A Different Kind of Race
2.13.2012
They called me the Canary.
They called me the “chemical sensitive girl”.
I call myself ‘LUCKY’ to get there out alive!
Today was a great day. Driving Sissy to school: lots of trucks, rubber necking, campus school delays.
The same feeling would come when I would be taking the monkeys to school when we would drive by the drill sites next door to the school property and all the sites on the way.
This time the truck traffic and delays were because of making a movie.
Not making Natural Gas.
No worries about headaches from the littlest monkey, or nosebleeds that became uncontrollable.
No rashes.
Today is a good day!
AMEN!
2.2012
On 2.9 I ran an experiment. I had some home made spaghetti, I have had no corn, and I became so itchy, I had to take a benedryl, which also, I am slightly allergic to, NOW too.
It has hurt to breath since Friday. I don’t think the hyperimmune system reacted well to the high altitude skiing.
We Lost the Race. I had to abandon our Dream Home for health. June of 2012. My health has for the most part returned, although, I do still have some exciting, usually unexpected, reactions. We are separated, with my husbands job in North Texas.
We have become part of the lost group. We will not sue the Gas Companies, We can not complain about our ill earnings.
It’s an honest living, but we must choose to pick our battles.
We are lucky enough to get out. We had a place to go.
There is much injustice to this.
No one deserves to have to sit back and watch as a community looses health and well being.
Hopefully everyone is getting paid. I know a lot of them are.
But with medical bills exceeding minerals, and health issues that will last much longer than the gas in those wells. It’s not worth it.
Mojo is sick, we have no way of knowing if it is from the gas.
This is my race to ensure that our American Dream does not become an American Nightmare. And so my journey can better serve those with the same trial and tribulations and helping to ensure, that we all have clean water for our future and clean air that we can breath. Everyday, not just Sunday.
11.17.2011
stopped writing/blogging about everything that happens in the gas patch. I started a new one, you can’t see that one yet, but when it’s completed it will go viral. It’s hard because it’s depressing, and I don’t like being depressed.
I have been having heart palpitations since I got the oil changed. When I got the oil changed on Monday I drove into the bay and immediately began having all the same symptoms I was having in the gas patch: vertigo, nausea, and brain fry.
I haven’t been the same since.
It’s just one of my life changing events since living in the Gas Patch. I have poc like formations that have formed all over my face, neck, back.
If I had never been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or been taken advantage of by oil and gas, none of this would be happening.
I’m not telling my family about the palpitations because I’m racing on Saturday, my favorite race, my favorite venue and I don’t think they would take too kindly to the fact that I’m racing with heart palpitations.
If none of this would have happened, if the Gas Industry spent a fraction of the money on safety that they do on lobbying and political contributions, or even a fraction of what they get in government subsidies, the casualties would not be nearly as bad.
So heart palpitations or no heart palpitations I am racing on Saturday in Palo Duro Canyon.
The Gas Industry had ruined my life enough I’m not going to let them take this away from me to.
So no oil changes/cement plants or factories…entirely changing all of my health and beauty products as well as cleaning products, as well as my diet, I wonder…
I just wonder how else the Gas Industry has changed my life?!?
1.14.2011
Arielle still has pocs all over her body. It has gone from her arms, now just bloody pocs about 15 each arm, to her torso, now that has about 6 pocs, to her back, to her legs, beginning to poc. I’m not very excited about taking her to the DR for the Dx of ‘mystery rash’ and “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Such is life in the gas patch.
Solid poop can’t last forever. Although, it lasted for almost 2 weeks after getting home from Albuquerque. Now, I’m not sure if I can make the jaunt. It’s worse than it’s ever been. It will be hard to believe, coming from me, I know, but guess what, my diet hasn’t changed.
Today is day 3 of the runs.
I guess, it’s time to get some work done on the gas patch.
It’s rough, cause I like working on my life instead.
1.10.2011
Monday 1.6.2011 between 8:45 and 9 PM in my house I smelled ‘rotten eggs’. Everyone had gone to bed so there was no one to ask about gas. I went outside and it was so strong, I ran back inside. Then, I grabbed my old man and said, come here I want you to check this out. We went out front. He said, “It’s sulphur, what are we going to do about it?!?” He feels very helpless. More so than I do. He feels backed against the corner because he is going to have to temporary relocate us as soon as we’re too sick to deal with it anymore.
I said, that’s Hydrogen Sulphide. Again, what are we going to do about it?
What happens next is what kills me.
Arielle broke out in a rash all over her arms that on Wednesday had pocked over, all over, by the dozens and one on her belly. Her legs have hurt so bad she hasn’t been able to walk. She has been but grudgingly, and in tears. Then, last night, it went to her belly. Bad, benedryl spray doesn’t help, camomil doesn’t help, taking benedryl didn’t help.
Then, Sophie today had an exposed ‘poc’ on her face, bleeding.
I can’t say anything, but sorry. I can’t say anything but, for it to go away, we’ll have to move.
My face is ready for about 20. They’re coming up right now, they just look like ‘pimples’. But they’ll scab. I’ll just keep praying they are pimples, but they’re not. I have never broken out like this in my life.
Don’t get me wrong, I have had my share of pimples, and I still do. So I trust me when I say, I know the difference between a pimple and a poc. I have had a lot of experience with that.
I was amused when my ol’ man told me after a couple of cocktails he went down to Argyle Central and yelled at them, “Thanks for ruining our lives.” And then, did a doughnut.
Thank you Gas Companies for crushing our American Dream.
Arielle now has 3 symptoms of leukemia. I just keep praying, the nose bleeds don’t get more frequent. I keep praying we make it to June. I keep praying that the Gas Companies grow a conscience and begin to understand that people matter. That even one person matters.
I remember when this began, I was the only one. Everyone thought I was the crazy lady, who didn’t know what she was talking about, that she was emotional about the subject.
Now, I am respected, now, I am not alone in being sick. 20 cases went to the EPA from Argyle Bartonville. 20 cases. Let’s make that 23.
In some ways it was better when I was the only one. Why, because I was the only one. Now in some ways I’m glad I’m not the only one. Now I’m not crazy, now we’re just statistics of how urban gas drilling has gone wrong.
