A Dizzying Day of Nausea
Today was one of those rather lousy days. It wasn't "miserable" nor "grueling" but it was quite lousy.
Systemic Mastocytosis causes all sort of transient symptoms, problems, difficulties and obstacles. One day can be vastly different from another. One moment can be vastly different from the next! Today, however, was fairly consistent... quite lousy.
This all started late last night with some flushing. Sheila had noticed a splotchy, deep red rash on my face and neck. I felt "okay" at the time so I just let this first sign of impending trouble just slip by with no countermeasures.
By the time I laid down in bed last night, I was experiencing palpitations and mild tachycardia (120-130 bpm). This is a sign that my blood pressure was dropping too low... my body would respond naturally by jumping into overdrive to counter the loss in blood pressure (which is a very good thing)... then my blood pressure would drop again... body would respond.... etc. Compared to most times this happens, these swings were rather mild. What was odd, however, was the cyclic reactions. This meant my body was quite unstable.
By now I was exhausted and didn't want to get out of bed to take some emergency medications. I had just taken all the medications of my typical nighttime dose so I was hoping this would be enough to stabilize my body. I slept through the night... as well as the pain would allow anyway.
I awoke in the morning feeling like "something was off"... not quite right... but I couldn't put my finger on the problem. I just felt off.
The first symptom I could identify was overwhelming fatigue. Although it was morning and I had just gotten up out of bed, I could easily lie down and fall asleep instantly. This got me wondering... "Okay, is this overwhelming fatigue? Or, is this another bout with anaphylaxis?"
The next symptom I could identify was pain... deep bone pain, joint pain, organ pain and stomach pain, everything hurt... even my fingernails were hurting and bothersome! At this point, I realized that I needed to counter these first few symptoms with some emergency medications.
I took some of these emergency medications but my health continued to deteriorate throughout the rest of the morning. I took more medications... added extra medications to my normal dosages... took more emergency medications... I slept all afternoon... I awoke and took my dinnertime dosage of medications plus some extra medications again... my health seems to be stubborn tonight because, even after all these extra medications, I'm still experiencing some really lousy symptoms.
I'm fatigued (from the illness)... I'm groggy (from the emergency medications)... I'm in pain from bones to joints to organs to you-name-it... cognitively speaking, I can't focus on anything... physically speaking, I can't focus on anything because of blurred vision... I'm constantly dizzy and experiencing waves of nausea... I'm crampy and feel that I need to stay close to the bathroom... waves of lightheadedness and dizziness hit me suddenly which coincide with waves of nausea... I'm weak... I'm a bit shaky...
I just took my nighttime dosage of medications plus some extra medications and, as I write this blog entry, I'm hoping my body stabilizes a bit. I don't want to go to sleep while there is a threat of anaphylaxis so, I fight sleep... which also makes my health worse... it is kind of a no-win situation.
Perhaps I'll try to work on some photographs on my computer while my nighttime dosage of medications takes effect. Then, after an hour or so, I'll add more medications, as appropriate.
Then, hopefully it will be safe to get some much needed sleep...
Followup: It is the following morning now... almost lunchtime... I am feeling significantly better today... not 100%, but significantly better and significantly more stable. What was very unusual about this latest episode was that although this Systemic Mastocytosis episode of anaphylaxis was relatively mild, it required a lot of extra medication to stabilize all these overactive mast cells (which means that perhaps it was not as mild as I had thought). I added anti-nausea medications, a dose of my emergency Periactin, an extra dose of Cromolyn Sodium, three extra doses of another H1 blocker, and then 25mg of Benadryl on top of it all because my health was still very unstable. That is a lot of extra medications all within 24 hours but it clearly was necessary.
Systemic Mastocytosis causes all sort of transient symptoms, problems, difficulties and obstacles. One day can be vastly different from another. One moment can be vastly different from the next! Today, however, was fairly consistent... quite lousy.
This all started late last night with some flushing. Sheila had noticed a splotchy, deep red rash on my face and neck. I felt "okay" at the time so I just let this first sign of impending trouble just slip by with no countermeasures.
By the time I laid down in bed last night, I was experiencing palpitations and mild tachycardia (120-130 bpm). This is a sign that my blood pressure was dropping too low... my body would respond naturally by jumping into overdrive to counter the loss in blood pressure (which is a very good thing)... then my blood pressure would drop again... body would respond.... etc. Compared to most times this happens, these swings were rather mild. What was odd, however, was the cyclic reactions. This meant my body was quite unstable.
By now I was exhausted and didn't want to get out of bed to take some emergency medications. I had just taken all the medications of my typical nighttime dose so I was hoping this would be enough to stabilize my body. I slept through the night... as well as the pain would allow anyway.
I awoke in the morning feeling like "something was off"... not quite right... but I couldn't put my finger on the problem. I just felt off.
The first symptom I could identify was overwhelming fatigue. Although it was morning and I had just gotten up out of bed, I could easily lie down and fall asleep instantly. This got me wondering... "Okay, is this overwhelming fatigue? Or, is this another bout with anaphylaxis?"
The next symptom I could identify was pain... deep bone pain, joint pain, organ pain and stomach pain, everything hurt... even my fingernails were hurting and bothersome! At this point, I realized that I needed to counter these first few symptoms with some emergency medications.
I took some of these emergency medications but my health continued to deteriorate throughout the rest of the morning. I took more medications... added extra medications to my normal dosages... took more emergency medications... I slept all afternoon... I awoke and took my dinnertime dosage of medications plus some extra medications again... my health seems to be stubborn tonight because, even after all these extra medications, I'm still experiencing some really lousy symptoms.
I'm fatigued (from the illness)... I'm groggy (from the emergency medications)... I'm in pain from bones to joints to organs to you-name-it... cognitively speaking, I can't focus on anything... physically speaking, I can't focus on anything because of blurred vision... I'm constantly dizzy and experiencing waves of nausea... I'm crampy and feel that I need to stay close to the bathroom... waves of lightheadedness and dizziness hit me suddenly which coincide with waves of nausea... I'm weak... I'm a bit shaky...
I just took my nighttime dosage of medications plus some extra medications and, as I write this blog entry, I'm hoping my body stabilizes a bit. I don't want to go to sleep while there is a threat of anaphylaxis so, I fight sleep... which also makes my health worse... it is kind of a no-win situation.
Perhaps I'll try to work on some photographs on my computer while my nighttime dosage of medications takes effect. Then, after an hour or so, I'll add more medications, as appropriate.
Then, hopefully it will be safe to get some much needed sleep...
Followup: It is the following morning now... almost lunchtime... I am feeling significantly better today... not 100%, but significantly better and significantly more stable. What was very unusual about this latest episode was that although this Systemic Mastocytosis episode of anaphylaxis was relatively mild, it required a lot of extra medication to stabilize all these overactive mast cells (which means that perhaps it was not as mild as I had thought). I added anti-nausea medications, a dose of my emergency Periactin, an extra dose of Cromolyn Sodium, three extra doses of another H1 blocker, and then 25mg of Benadryl on top of it all because my health was still very unstable. That is a lot of extra medications all within 24 hours but it clearly was necessary.
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