this Amelia is not a victim. She spends every moment being positive and trying to give back to others. She refuses to give up. Her strength and resilience are astounding.’
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