I just keep praying that some day, I will be able to ride my bike from my home again without getting: dizzy, feeling like I am going vomit, feeling unusual pains, getting headaches.
I keep praying that maybe one day I will be able to live in my dream home and not have to worry about which way the wind is blowing.
1.03.2011
The water fight begins.
Got home from last night Albuquerque. All of my sores have almost healed up.
I am going to leave all my typos so you can begin to see how the brain doesn’t work when I’m here. So you can geing to see how the confusion of my brain works a midst all these chemcials.
I began getting confused this morning, the brain got cloucy, and I began to scraming at my kins for no parituclar reason. It was out of now where and had nop meaning. it just took my over like I coudln’t control it.
The air is really bad right now. I am confused in my house, with la k of concentration.
My brain feels like it is on fire an dgoing to ezploisde.(explode) better truly document that.
The girls and I walke fd for 20 minutes and after the grain began to burn about half way through I couldn’t feel either of my legs from the knee down. It had this werid neurological twinging feeling.
And I got a dark cloud around my peripheral vision.
My head is beginning to feel better now. That I have been in the house for 6 minutes.
No one should, or have to live this way. We will all die an early death from this place.
I wish that you could better understand what it is really like.
The saddest part, is most people don’t understand why they feel the way that they are.
See how my headache subsides and now I do n’t have as many typos.
Weird how it works, huh?
Bartonville, the land of Natural Gas Extraction experiemnt.
12.2.2010
Well, I would like to tell you that just because it’s been almost 4 weeks since I’ve updated “A Different Kind of Race” that everything has been good. It hasn’t, it can’t be good when you live less than 2 miles away from a gas processing plant. And oh, yeah and all the fracing.
I did have 3 days of feeling pretty good, outside of the week in New Mexico and the weekend in Florida, which, of course, I felt great.
My blood tests are back, I don’t know the results, it can’t be good if they’re going to mail me the results and the DR wants to talk to be about them. And those are only 3 tests. I haven’t gone back, not yet, because it’s going to cost thousands of dollars and there’s no way of knowing whether or not insurance is going to cover it. I will say, I failed the balance test, meaning the centers of my brain that are responsible for equilibrium are effected by the chemicals. When I have everybody else do the test they pass, except me, I fail. Big and Bad fail. Like can’t take a step. Oh yea, and keep in mind, I train balance at least twice per week.
The Dr also told me my skin, the pocs and the lesions and sore are textbook, for the chemical exposure that I am living in. They’re getting worse. I have them all over my body now. And the ones on my face. You know, the ones on my face that have been there for 2 months, 2 f’n months, they are just beginning to poc over, it’s beautiful. I have them on my face, my neck, my back, my legs. The DR told me that the chemicals are causing my arteries and capillaries to be swollen. He said, ” you have so much inflammation in your circulatory system, you’re capillaries and arteries are beginning to spontaneously erupt.
So let me tell you how much confidence I have in regards to my capillaries and arteries of my heart and lungs, aveoli.
All over my body. Not on my hands and feet yet. I guess, that will be my limit. I also said that when the water became contaminated. I found that out at the end of September, I’m still here. I said that when one of my kids got a nose bleed, that happened to the youngest the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I say it now when I get pocs on my feet. It’s really bad. I have a ‘bruise’ on my leg, except, it only looks like a bruise. It doesn’t hurt like all other bruises do, because that’s what bruises are, they’re from when you hit yourself on something so hard you break the artery. No, it just spontaneously erupted. I’ve had it for 2 weeks now and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.
Since my last entry I have had to stop 2 other workouts because my body began to detox and it was bad news. Had to stop, wondering if I was going to make it back to my car have to stop. 11.30.2010, I was so dizzy around the house I opted out on riding my bike. So, let’s see, I’m dizzy, walking around the house…so I’m going to go out an ride my bike in it. I was dizzy around the house because the wind was blowing straight down from The Gas Processing Plant.
I had a little bit of a breakdown this week. It’s easy to do because every time I look in the mirror I see the pain of the gas drilling. People try to act like it doesn’t look bad, but it scars. After it pocs, it scars. It first turns into this freckle looking thing, and then scars.
Oh well, it’s only a human life. What’s a few sacrifices so Williams, Steven Malcom can get richer, or XTO, Rex Tillerson, Braden, Gulftex, Whatever.
I took some time off from all of this because we had a small success. We had one small finish across the line. Bartonville Town Council tabled the recent Gulf Tex permit. It felt like the biggest relief ever. I shook everybody’s hand with tears in my eyes thanking them. What I need now is for Wright to finish and the Gas Processing Plant to get expelled.
Why it’s midnight and I’m still up, I have no idea.
I think, it’s because on the way home, right around Frenchtown and Jeter, I began to feel ‘the buzz’ and the next thing I knew, I exploded. I’m not irrate right now, however, I’m still up, and still typing, and I have to get up in 5 hours, that’s crazy shit. Maybe it’s hormones, or maybe it’s the MSDS safety sheet for one of the 149 or whatever chemicals that says it causes restlessness.
11.8.2010
Yesterday, Sunday November 7th 2010, I went for a 2 hour run. 20 minutes into my body began to detox, I had to stop, I got a headache, light headed, began to get cold sweats. MY skin began to itch and it looked like I had hives on my arms.
Last night I took a NAC to detox and I got a horrible headache, felt like I was going to vomit out of control. Feel better today.
11.6.2010
It’s been a long time, because my race isn’t going so good.
I went to the P and Z meeting on November 3rd, and provided them 3 water samples all with contamination of MBAS, methylene blue active substances. My air report, a list of toxic chemicals and their symptoms and they still approved a permit for fracing. Fortunately I have one more chance only one. Even with the well work overs and the CCF my symptoms have been very bad. I should have probably documented them more but quite frankly it’s depressing.
One day last week I was heading to work, it was Thursday, and I was so dizzy driving down Frenchtown that my head was spinning, physically spinning, like I had parkensin’s disease. That scares me when I am operating a car, worrying about whether or not I’m going to black out.
