What’s one thing you’d change about your chemical sensitivity? We posed this question to our members and the video responses are beginning to come in. If you’d like to add a video response to our group piece, either upload a video to the Planet Thrive community or send us your TokBox.com embed code. We will update this page with new videos as they come in. As you can see from the videos below, responses are open to a wide range of interpretation and can be approached with humor, but your answer should take the issue seriously. We prefer videos that are recorded on TokBox.com and that are 30 seconds – 1 minute in length. Once you record your message on TokBox, send it to yourself, open it up and click the “share” button, then copy the “embed code” and send to us in an email. This is the fabulous start to a new ongoing tradition at Planet Thrive where we pose provocative questions to our members and present video responses as part of a group performance piece on our site. Thanks to all participants!
click on each “play” arrow to view the videos
check back from time to time to see the latest video additions!
Earthwalker is the username that PT founder Julie Genser created for her online interactions so many years ago when first creating Planet Thrive.
Julie's (Earthwalker's) life was derailed over twenty years ago when she had a very large organic mercury exposure after she naively used a mouth thermometer to measure the temperature of just-boiled milk while making her very first pizza at home. The mercury instantly expanded into a gas form and exploded out the back of the thermometer right into her face. Unaware that mercury was the third most neurotoxic element on Earth, Julie had no idea she had just received a very high dose of a poisonous substance.
A series of subsequent toxic exposures over the next few years -- to smoke from two fires (including 9/11), toxic mold, lyme disease, and chemical injuries -- caused catastrophic damage to her health. While figuring out how to survive day-to-day, and often minute-to-minute, she created Planet Thrive to help others avoid some of the misdiagnoses and struggles she had experienced.
She has clawed her way over many health mountains to get to where she is today. She is excited to bring the latest iteration of Planet Thrive to the chronic illness community.
In 2019, Julie published her very first cookbook e-book called Low Lectin Lunches (+ Dinners, Too!) after discovering how a low lectin, gluten free diet was helping manage her chronic fascia/muscle pain.
Watching these videos brought me to tears hearing it “said like it is”! Earthwalker I think this project is a wonderful one, not just to give us the opportunity of saying something and to be heard but the whole concept is outstanding. Perhapse if you get enough videos (which I sure hope so) you can make a movie of it to spread the word and wishes (I’d buy one to share no doubt!). These wishes that were wished moved me. There are things all of us that are ill wish for. If you had 100 people make a video and say there wishes, it might start to scratch the surface of everything we all could wish for about having EI/MCS.
It would be wonderful if someone had a video camera to go around to one’s with EI/MCS and let them make a short video for your project and express their wishes.
If I could wish this illness never existed I would, but I’m not going to! I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t become ill. I have a deeper insite, apprieciation and thankfullness for the simple good things in life that I may not have before.
My everyday life can be quite an obsitcale getting thru it just trying to avoid this chemical in the air or that chemical on a person and so on.
My wish (which I have thousands of by the way) would be to be able to hang out with others that werent covered in chemicals. To be able to eat with them, to laugh and play with them, to not feel so isolated from people. To have the freedom of being around others without wondering how ill I’ll become -or- what chemicals like deoderants, laundry products, perfumes and so on will they have on them that will make me ill -or- if I attempt to be around them because I so want to be around others and have fun, how long will I be able to stay if I even try? -or- will I become so brain dead I will come across as stupid? -or- will they be rude to me if I ask them to keep a safe distance downwind from me not understanding that they have on toxic chemicals. I wish to find others I can be around to enjoy life as it should be enjoyed! :)
My wish is more obtainable then trying to get people to respect, understand and compromise with our illness of having Environmental illness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It’s easier then finding a bed (something most take for grantid and lay down every night, without even thinking of not having a safe chemical free bed that we arent allergic to) or to go in public without going brain dead, and my wish is easier then not having people laugh at you with a mask on or think you have some nasty disease and back off (by the way I love it when they do that because usually they are the ones loaded with chemicals) but people can be quite rude and at times it is bothersome how ignorant folks can be about our illness. There are so so so many wishes we could all wish about this illness and I hope everyone can make a wish….there really is “so many” that could be wished for that might help others to iunderstand this illness.
