Mast Cell Mom

Photo credit for  meme to "hellsbellsandmastcells.com" https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.hyp.0000158259.68614.40 https://www.rccxandillness.com/?fbclid=IwAR3qtvANnpJc4QhmkczFWs69jXSu2iO7IwzPXhIu9k6SN5i02Jj-nxEag1s#.XbroF6RsnCs.facebook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQpAYCzGAC8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_cell_activation_syndrome https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/related-conditions/mcas https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/smarter-living/five-things-i-wish-i-knew-chronic-illness-crohns-disease-ibd.html?fbclid=IwAR2IppHwSpZNnl0zDjAhTUsfxxwUQTP_NYf1FZQ4nSDK9fopYVS8dH2TSeU https://www.thelily.com/a-chronic-illness-upended-my-life-im-still-trying-to-find-a-new-normal/?fbclid=IwAR1-4tRShl3kj9Lt6v_-S28qe3Xtneerqog-ekbpscdko2ICfGOw_4LWh7M A wonderful broadcast of the Anchor of the nightly news talking about her diagnosis of POTS: https://wpde.com/news/local/the-article-i-wish-id-had-diagnosed-with-pots-and-still-ancho...

MCAS is complicated. Let me repeat that to those in the back: MCAS IS COMPLICATED! As in, some days it is the most knotted, tangled ball of necklaces that are interlaced with one another and when you finally get down to the last two necklaces, they just don't want to relent. MCAS is my knotted necklace ball except it's going on inside of me and no one can see where the knots are and how to untangle them. While one medicine helps to combat the red hot, burning flushing of my face or the severity of my reactions, that same medicine gives me a different side effect. Why, you ask? Because my mast cells are reacting to the "other" ingredients to the medicine. Did you know that all of our medicines are laced with inactive ingredients? Some of them have traces of soy, corn, and even gluten. I learned this years ago when I would take OTC Tylenol and wake up feeling absolutely awful. It took me a very long time to correlate it. When I found a compounding pharmacy that would...

If you like Seinfeld, raise your hand. ✋ Such an iconic show that I can still watch to this day and have a great laugh over it. That show comes with so many hilarious go-to phrases and even funnier "Similar-to-life" situations.  Remember when Kenny Rogers Roasters Chicken came to their block and Kramer was hanging out the window yelling, "BAD CHICKEN. MESS YOU UP!"? 😂 It was a while ago that I ate something and jokingly said to Jim, "Bad___. Mess you up!" He laughed. I laughed. Then, I realized, I needed to laugh it off. So, that's what I have to do. What's life if we can't find some kind of laugher or humor in a situation, right? And when food is life and your life can't handle a majority of foods, it can become depressing. I've had to mourn food losses and IMMEDIATELY  throw those feelings right out or else never mature from this health journey.  So, rather than wallow in what I can't have, let's have a laugh.  Here's t...

          Is there anything more inspiring than a blank, wide open road to a person who has any kind of illness? I know when I see such a road, I am reminded of potential, vast experiences yet to come, a day with new opportunities, a day full of optimism, hope, and motivation. And if I'm being completely honest, I'm also reminded of how exhausting that very road of opportunity looks to someone who crashes from the simplest of life's day-to-day happenings. Nonetheless, I remind myself to see the beauty in the open road of life: the ups, the downs, the good feeling days, the not-so-good-feeling-days, and take joy in them all.  I first saw the Immunologist (whose name I purposely do not disclose) who practices out of Michigan a few months back in July. One of his tests included a specific Mast Cell stain from colonoscopy biopsies. It took 6 long weeks of waiting, but the biopsies confirmed and supported the Mast Cell Activation Syndrome that he sus...