Better Day

As I seem to have figured out what was causing the chills/swings. I have severe sensitivities to artificial fibers and materials in my clothing. It seems to have gotten worse recently. The sweater itself was cashmere, but the zipper was plastic with metal bits. This was enough to cause me problems. I don't blame anyone for scoffing; if it hadn't happened to me several times already, I'd scoff too. *shrugs*

First incident: I was sitting and reading before heading off to teach and started feeling... odd. Not sick, exactly, but sort of on the verge of being sick. It occurred to me that the shirt I was wearing was polyester, and that Don had mentioned that some taiji practitioners wound up having trouble with artificial fibers. I took the polyester off and instantly felt better. Okay, I got rid of all my more than 50% polyester clothing and went on with life.

Next incident was worse. I was wearing a 100% cotton T-shirt, or so I thought, and started feeling feverish with horrible nausea. This cotton T-shirt had a plastic design going all the way around in places. I was feeling utterly and completely miserable, on the floor in the bathroom, wondering if I needed to go to an emergency room. I took off the shirt. Five minutes later, I was fine. So I got rid of any shirts with plastic designs covering significant portions of them, or stopped wearing them if they had sentimental value, and went on with life.

It's gotten progressively worse, unfortunately. I can't wear metal jewelry either and don't like plastic jewelry. A leather cord with something wooden on it seems to be okay, but it's hard to find pretty examples of that. This is the first time that something on an external piece of clothing, worn over other clothes, has caused a major problem. I'm not particularly happy about it, but at least I know how to avoid a repeat now. Question is...can I remove the zipper without ruining the sweater... I like cashmere.