The Snowball Is Getting Bigger
This morning, I wrote about how I missed a dose of medications yesterday... then missed some more medications last night... then missed a medication this morning... and how this sort of thing snowballs into something out of control...
This snowball has indeed enlarged and gotten out of control! This is a dangerous sequence of events for anyone struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis.
Today was a "down" day for me... trying to recover from the missed medications... rest up... avoiding the heat and humidity (which trigger anaphylaxis and miserable health)... so, after lunch I laid down on the couch in the air conditioned living room to try to catch up on much needed sleep and to, hopefully, recover. The good news is that I had no problems whatsoever in falling asleep...
The bad news is I was awakened very abruptly. My chest was pounding in palpitations... I was groggy... although I awakened suddenly, I was still groggy... and feeling weak... I still wasn't thinking clearly though... I knew something wasn't "right" and I knew that I had awakened from this nap feeling worse than when I had laid down. I knew this was not good...
It wasn't long before I realized that I was in the effects of my body responding to anaphylaxis in my sleep! Yes... contrary to what some doctors are telling their patients (as these patients have told the story to me, countless times)... I can tell you with absolute certainty that anaphylaxis can and does indeed occur while sleeping! This happens to me at least once each month. I don't care what any doctor says... I don't care what people may think... anaphylaxis can and does indeed occur while sleeping!
The signs are very clear and these signs are precisely consistent with a body naturally responding to a dangerous drop in blood pressure (anaphylaxis). These signs (or symptoms) of the body's natural response include chest pounding palpitations and tachycardia (the heart jumping into overdrive to try to compensate for the loss in blood pressure), weakness, difficulty breathing, nausea, and debilitating "brain fog".
These symptoms, generally speaking, often are the precursor to disgusting and violent gastro-intestinal problems. I'm not going to go into those details in this blog post but, trust me, these gastro-intestinal problems are indeed disgusting and, oftentimes, quite violent.
While I was napping, apparently, my blood pressure dropped to dangerous levels... my heart responded to this drop in blood pressure by jumping into overdrive. That was the palpitations I was feeling as I awoke.
A short while later (as I shook off some of the fogginess in my brain), I realized that my heart-rate was still in the 140-160 bpm range... far too high but a clear sign of my body trying to make up for a lack of blood pressure.
It is definitely a good thing when a body responds like this but it still needs help in order to safely recover... this means emergency protocols in medication.
My breathing is, and has been, a bit labored lately but I attributed that to the high heat and humidity. Now, at this point, I suspect my far worsened breathing difficulties are probably a result of this surprise episode of anaphylaxis which occurred during my long afternoon nap. (And, perhaps, part of this long nap was really unconsciousness due to anaphylaxis, not really sleeping.) My breathing is significantly more labored now... which reminds me... perhaps I should add more epinephrine...
I'm nauseated... weak... lightheaded... even dizzy... basically, the snowball has been rolling down the mountainside getting larger and larger, picking up more speed... my health has crashed and history has shown me that this ride is not over just yet.
The one thing which is consistent in all of this is that whenever I miss a dose of medications... every time... my health crashes spectacularly. (So... for those of you ignorant fools who assume I am blindly and needlessly taking a huge cocktail of medications four times a day... You are dead wrong. Within only a couple of hours of missing a dose of this cocktail of medications, my body fails and my health crashes spectacularly like it did before I was taking all these medications which indicates my body needs this cocktail of medications and more. Furthermore, to those who only seem to see me on my "good" days and then mistakenly think these "good" days are the norm for me... this crappy health happens quite often in between the times you've happened to see these few "good" days.)
Today was consistent with this predictable history. Unfortunately, the brain fog compounded my problems by not allowing me to stay ahead of the sequence of terrible events happening inside my body. Although none of this is truly "controllable", the brain fog allowed things to snowball way out of control.
Maybe some of this heat and humidity will melt this big, tumbling snowball...
Here's to hoping tomorrow will be a better day....
This snowball has indeed enlarged and gotten out of control! This is a dangerous sequence of events for anyone struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis.
Today was a "down" day for me... trying to recover from the missed medications... rest up... avoiding the heat and humidity (which trigger anaphylaxis and miserable health)... so, after lunch I laid down on the couch in the air conditioned living room to try to catch up on much needed sleep and to, hopefully, recover. The good news is that I had no problems whatsoever in falling asleep...
The bad news is I was awakened very abruptly. My chest was pounding in palpitations... I was groggy... although I awakened suddenly, I was still groggy... and feeling weak... I still wasn't thinking clearly though... I knew something wasn't "right" and I knew that I had awakened from this nap feeling worse than when I had laid down. I knew this was not good...
It wasn't long before I realized that I was in the effects of my body responding to anaphylaxis in my sleep! Yes... contrary to what some doctors are telling their patients (as these patients have told the story to me, countless times)... I can tell you with absolute certainty that anaphylaxis can and does indeed occur while sleeping! This happens to me at least once each month. I don't care what any doctor says... I don't care what people may think... anaphylaxis can and does indeed occur while sleeping!
The signs are very clear and these signs are precisely consistent with a body naturally responding to a dangerous drop in blood pressure (anaphylaxis). These signs (or symptoms) of the body's natural response include chest pounding palpitations and tachycardia (the heart jumping into overdrive to try to compensate for the loss in blood pressure), weakness, difficulty breathing, nausea, and debilitating "brain fog".
These symptoms, generally speaking, often are the precursor to disgusting and violent gastro-intestinal problems. I'm not going to go into those details in this blog post but, trust me, these gastro-intestinal problems are indeed disgusting and, oftentimes, quite violent.
While I was napping, apparently, my blood pressure dropped to dangerous levels... my heart responded to this drop in blood pressure by jumping into overdrive. That was the palpitations I was feeling as I awoke.
A short while later (as I shook off some of the fogginess in my brain), I realized that my heart-rate was still in the 140-160 bpm range... far too high but a clear sign of my body trying to make up for a lack of blood pressure.
It is definitely a good thing when a body responds like this but it still needs help in order to safely recover... this means emergency protocols in medication.
My breathing is, and has been, a bit labored lately but I attributed that to the high heat and humidity. Now, at this point, I suspect my far worsened breathing difficulties are probably a result of this surprise episode of anaphylaxis which occurred during my long afternoon nap. (And, perhaps, part of this long nap was really unconsciousness due to anaphylaxis, not really sleeping.) My breathing is significantly more labored now... which reminds me... perhaps I should add more epinephrine...
I'm nauseated... weak... lightheaded... even dizzy... basically, the snowball has been rolling down the mountainside getting larger and larger, picking up more speed... my health has crashed and history has shown me that this ride is not over just yet.
The one thing which is consistent in all of this is that whenever I miss a dose of medications... every time... my health crashes spectacularly. (So... for those of you ignorant fools who assume I am blindly and needlessly taking a huge cocktail of medications four times a day... You are dead wrong. Within only a couple of hours of missing a dose of this cocktail of medications, my body fails and my health crashes spectacularly like it did before I was taking all these medications which indicates my body needs this cocktail of medications and more. Furthermore, to those who only seem to see me on my "good" days and then mistakenly think these "good" days are the norm for me... this crappy health happens quite often in between the times you've happened to see these few "good" days.)
Today was consistent with this predictable history. Unfortunately, the brain fog compounded my problems by not allowing me to stay ahead of the sequence of terrible events happening inside my body. Although none of this is truly "controllable", the brain fog allowed things to snowball way out of control.
Maybe some of this heat and humidity will melt this big, tumbling snowball...
Here's to hoping tomorrow will be a better day....
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