Life in Balance

Exposure to toxins threatened her health. One woman's journey to overcome the devastating impact of an environmental illness.

Sally Fretwell designs buildings to promote business productivity and arranges homes to enhance family comfort. A design consultant who has authored two books on "common sense" feng shui, Fretwell's professional goal is to help clients find harmony and balance in their lives. Balance is also a personal theme for Fretwell.

"I grew up in a family dichotomy. My father was a highly driven man, a professional football player, who taught me to water ski when I was three by claiming there were alligators in the lake. My mother was an esoteric woman who loved pyramids and crystals and did things like calling on her 'parking angel' to help her locate a parking spot," says Fretwell, 48, of Charlottesville, Virginia. From early on, Fretwell tried to balance her father's hard, no-nonsense approach with her mother's relaxed and whimsical outlook.

It wasn't easy. Encouraged by her super-competitive father, Fretwell, a natural tomboy, excelled at sports and pushed her physical limits. "We did things like fall out of airplanes," she says. "I jumped off a cliff once and knocked myself out when my arms flew up and hit my face." There was no one cautioning moderation as she took on more risks. Competing as a downhill skier in New England, she tackled the sport with such enthusiasm in sub-zero temperatures that she suffered from frost bite.

After graduating from college, Fretwell moved to Sanibel Island, Florida, and continued the frantic pace, driving herself personally and professionally. "I was always going to the extreme. Even moving south was an extreme reaction to being cold in New England," she says.

She worked as a designer, helping to develop functional buildings, using feng shui principles. Then one day in 1996, her life changed. A chemical-spraying plane dumped pesticide over her as she was biking along a road.

"It was totally out of the blue," she says. "The pilot was aiming for a nearby swamp to spray mosquitoes — but he missed. I was covered with goop." Her clothing, her hair, her skin and face were saturated. She pedaled home to shower and scrub off the poison, thinking that would be the end of it. But the following day, she felt sick. And the next day? and the next.

"I was spaced out and not feeling well. I started getting so sensitive to things. I couldn't eat without feeling horrible," she says. She quickly lost weight, dropping to 100 pounds on her 5' 6" frame. "The doctors told me I had to leave the island because it's sprayed so much there and I was reacting to it," she says.

She moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, but her symptoms worsened. Soon she was reacting to exposure to everyday products, like strong-smelling shampoos and perfume worn by others. "Anything perfumed bothered me a lot. Chemical cleaners, like Lysol and Chlorox. Fabric softeners were the worst," she says.