Thursday night I had to have the big talk with the girls. “Girls’ do you know what to do if Mommy doesn’t wake up, or if she’s still in bed in the morning when you get up, and she doesn’t answer you?” “yes, Mommy, call 911”. When I have to tell my kids that, something is wrong. That was in my house. Guess what direction the wind was blowing Thursday night. You guessed it straight down from the CCF.
We’re at piano right now. The chemicals are really bad, and Mr Piano is really sick. He has been since the same time I began to get sick, May. Except he has had and has every kind of cancer imagineable. Then, she walked me around the yard and showed me some cracks that they had to fill in. She said it “looked like an earthquake”. She said she thought it was from the gas drilling. Knowing what I know, the questions that I have asked and what I have seen so far, she’s right.
I got my secondary water test back. Yup,
2BE
Barium
Boron
Magnesium
Manganese
Strontium
I’m not sure how toxic Barium and Boron are. Those aren’t the ones I’m worried about.
2BE is highly toxic, especially breathing in the vapors.
Strontium is radioactive, and is only released from the deep crevices of the Earth with Drilling.
But don’t worry, we’ve only been serving this sh$#@t up since June 24th. Small children are bathing in it, we’ve been washing our food with it, cooking with it.
I have been warning people like you can’t believe. Can’t believe. What the F are you doing? Who in the F do you think you are?
I’m very pissed OFF. The reason why:
I’m sick, I’ve been sick since May 12th, yea, it comes and goes, but my kidneys ache on and off too.
I’m being forced out of my home by the gas industry. MY DREAM home and we may not be able to afford to buy a new one if we get transferred.
I wonder if Rex Tillerson knows the water is contaminated.
The thing about it is my sample of water is from September and it tested in October. 2 BE life span is 7 to 28 days, and my test was outside of that time. It’s double what the EPA says it should be, and the sample was a month old.
Any way, Friday was tough, we blew of swimming for crying, and well, talking to the Town.
What a life. Why won’t someone just write me a check and then, watch me disappear?
Because it’s not my life’s purpose, fighting and saving my family and my children, and even the same f’n people who put the f’n drills on their property.
Oh and Mr Holt, your Blessing is making me sick and guess what. You switched to Bartonville Water. I know you don’t read my blog, but it’s funny and ironic isn’t it. We’re serving you up the same crap you’re serving us. But better, you’re drinking, bathing and cooking in it.
There’s one for my kids, a kick right in the crotch.
Every day I ride my mountain bike. I’m not scared of anything, anymore.
10.29.2010
There’s a lot going around town. I’m not really in the mood. Doing what I can which most days seems like its’ not enough. Today there was a huge spill up the street that ‘melted’ the metal fence and made it white.
The water is horrible. I have what looks like a chemical burn near my ear. I am now pretty much covered with sores. Today I itched and a couple of them bled. I try not to itch because then it’s worse.
My kidneys are still aching, going on two weeks, and the DR said my urinalysis came back normal. I guess when you’re drinking and eating laundry detergent your kidneys can feel over loaded. I’m not really drinking laundry detergent, it’s the MBAS and whatever else is in the water.
The real reason I came on here, what I really want to be doing is working in the yard since I got the night off from swimming:
I’m tired of being the “chemical sensitive girl” What I have decided is:
I am not chemically sensitive:
it’s everyone else who is;
CHEMICALLY INSENSITIVE.
10.24.2010
Sometimes I like it when there are days in between my entries. Albeit, sometimes it’s because it’s so bad, I can’t face it. Sometimes it’s because things are so good I am rejoicing. Today, I write because I hit rock bottom.
The fumes from Hillwood were exasperating. Both my girls missed practice, which in a way, I am so grateful for. The wind was blowing north and even at Hilltop I could smell the fumes. Within 20 minutes of soccer practice there wasn’t a person on the field who didn’t cough. Some of the kids coughed more than others.
What really sank my heart is a little girl, who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons. She has the same sores I do. She was picking them until they bled down her arm. She has them very bad, worse than me. All over her arms, on her legs. It breaks my heart. Nothing has been done about the water. Nothing. She’s in the 3rd grade.
I hurt so bad inside for this little girl, I didn’t tell her what the sores were from. I said, “….name, I have those same sores. See here on my arms, see here on my hairline? Please don’t pick the sores, mine are beginning to scar. Please whatever you do don’t pick the sores.”
She told me she has had them for a long time. She’s a little girl, she can’t tell me(like I can, as an adult). I asked her, “For about 2 weeks?” She doesn’t know or really understand what 2 weeks is, because she’s a little girl. I know how long the sores last because I have them. I know where they are coming from, the water.
She picked them a few more times during practice. I begged her with such sorrow in my heart, knowing these sores are related to the water and the gas drilling, not to pick the sores. Even when this sweet innocent little girl left, I called out, “…name, please remember what we talked about, do your best.”
My heart was bleeding. I hurt so bad inside. I cry now sharing this story with you. I hurt so bad inside that I can not protect my fellow citizens from all of this. I’ll keep trying.
These small children, this little girl, like me, will always have these scars even when the gas drilling is gone.
I felt so bad inside, I went to see my friends at the Bartonville Music Festival. I had to have a hug and a shoulder to cry on, to release all this hurt that I have that I can’t make this little girl’s sores go away.
I will do everything I promise as long as I can to help my children and your children and please know Argyle-Bartonville, I’ve got your back, please, please, have mine.
10.23.2010
My letter to the Mayor of Bartonville Texas:
Mr Mayor,
I would like to share the results of my 3 tap water samples in a confidential meeting with you, the general manager of Bartonville Water Supply Corp, and Rex Tillerson. We could invite a member of the press and Wolf Eagle Environmental.
Your responsibility is to “protect your citizens”. We must do that together. My proof, encouraging your citizens to collect their own data, as well as the Town collecting data we can make a decision that is in the best interest of all the citizens.
This would be a professional meeting without judgement and name calling. I will show you the information and we can discuss it and you can make a decision on what you are then going to do with the information and proof that Natural Gas Extraction has to be stopped for a minimum of 2 years.
And know that I will be doing more testing to identify that primary contaminate.
We can not afford to do any more Natural Gas Extraction within Town Limits, near Bartornville Water Supply Corp wells, or in ETJ’s.