Thank You Earthwalker for giving me the chance to make my simple wish of having others to be around to enjoy life more! :)
Thanks so much for your wonderful comments Live with MCS! You made my day. ;-) You really “got” why I decided to do this project and you can envision the impact if more people were to participate. I hope to do others with different questions. I hope more people will join in. The video responses should only be 30 seconds to 1 minute in length. (When I first put it out there, I did not specify a time length which is why 2 of the video responses are much longer.) I love all the responses though and I can’t wait to see what others wish for.
billie
on January 20, 2010 at 6:26 pm
hi!
i passed this on to my friends with mcs, and i hope they will participate too. this project is a great idea, julie!
What’s one thing you’d change about your chemical sensitivity? We posed this question to our members and the video responses are beginning to come in. If you’d like to add a video response to our group piece, either upload a video to the Planet Thrive community or send us your TokBox.com embed code. We will update this page with new videos as they come in. As you can see from the videos below, responses are open to a wide range of interpretation and can be approached with humor, but your answer should take the issue seriously. We prefer videos that are recorded on TokBox.com and that are 30 seconds – 1 minute in length. Once you record your message on TokBox, send it to yourself, open it up and click the “share” button, then copy the “embed code” and send to us in an email. This is the fabulous start to a new ongoing tradition at Planet Thrive where we pose provocative questions to our members and present video responses as part of a group performance piece on our site. Thanks to all participants!
Watching these videos brought me to tears hearing it “said like it is”! Earthwalker I think this project is a wonderful one, not just to give us the opportunity of saying something and to be heard but the whole concept is outstanding. Perhapse if you get enough videos (which I sure hope so) you can make a movie of it to spread the word and wishes (I’d buy one to share no doubt!). These wishes that were wished moved me. There are things all of us that are ill wish for. If you had 100 people make a video and say there wishes, it might start to scratch the surface of everything we all could wish for about having EI/MCS.
It would be wonderful if someone had a video camera to go around to one’s with EI/MCS and let them make a short video for your project and express their wishes.
If I could wish this illness never existed I would, but I’m not going to! I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t become ill. I have a deeper insite, apprieciation and thankfullness for the simple good things in life that I may not have before.
My everyday life can be quite an obsitcale getting thru it just trying to avoid this chemical in the air or that chemical on a person and so on.
My wish (which I have thousands of by the way) would be to be able to hang out with others that werent covered in chemicals. To be able to eat with them, to laugh and play with them, to not feel so isolated from people. To have the freedom of being around others without wondering how ill I’ll become -or- what chemicals like deoderants, laundry products, perfumes and so on will they have on them that will make me ill -or- if I attempt to be around them because I so want to be around others and have fun, how long will I be able to stay if I even try? -or- will I become so brain dead I will come across as stupid? -or- will they be rude to me if I ask them to keep a safe distance downwind from me not understanding that they have on toxic chemicals. I wish to find others I can be around to enjoy life as it should be enjoyed! :)
My wish is more obtainable then trying to get people to respect, understand and compromise with our illness of having Environmental illness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It’s easier then finding a bed (something most take for grantid and lay down every night, without even thinking of not having a safe chemical free bed that we arent allergic to) or to go in public without going brain dead, and my wish is easier then not having people laugh at you with a mask on or think you have some nasty disease and back off (by the way I love it when they do that because usually they are the ones loaded with chemicals) but people can be quite rude and at times it is bothersome how ignorant folks can be about our illness. There are so so so many wishes we could all wish about this illness and I hope everyone can make a wish….there really is “so many” that could be wished for that might help others to iunderstand this illness.
Thank You Earthwalker for giving me the chance to make my simple wish of having others to be around to enjoy life more! :)
Thanks so much for your wonderful comments Live with MCS! You made my day. ;-) You really “got” why I decided to do this project and you can envision the impact if more people were to participate. I hope to do others with different questions. I hope more people will join in. The video responses should only be 30 seconds to 1 minute in length. (When I first put it out there, I did not specify a time length which is why 2 of the video responses are much longer.) I love all the responses though and I can’t wait to see what others wish for.
hi!
i passed this on to my friends with mcs, and i hope they will participate too. this project is a great idea, julie!
xooxoxxo billie