Scattered Thoughts . . .

Sheila and I are still quarantined at home as Sheila continues to work from home and the numbers of people infected around us multiplies.   Even before this virus, we very rarely wandered from the house for social things anyway so this new quarantine and 'shelter in place' order hasn't changed our daily life much at all.  By early to mid-January, it became abundantly clear to us that the virus was gaining a foothold in the US so we immediately stopped visiting restaurants, canceled all future travel plans for the foreseeable future and began cutting out our weekly shopping trips.  (This is when the Federal government should have began a serious attempt at containing and minimizing the effects of this virus.  We knew it was coming at this point so we immediately changed our behavior...   the White House, well, this White House only helps the wealthy so it would have been silly for anyone to seriously believe they would come up with an effective plan to minimize and contain

Last night was... brutal.  The lousy health started to hit me while I was cooking dinner... country fried steak, pan roasted potatoes, country gravy and a big pan of fried okra. With four burners on the stove going at once, it was far too hot for me.  Heat is a major trigger for me. Warmer environments for anything longer than a few minutes will trigger my Systemic Mastocytosis episodes. These episodes can simply be painfully debilitating with only a few symptoms and/or they can include life threatening symptoms such as anaphylaxis. After cooking dinner, I couldn't even eat... I was nauseated beyond belief... and, generally, felt quite lousy. I knew my body was crashing but, apparently, I was not thinking clearly which is another symptom... diminished cognitive reasoning. I should have taken some emergency medications at this point but didn't think of it at the time. By the time we finished dinner, my nausea was still constant but I was experiencing worsening waves of n

I haven't written much about my illness lately and since today is a day of recovery for me, I thought I should write a few words today.  Seeing some of these symptoms in writing might give some important insight to some other patients as well as provide some insight to those in my life who may be wondering how and why I need a "down day" when I use this term. Yesterday morning, I felt fairly good considering my overall health. I classified it as a good day when I awoke and had a long list of things I had hoped to accomplish throughout the morning. I took care of a little bit of laundry and I did my daily physical therapy (mostly for my extensive spinal injuries but this also helps with my Systemic Mastocytosis). I made lunch. Then I was out of energy and needed to lay down to nap for a few hours. This is a typical, run-of-the-mill good day with a debilitating chronic illness. I get quickly and easily worn out just from a few mundane light activities.  When I awoke fro