We HAVE to REFUSE ALL WELL/FRAC/PIPELINE/COMPRESSOR permits for a minimum of 2 years. Our families are bathing, cooking and cleaning in the water and some of them, heaven forbid are drinking it.
My next step is to have a meeting with the Mayors of Copper Canyon, Double Oak, and Southlake. I want to avoid going public with the data, I want us to fix the problem.
After Lunch and Before 2 o’clock during the week works best with me, I work in the morning, and would like to be finished in time to be home for my daughters, they’re 9 and 10 years old.
10.19.2010
Last night at 8:00 PM when we got home from the store and dinner I smelled a god awful smell. It smelled like ant poison in a bad way. I couldn’t believe it. There was none around in my yard. So I went inside, tried to make a couple of calls to see if there were any sounds up the road related to the smell. I came back in and got the girls ready for bed and went back outside to investigate more. When I was walking around my yard at 8:30 PM my entire left leg became heavy, numb and hurt. My hands began to tingle and the left side of my face and my chin became numb, however, the smell had gone away. I came back in and asked our house guest to close his door and I turned the air on. He commented on how he had had a horrible coughing spell that he felt like he couldn’t control. And how NOW he believed my how bad the air was around here. On a side note, he is grateful he is relocating to Austin. You know, where there isn’t any gas drilling and how he can’t wait to get back there.
Shortly after coming inside my symptoms subsided.
My water smelled totally rank 3 times yesterday while I turned it on. Like a a rotten egg smell. It seems sulphery. It is not catching on fire, however, when I hold a lighter to it, it smells like burning rubber, or as runner susan says burning barbie. I thank God everyday our tap water isn’t as bad as her well water yet.
Today I picked up the girls from school. I began to get nausea and a headache as I was driving by Whitehead. I stopped for coffee and the symptoms were light and constant. I went to p.u my daughter from Hilltop. As I was waiting the wind picked up and my symptoms became worse. She got out a 2:45. We walked to the car, my symptoms continued to get worse. We drove over to the intermediate school and they continued to worsen even inside of the school. We left the area at 3:00. By that time, I began to stumble, I wanted the barf bucket, and I slurred a few of my words. Driving home, I had to comment, “girls, be quiet Mommy feels she might black out.” It’s 4:15 right now, and I still have some nausea, my right foot hurts, and my peripheral vision is dark and hazy, I am at home currently. And I’m still not normal, and actually it seems to be getting worse now.
Friday Argyle Water apparently went bad.
Welcome to hell.
My home is so beautiful, my children are so beautiful, North Texas is so beautiful. It’s a crying shame that greed and the need for fossil fuels in ruining it all.
I want to personally thank:
Cheney
Bush
Williams: Steven Malcom
Gulf Tex
Trios
XTO: Rex Tillerson
Hillwood, Ross Perot, JR
Range
Aruba
Halliburton
The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry.
I actually want to punch them in the stomach and kick them in the balls, like any American Woman would involved in Domestic Violence altercation. Oh wait, that’s just me. That happened once. First he went to the hospital and then he went to jail.
So you’ve got to know you are messing with the wrong person. I’m stronger than any one person you could put on me, and you know what?
I have been through so much in my life, there is nothing that scares me.
10.17.2010
My girl cycle came two weeks early and I have had diahrrea for 3 days. As I sat at an alliance meeting, I was 3 0f 4 with the exact same symptoms. It’s good not to feel alone. It’s depressingtoo and my vision is going black while I’m typing at 6:27 PM
10.16.2010
IS IT NOT MY AMERICAN RIGHT TO HAVE MY CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL AND NOT COME HOME ILL FROM THE TOXIC EMISSIONS OF URBAN GAS DRILLING?
As I sit here typing, I’m getting light headed, my fingers feel heavy and I have tunnel vision where my periphereral vision is darkened. I’ll be out for a walk and some yard work here in a minute, last time I collapsed. There are no windows open in my house. I did a paranoid check.
IS THIS THE AMERICAN DREAM?
10.15.2010
Ken left two windows open last night, fortunately his office doors were mostly closed so there wasn’t a huge impact, I had a very small headache and a tiny bit of nausea. However, when I went into his office to close the window, I stumbled into the wall as I reached to turn the light off. It wasn’t comfortable. As I headed out to work up Frenchtown, my symptoms became worse and worse reachinga 7-8 on a 10 point scale. I was concerned that I may have an episode at work. My symptoms didn’t go away until Trophy Club. That’s means that’s a pretty high exposure level. At work, I began to feel great. I went for a ride after work and I had to stop. Literally stop after 45 minutes. I felt like I was having a heart attack. Not pain in my chest, but light headed, like I was going to faint and like my heart was racing. I know the feeling because when my magnesium levels are low I have experienced exericse induced tachycardia. My heart was palpating. I’ve never had to stop before. This time was different, I was nauseus and thought I was going to vomit. I felt like my body was ‘detoxing’ from all the crap I had inhaled last night and this morning. It was scary. I did guzzle 150% of my RDA for MG just in case. Usually when it’s tachycardia, the feeling goes a way when I stop exercising. This feeling didn’t go away until I got to Bikes Plus, after going to the grocery store. Then, as I was heading home from Bikes Plus, I got to Hawk Rd/McMakin, the location where I believe the contaminate Bartonville Well is, and I had a headache, nausea, and a metallic taste in my mouth. There were 2 very large clouds of smoke coming from that rig, one was dark but bigger than I have ever seen. One was half the size and white. My symptoms continued.
I prayed for Sophie all day because the wind was blowing her way from the Whitehead Well. Arielle and Sophie came home from school. Sophie had itchy skin and she had hives on her cheeks and her right leg hurt where mine hurts, half way up her calf. Then she became nauseaus. Arielle was nauseaus, and sleepy. I assured them we were going to Irving and they would both feel better. Low and behold a couple of hours away from Argyle-Bartonville, their smiles are back, and hives are gone and the nausea is gone too. My children are back, the color is back in their faces, it makes me happy, and I feel good too. Unfortunately it’s back to Bartonville. And of course, symptoms return as we pull up to the stop sign at Jeter Road where Town Hall, the Water Supply Corp and the Bartonville Store is.
