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had just been sprayed with a herbicide by the city. Those two days and the fact that she was living in the city in a basement apartment which had a new carpet and a leaking gas stove, put her over the edge. She thought at the time she had a “bad case of full-blown Lyme’s Disease.” It was instead the beginning of her severe problems and the beginning of her attempts to change her life and still survive.
Survival means
avoidance
Ms. Rusche tries to avoid civilization. She travels and lives in her van which is equipped with an oxygen tank and stays on the back roads. Her clothing is simple and contains only natural fibers. Her food, soap, and surroundings are as “organic” and as non chemical as she can find. She’s not been able to find a tent which is not “treated” so in decent weather she sleeps under the stars. When it’s not so decent, she sleeps in the van with the side doors open to the air. As she travels, staying at a motel is out of the question.
She has friends, but can’t stay with them. Their houses with painted walls, foam cushions, synthetic curtains, treated carpets and cleaned with normal household cleaning products (like Pine Sol or ammonia) are not good for her. If she chooses to watch a movie at a friend’s home (which she does occasionally), she knows in advance that she’ll pay for it later. She’s not allergic to dust or animals, but her body is no longer able to “handle” most man-made materials.
Ms. Rusche experiences chronic fatigue and chronic pain all the time. “I feel like I have the flu and a low grade fever.” All the time. “Some days are better than other days.” On those good days she can hike Old Rag. On the bad days it’s a splitting headache, sharp knife-like liver pains, difficulty breathing, dizziness, “head rushes,” loss of coordination and overwhelming fatigue.
Grocery shopping, filling her van with gas, using the pay phone, even going into a post office are events which she will take precautions with but which will still take their toll later in the day or the next day.
Grocery shopping, unless
95.2%