Down for a Few Days
Yesterday... it was brutal for a couple of hours.
I was in and out of the bathroom, terribly sick and nauseated, and teetering on complete anaphylaxis. It was not a pleasant few hours.
Systemic Mastocytosis is a rare illness in which the body's mast cells will indiscriminately 'attack' the body rather than their usual enemies such as wounds, pathogens and allergy. During this process, the mast cells will release a bunch of mediators which causes countless symptoms including anaphylaxis.
Typically, I do well at handling most of the resulting symptoms but anaphylaxis is a tough one to handle. When all these mediators are dumped into the body by my mast cells, my body responds by going into anaphylactic shock or at least bordering on anaphylactic shock or anaphylaxis.
Yesterday, after breakfast, I started feeling rather poorly. My stomach was bothering me. I was a bit nauseated. Before long, I knew I would be sick and in the bathroom. I checked for my pulse... I had a difficult time finding it because it was so faint, but rapid... my breathing was becoming shallow and ineffective... vision was narrowing... trying to get to the bathroom was necessary at this point because I was going to be sick but just standing was difficult nevermind trying to walk.
It was time for epinephrine... something I prefer to avoid and often do (in the big scheme of things and when compared to some other patients) but it was clearly needed this day. I slowly made my way to the bathroom with my bag of medications.
With sparkly little explosions in my eyes, I made it to the bathroom...
I managed to sort out my medications as I was getting sick...
In and out of the bathroom over the next two hours or more... It seemed like an eternity...
More emergency medications...
Between bathroom visits, I made sure my feet were elevated to keep some blood up toward my brain...
Back and forth between the bathroom and the living room...
Then fatigue, drowsiness, grogginess and bone pain started to settle in...
I slept the rest of the day.
Among many symptoms, vision issues will linger for a few days... overwhelming fatigue and drowsiness will be the most debilitating symptom followed closely by terrible deep bone pain... and my emergency medications will make me hungry.
Hungry... I could devour everything in the house and remain hungry until the effects of the drugs wear off! Nothing will satisfy my hunger, no meal will "hit the spot"...
So, history not only repeats itself when it comes to my health and my very confused mast cells but history has proven that I will be down for a few days, recovering... and trying to find food to satisfy my hunger...
I was in and out of the bathroom, terribly sick and nauseated, and teetering on complete anaphylaxis. It was not a pleasant few hours.
Systemic Mastocytosis is a rare illness in which the body's mast cells will indiscriminately 'attack' the body rather than their usual enemies such as wounds, pathogens and allergy. During this process, the mast cells will release a bunch of mediators which causes countless symptoms including anaphylaxis.
Typically, I do well at handling most of the resulting symptoms but anaphylaxis is a tough one to handle. When all these mediators are dumped into the body by my mast cells, my body responds by going into anaphylactic shock or at least bordering on anaphylactic shock or anaphylaxis.
Yesterday, after breakfast, I started feeling rather poorly. My stomach was bothering me. I was a bit nauseated. Before long, I knew I would be sick and in the bathroom. I checked for my pulse... I had a difficult time finding it because it was so faint, but rapid... my breathing was becoming shallow and ineffective... vision was narrowing... trying to get to the bathroom was necessary at this point because I was going to be sick but just standing was difficult nevermind trying to walk.
It was time for epinephrine... something I prefer to avoid and often do (in the big scheme of things and when compared to some other patients) but it was clearly needed this day. I slowly made my way to the bathroom with my bag of medications.
With sparkly little explosions in my eyes, I made it to the bathroom...
I managed to sort out my medications as I was getting sick...
In and out of the bathroom over the next two hours or more... It seemed like an eternity...
More emergency medications...
Between bathroom visits, I made sure my feet were elevated to keep some blood up toward my brain...
Back and forth between the bathroom and the living room...
Then fatigue, drowsiness, grogginess and bone pain started to settle in...
I slept the rest of the day.
Among many symptoms, vision issues will linger for a few days... overwhelming fatigue and drowsiness will be the most debilitating symptom followed closely by terrible deep bone pain... and my emergency medications will make me hungry.
Hungry... I could devour everything in the house and remain hungry until the effects of the drugs wear off! Nothing will satisfy my hunger, no meal will "hit the spot"...
So, history not only repeats itself when it comes to my health and my very confused mast cells but history has proven that I will be down for a few days, recovering... and trying to find food to satisfy my hunger...
Comments
Post a Comment