10.14.2010
I opened the windows for 15 minutes at 8:00 to cool the place down, you know because IT’S MY AMERICAN RIGHT. Within 15 minutes I had to close them because I began getting a headache, I was nauseus and my left foot began hurting. I don’t think I can feel when the water turns slippery any more.
10.13.2010
I wish that it would have been a better week. It Wednesday. I’m tired right now, I think, it’s that I’m half way through the week. I am making so many mistakes typing it’s hard to know.
Today on my walk, I got a headache by one block, nausea by block 2, sore legs by block 3, and sore arms by the turnaround. It was only a 3 on my Rate of Chemical Exposure Limits. I still didnt’ want to hang around if I didn’t need to.
It’s my American Right to be able to run in my own neighborhood and take a shower at my Lovely home. Instead, for my safety, I leave my home and travel to Grapevine to run for 90 minutes. Would I have rathered stay in Bartonville, yes. I also, opt to take a shower at work. Why bother risking the permanent scars I am going to have on my arms to always remember the pain of what I am going through right now.
I’m glad I updated my blog first, because this race is depressing. Earlier, I thought for sure I may crack, lose it, check out. I’m OK. Really think about it though. Think about everything I am going through simply so somebody can get richer. What ever happened to free market? When money is made at the expense of human casualty, war, drilling, and Earth’s casuality, we will all find ourselves engulfed in a flaming death.
Ask yourself: Is this what God, our Creator, wanted for us: Human and Earth Casualty?
If you answered yes, than it is probable that you are not as close to God as I am. I am very close to God, I walk every foot step with him. He tells me every day:
What the Gas Man does to my land, makes me sad. The destruction and the greed, makes my heart bleed. I will take care of the Earth, even if I have to destroy man.
And if you think I am full of mumbo jumbo, you are even further away from God that I thought. One can only here God’s voice call in the complete quietness and stillness of your brain. You don’t have to be still, you have to be quiet.
Have you been quiet today to hear God speak to you?
I have been, and I was able to recognize all of God’s beauty here on Earth. And I got to asking myself: Why do people think it’s OK to destroy the Earth for profit?
Who died and made you God?
It wasn’t me. I”m trying to get the Gas Big Wigs to recognize that their fancy cars, and educations, and second homes are being paid for by:
DEATH
ILLNESS
DESTRUCTION
LIES
CORRUPTION
INFEDILTY TO GODLINESS
Everybody knows they dont’ mess with ZOE.
I dropped my oldest off at AIS today, RCE was only a 3. Good at least our 5 and 6th graders are only in a 3 of 10 toxic chemical exposure for 8 hours. That’s assuming the wind didn’t change direction.
I dont think the highschoolers faired as well. The wind was blowing right at them today. I prayed all day long and hard for
Greedy people to become more Godly.
On a verge of a mental breakdown this morning. What causes the sense of flight, the sense of run and get out.
Many, many things. MBAS in the water I bathe in, MBAS in my ice cubes, my boiling w ater, my dishwasher. Benzene in the air that I breath. Methane and formaldehyde high. Neurotoxins in the air in elevated leavels.
Nothing like breathing Napalm in the morning.
Must donate to charity today.
10.9.2010
I immediately felt better upon stepping out of the car in Austin then I do around here.
Upon my return, I get off the freeway, drive less than a block and there’s a frac truck parked on the shoulder in the dark. I stopped, and asked, and I also called the Sheriff.
I got 2 miles from the freeway and I had to call TCEQ for a complaint of rotten eggs smell at 377 and 407. Welcome home.
At least we use surface water on the weekend so I can take a shower without getting sores.
My hair is falling out by the handful, not full handfuls, but more than fills a straw, which is an indication via Dr OZ that you’re not healthy. Duh.
So tell me how can someone totally as healthy of me, be so unhealthy.
Dr Rae via my environmental consultant. ” The people who are the healthiest make up most my patients. They’re bodies have a more difficult time handling the toxins.” So I guess, eating more preservatives, exercising less, smoking more is the answer for a healthier lifestyle.
OK really think about that one.
Tomorrow I will log a complaint to TCEQ. I logged rigs today by exits on the way home from Austin tonight. Friday night between 6:40 and 9:00 upon traveling 35W from 407 to 35 (Now I will say this, I WISH I were lying but this is totally truth) Every well had a rotten egg smell(sulphides) except one, that had a sweet aromatic smell to it. When I get my report filed, I will post it on abcalliance on txsharon and here.
Is that totally crazy or what?
I think, it’s ridiculous.
I think people should go to jail.
And to think, I might be on a National Security List only because I know gas drilling is bad and I have a big mouth.
10.8.10
Leave my frickin’ kids out of this, this is me and you now…watch out for the spider monkey.
1:30 PM
I just got done picking up Sophie from the Intermediate School. She has been to the nurse 3 times today for nausea, until finally she became emotional and the nurse called me. I did notice 3 other kids went home ‘sick’ today.
I had already begun having symptoms driving in front of the drill. And when I went into the school, it was worse than outside in front of the school. I got dizzy, I stumbled, I got my neurological feeling in both my legs and my hands. And on the way home, I was slurred a couple of my words.
Sophie had commented ‘It smelled like dirty socks today in school’ I asked, “does it always smell like dirty socks in school?’ She said ‘no’.
I strongly urged the nurse to start logging symptoms in a spreadsheet. She now thinks, I’m crazy. Oh well, wouldn’t be the first time.
:o)
10.7.2010
It’s been a long week, I wish I could say it’s been an uneventful week when it comes to this different kind of race, now it’s a race that needs to be finished. I’m in a place, swinging my arms like a spider monkey jacked up on mountain dew. I was trying to play chess, however, as things unfolded this week, I’m going to go back to swinging my arms like a spider monkey all jacked up on mountain dew(the Talladaga Nights reference and another great example of how Americans aren’t smart with our natural resources. I challenge you to ride your bike around a circle for 5oo miles. Oh yea, that’s the Texas Time Trial 500. That’s really a much better way to get in shape instead of sitting around watching cars drive polluting our environment and using fossil fuels. But that’s just the tree hugger in me.) At any rate…
I have sores on my hair line, on my arms, on my back, the sores are beginning to scar. Yippee. My 10 year old has a ‘rash’ on her forehead, she thought were pimples, I keep looking at them, they’re not, they’ve been there for 2 weeks. That’s from my shower…when, Friday, or was it Thursday. I can’t remember, I have it on XCEL spreadsheet. So now the sores are coming out.
