Interesting Discovery

It’s been years that I’ve been complaining about being ‘allergic to work.’ Being in my office every day literally makes me sick. Almost like clockwork I start to feel nauseous right around noon time and then it just gets worse as the afternoon goes on. By the time I get into the car for the commute home I’m holding my head and miserable. All I want to do is sleep. This is why I always preferred to commute with the motorcycle. The fresh air always made me feel better, unlike the car ride that just makes it worse.

I have blamed every possible thing in my office for this problem. On the days that I blame the dust, I go crazy cleaning everything. I even hauled 10 years of accumulated stuff out to the dumpster one day in hopes a getting a fresh clean start. I blamed the dog blanket and toys and threw those out of my office. Next to go was my fake fish tank with the sitting water in it. Maybe mold was growing in there and mold is one of my biggest allergens. I was running out of things to blame and my daily allergy medications don’t always help this ‘work allergy.’ Seemed to me that retirement was my only hope . . . .

Until today when I ran into a coworker in the kitchen. He was cleaning out his metal water bottle and was complaining that the water was hot enough to kill the bacteria that might have grown from his water sitting in the container over night. "Overnight?" I thought, . . . I DRINK the water that is sitting in my plastic container just over night. I sometimes leave water sitting in there for days or even weeks on end. Of course I do wash it out with soap and water after several days of sitting so OF COURSE that must be safe, right?

Well, I got the pants scared off me when this coworker started to explain the dangers of plastic bottles, especially those that are not BPA free. I’m not quite sure what BPA is, but Lord knows my Dollar Store, 5 year old plastic mug was not as safe as it should be. Forget the head problems, I immediately felt sick to my stomach and marched upstairs to throw away my water bottle. I didn’t take one single sip from it today and guess what????? You got it, I have no allergy problems what-so-ever today. Bingo. I just may have solved a 15 year mystery. So if you’re using a plastic water bottle every day you may want to do yourself a favor and ditch it.