Wednesday/Thursday of last week, that would have been the 29th, I got our water samples back. Monday I had an appointment with Bartonville Water Supply Corp, knocked his socks off, was with Alisa Rich with Wolf Eagle Environmental. We’re going to begin testing the water wells. Begin, come on this has been going on since June 24th and we’re just getting ready to test wells. Tuesday my water sample went to Region 6 EPA, they sent it to the injection well division, and to the TCEQ. What a joke that is, the TCEQ. Oh yea, Mrs Nance you’re air is clean. Really? Really? And I’m sorry, where is methane, dimethyl disulphide and trimethyl disulphide, just to name a few. And haven’t you been busted falsifying results in February in Fort Worth and like 6 months worth of data in Dish, TX. Oh great, they don’t even test for petroleum derivatives. You should see the list of chemicals the EPA sent me that we should be testing for, and the list that Colorado River Authority and the TCEQ actually test for. Things came up in the meeting like, well TCEQ doesn’t test for these things and when we test them outside of TCEQ, TCEQ will say that they are not valid based on the fact that they did not do the testing. And in all of my wild adventures I’ve learned that then, it becomes the RRC’s job. This is the same agency that told me if I wanted the white powdery substance tested for hydrocarbons, I would have to trespass and test it myself. Are you f’n kidding me. This is safe? This is legal?
It’s CRIMINAL.
Sunday Night October 3rd, Clean Air Sunday, I didn’t have a single symptom all day, the wind WAS blowing in the right direction so we decided to sleep with our windows open. I went for a walk and .4 of a mile into it, I realized how bad the air was, you know because I can gauge it on my symptoms, they were bad enough where I got a headache and nausea,came home and immediately shut the windows. My 10 year old was getting ready an hour later and came to me and said, “Mom, I thought you should know I’m really dizzy and I stumbled into the walls 2 times.” She has carried the barf bucket around 5 days out of 7 this last week.
It scares me, I’m not going to lie and candy coat it like oh, everything is OK, life is dandy, and we’re getting rich off of gas. No, my water is contaminated with MBAS, and that’s a secondary indicator as the EPA calls it, the TCEQ doesn’t test for it nor do they test for an petroleum derivatives, the RRC commission only comes to for a Big Mac and a cigarette and a bottle of jack, the EPA has NO jurisdiction over water in Texas, isn’t that convenient for the big oil and gas people. Secondary indicator, let me get to that. That was all Zoe Nance wanted to pay for. It’s a secondary indicator, for what? That’s what we have to find out now. For f’n what: There’s a really good chance for 2BE. What’s 2 BE? Well, it’s used in hydrofracing and also considered a surfactant, it’s incredibly dangerous to breath in the vapors while washing dishes, and taking showers. It’s also known as HD Foam. Well, it could also be a precursor for ethylbenzene, benzene, strotium, radium 228, what else, that should be enough to scare you. Oh yea, and the water guy says, “There’s no way MBAS got into the water supply via contamination of septic.” That’s reassuring.
I got a copy of the water sample taken from our neighborhood pond. I would suspect it was contaminated with MBAS since, that’s in the water and extra water runs off into the pond. I’ve known it was there for some time because I have seen the Castle’s Culvert bubble there, I have seen the big white house on the hill’s bubbles go there, I’ve seen the neurosurgeons water bubbles there, the new house’s bubbles go there, so why wouldn’t we see MBAS in there. But there’s all this other stuff in there too. Let’s just say at this point until I really understand it I’m glad that I let the dogs stop swimming in it 2 summers ago, long before I knew how bad it was. I guess, then, I really knew how bad it was subconsciously. It’s bad enough my two bigger dogs have very large tumors, that was part of the reason I stopped letting them swim there. It’s probably part of the reason the ducks don’t stop there as much as they did 3, 4, and 5 years ago.
Monday, after sleeping with the windows open all night, I could barely get up. I did go to work, but then I was a heap of worthless flesh. I’ve never had that happen, where my brain wanted to be up, but my body just wasn’t responding. It was like some sort of weird drug trip. That was the same day I called out TCEQ to do an air sample. You know, the one telling my air is clean. Why bother funding a program that is not doing it’s job. Have I told you about the trailer. They won’t bring the sulpher trailer, the 500,000 dollar trailer up, “because it’s too expensive”. And I ask, “Human life isn’t worth that much?”
Today, I finally had to tell my boss kind of what’s going on, I also had to tell him a lot of it is confidential. I guess, it’s not anymore since, I’ve decided the job isn’t getting done playing chess, it’s time to start swinging my arms like a spider monkey all jacked up on mountain dew. At any rate, after collapsing last Saturday in the yard, while they were fracing Ginger Hackel and Wright well, I collapsed, what’s not to say, I can end up collapsing while I’m on the floor.
Nothing.
My symptoms are not getting better, they are in fact getting worse. They’re done at the closest well, but they are getting ready to do more.
I can’t believe there are still non believers out there. I was uneducated for too long, it’s true, it’s bad, and a cringe to see that Dallas is getting ready to drill down there. Downtown Dallas.
Hello:
Did you not see what happened in Fort Worth?
Did you not see what happened in Dish?
Did you not see what happened in Wise County?
Did you not see what happened in Montague County?
Do you not see what is happening in Denton County?
Do you not see what is happening right now in Bartonville?
What about, WY, PN, NM, CO…it’s always the same:
DRILL
CONTAMINATE WATER
CONTAMINATE AIR (I think, it’s air and then water)
ANIMALS DIE
PEOPLE GET SICK, like rare thyroid cancers, lesions in their brains, nuerological problems, memory loss, heart attack, stroke, hair falling out.
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?
IDIOTS, EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU WHO IS A NONE BELIEVER, OR A SUPPORTER IS A COMPLETE IDIOT AND I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO TELL EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU HOW AND WHY THIS IS TRUE FACT.
I am a scientist, scientists isolate certain situations to pin point cause and effect. What do I have to gain by lying about the truth of what is happening? I have a life full of love, full of joy, and now because no one else does(but a small handful of HEROS who are willing to give up their free time to make you all safe) I have to fight to keep my family and my community safe.
And then, ask me, why do I want to spend over an hour blogging about it, if it really weren’t impacting us in such a negative way. You’re right, I have way better things to do with my time, but when it comes to safety…I am a safety freak!
And gas drilling is NOT SAFE!
9.30.2010
The symptoms I posted earlier lasted until 2:30 they were gone except for the fatigue until arriving to the corner of Jeter Rd, where the Bartonville Store is. Now they’re back, hopefully the air will clear by morning. No open windows tonight. It got really bad when I got to the top of the hill at Saddle brook so much I gave the honest warning to the girls and then, while we were making lunches it got worse again, and I had to review safety procedure. This is not good.
I woke up this morning and every muscle fiber and every joint hurt. I am a scientist: I ask these questions:
is it my 3 day sugar binge (which wasn’t more than one treat a day)?
was it my workout schedule, could be, but I do that all the time.
Is it the fact that when I was driving South on 407, it’s SE when I got to the “replica of Gone with the Wind” I had a big fat gas drilling headache and began to get nauseaus and a black cloud of smoke appeared from the Wright Well, so I had to go check it out. Yes, they were fracing, and the closer I got the worse my symptoms got. I can’t remember why I didn ‘t have time to call TCEQ, I was on the phone with a client. I felt so good yesterday, had so much energy, until I got back into Argyle. Funny, got just shy of the street I turn off FM 407 and BAM I’m sick. Started to feel a little better yesterday, then, had to go to Hilltop Elementary for soccer practice, had to drive by the new Hillwood Site.
Yes, the site that Union Pacific and members of the community said it would be too dangerous to drill there because of the train tracks and it’s too close to the schools of Argyle. It didnt’ stop the Town Council from approving the site. Nothing stops the Town Council of Argyle(Bartonville) for allowing the slow killing of the community. The pockets of our local town agencies have their pockets filled pretty deep with Gas Company royalties where the rest of us get screwed, and sick.
Even my own Dad thinks I’m full of it. I called him to tell him I am making an appointment with an enviromental DR, to tell him my symptoms are on target to what I know about chemical sensitivity, they are getting worse. That in fact the sores on my arms are similar to the sores on Lisa Parrs arm, that I collapsed in my yard on Saturday while they were fracing two sites around me. I got a whole load, not any compassion, or caring about the scenerio of what surrounds me and his grandbabies. This is a guy who has is own issues, like we all do, and can tell me, I’m being overdramatic and a hypochondriac.
So no, I don’t feel like spending 14 hours on an airplane to go to the Gallapagos. I would rather just hang out in St. Louis, we really want to go to D.C. or I just feel like going and seeing Grandma and collecting shells on Sanibel Island. It’s the simple pleasures that make life so blessful. It’s sitting around the family room laughing and talking, it’s playing Uno or a Moose in the House. It’s going to God’s Country to really embrace all of Gods true beauties. Maybe one day the truth of life will be seen. In the mean time, as one of my supporters, and friends who really cares for me and wants me to get well, says, Poo on him.
I have to update my XCEL spreadsheet Bartonville Suspected Surfactant Contamination; about 5 more days of bad water.
And just between you and me, the water is Really Slippery around this place.
My lungs now are beginning to hurt when I breath, and my right foot is going numb, and painful, my spelling is going bad, I’m getting a headache, my throat is beginning to burn. OK good, now my right hand is going numb and my vision is beginning to get clouded, it closes in and turn dark around the periphery.
Yea, like he said, it’s all in my head.
I NEVER get headaches, but now I do, now I’m getting a metallic taste in my mouth. Now my foot is getting really painful.
My environmental consultant doesn’t want me at the house, wants me to have o2 therapy, I think, you need a Rx for that. But you need an environmental DR for that.
Now it’s 1:19 and I’m getting nauseaus and vertigo. Oh yea, it’s all in my head.
Quite Frankly I wish it were because I don’t want my kids to find me dead or to have to call 911 when I fall over unconscious. How is it that, now my pinky is painful and my entire right lower leg has pain in it, it’s OK for me to go through all of this on the expense of not using the Sun and Wind? The pure source of energy and all of God’s Grace.
How is it OK for my kids to find their mother in a heap of nothingness? I’m sure the partial paralysis will start up here in a second. I’m training the crazy Jack Russell and I just stumbled out on the back porch.
How is this OK, how is it that THIS MESS we’re creating in 34 states is being kept quite? How are the Gas Companies and the News station doing that?!?
How is it most my neighbors don’t even know that each day I suffer with sores on my arms, and pain in my legs each day the wind is blowing towards my house.
How is it that the people have to pay out of pocket for private environmental testing when we pay for TCEQ and RRC out of tax dollars.
And Tea Party wants less government. We already have less government. We have a government that sucks shit. We have a government that is run by the private interest of corporations that have all the money. Tea Party is not reform. Tea Party is simply a hoax, or a ploy put up by Koch Brothers, and Dick Armey and a whole lot of people who think they’re on target. In the truth of all that is that the people who established Tea Party are billionaires, and Dick Armey makes 550,000 dollars a year through Freedom Works. Yes, people wake up, Dick Armey makes over a half million dollars off the Tea Party. But these are the same people who want safe roads and safe bridges. Dick Armey must be a crook because before he was in the house, he was a professor of economics and you should see the acres upon acres, and the 40,000 dollar gate that protects his property. Now there’s some crookedness because most professors live a modest lifestyle. But Dick Armey makes 550,000 off the Tea Party. Tea Party is really only about self interest in corporations. They don’t give an F’ about anybody but themselves and having more for themselves. So don’t get sucked into the Tea Party Propaganda, it’s only going to make matters worse than they already are.
Wow, I’m getting really dizzy and nauseaus now.
Same goes for Exxon/XTO CEO.
The funny part of it is, they’re breathing the same air I am. 2.4 ppb Benzene and 6.66 ppb dimethyl disulphide and trimetheyl disulphide. And I’m 85% sure their wells are contaminated with MBAS too.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it. You’re whole thing for “less government” will really bite you in the butt if you’re not careful.
If you’re truly sick of it and really want to see the government fixed give me the red pen, beause I know I can fix this mess. If I can fix, and take our finances to the next level, and still live the very comfortable lifestyle we do imagine what I can do for our government. I’m sick of it, I’m sick of the politician pockets being line with money from corporations who want their backs scratched. I’m sick of all the F’n Bull$h#@!, I can fix every thing, it’s rather simple actually. All you need to do is give me a red pen and the POWER.
Oh and this Perry guy, get him the f’ out of office. He’s an idiot, an all around idiot. He wouldn’t even sign legislation to give cyclist a safe distance. Dude, you’re an idiot and your killing me and my children.
One of my favorite quotes, “You think you’re so cool but you ain’t nothing but a fool. ”
You’re really dumb as dirt. Behind every man is a great woman. That’s probably why. Are you busy killing your children with you pockets being filled with industry? Or is just ours?
9.29.2010
Felt great all day! Then, driving home on 407 I started to get my natural gas symptoms, then, I saw a big black cloud on North Gibbons so I went to go check it out. My symptoms became worse, I was on the phone and I slurred a few of my words, got a metallic taste in my mouth. I’m home now, and everything seems to be better. Once I got home, I had a small stumble, nothing big, just lost my balance real quick.
9.28.2010
The air was pretty bad this morning, but all has cleared up, I’m excited to be able to have the windows open and not have a single symptom. The wind is coming from the North which is really good for us here at the house. I did have some slippery water. I still have the sores on my arm. The sores which I confirmed through another “canary” are related to the chemicals they use in drilling. They’ve been sores for 2 days, I had two days of no sores, and the other sores I had were from September 4th. So let’s see, I’ve had these new sores since; 9.26.2010. The good news is they are not nearly as bad as the ones from 9.4.2010 that I had until 9.24.2010. That I’m grateful for.
I did have some symptoms today, a 3 on a 10 point scale for RPCE (rate of perceived chemical exposure) while I drove by the Ginger Hackel site to see if they were fracing. They weren’t. So I don’t know why there’s chemicals lingering. There is this big weird looking yellow pipeline thing sticking out of the pad site that wasn’t there before. So I don’t know if they capped it and are coming back or what. The truth I”ve learned about gas drilling they always come back. They can frac one vertical well many times. The horizontal well only goes a mile, so they go a mile in every direction.
Today I learned that the highway department uses the same body shape of truck as the frac trucks when they put lime, which is also white like fracing fluid on the road before they put concrete or asphalt down. What every citizen needs to know. I was just glad to learn they weren’t putting salt water down.
9.27.2010
6:55 AM think they started early at Ginger Hackel. On the way to Rolling Acres, I got a headache, my right foot began to hurt, and I got partial paralysis of the right side of my face. Wind Gods are on my side, it’s cold, so wind is from the North that means that it is blowing away from my house. But based on my early morning commute, it does not ensure that I will get through the day without symptoms. Oh yea, it’s already too late for that.
6:25 Water changed consistency.
Water changed while I was in the shower, the water began to burn on my skin a little bit.
5 AM, hurry, water isn’t slippery, better take a shower!
9.26.2010
Went the whole day with the windows open enjoying the Sunday fresh air. And not a single problem, outside of minute symptoms on my 20 mile run, first lap past the CCF at Jeter and Frenchtown. Those were like a 1 on a 10 point scale. I’ve started to rate them, you know like Rates of perceived exertion, except this is RPCE, rates of perceived chemical exposure. Yesterday passing out, that was the worst ever. Regardless, at 8:00, after watching NCIS on hulu with the girls I opened the bedroom window, at which point, I began to get a headache, my lungs felt like they were ‘fluttering’ with mucos, and my breath began to become so short I was wondering if I was going to make it through the night. I got up and closed all the windows. It took hours before the symptoms subsided enough where I could fall asleep.
9.25.2010
Symptoms were bad today, but the weather was good, so being that this is my land, and my house, and my 3 pallets of rock and mulch I decided to go against my better judgement and throw some bags around. I tumbled several times. One time, Elle Bell, saw it was so bad lasting several moments I lost control of my body started swaying, lost my balance and most of my vision. I caught myself on the high stacked pallet of rock. I could hear her, “mommy, mommy are you OK?” I couldn’t answer until I came to. In which I responded, “Yes, do you know what to do if Mommy drops over and can’t answer?” “Yes, Mommy, call 911”
9.26.2010
On my idegenous run today I recognized that I will begin a new page of blog. It will begin tomorrow. It will be titled: “A Different Kind of Race”. And it will be above this blog on my drop down menu.
I am a coach, I am also trying to save a community and most importantly trying to keep my family and I safe.
May 11th, 2010 I was outside Holts Residence for 20 minutes holding a “say NO to Urban Drilling” sign for 20 minutes at 7:30 AM and at that time, something happened, I was exposed, or it is hypothesized that I suffered an acute exposure to drilling chemicals that now make me sensitive, or “allergic” to those same chemicals when I am exposed to them. May 13th I was at the same site, doing the same thing, at the same time for over 2 hours, and I had the same symptoms for over 5 hours. These symptoms did not go away until I arrived in Fort Myers, Florida to visit my Grandmother.
Ever since then, I’m the lucky one, the canary. The truth is that my air sample is bad enough to sue on, and it’s supposed to be tough to sue on air. We’re trying to get the Town to test the 8 shallow wells we have been using for summer for MBAS, and this has been a major pain in my, just say it rhymes.
But I recognize that most of you are interested in what I do for a living, and what I am doing to get myself ready for my next race. So please visit my blog of “A Different Kind of Race” and make sure my journey to the finish line is smooth and safe because this is truly the most important race of my life. A race to ensure that our American Dream does not become an American Nightmare. And so my journey can better serve those with the same trial and tribulations and helping to ensure, that we all have clean water for our future and clean air that we can breath. Everyday, not just Sunday.