Scattered Thoughts . . .

I am back into recovery mode.  It is funny...  well... maybe "funny" isn't really the most accurate adjective... but, even after having Systemic Mastocytosis for more than 10 years, I still forget how much down time my body and health requires. It isn't until I have tasks and projects stacked up like aircraft in a holding pattern waiting to land at a crippled airfield that I clearly hear that voice... "Hey... hey you, there... you are sick! What makes you think you could make plans to get things accomplished like a healthy person? Do you need another reminder of just how sick you are?"  Then I suddenly get whacked with crappy health. Last night we trekked up to Lowes to pick up a few more patio blocks (I learned long ago that I need to break all projects down into small tasks... we need more than a "few" patio blocks but I can only handle a few at a time) for our kitchen grilling area project in the backyard. We had no problems with that other ...

For the most part, my health over the summer has been relatively good. I've had some lousy health each week but I've been able to accomplish a few things each week. Overall, lately I am finding that if I am religious about taking all my medications, careful about not straying from my very restrictive diet, keep my body as cool as possible and avoid all stress, my health stays relatively stable. Last night, however, my health crashed. It has been terribly hot and humid the past week... bad news for my health. I strayed from my limited diet last night at dinnertime... bad news for my health. I got stressed over a four day-long project getting damaged in an instant last night which means I wasted very precious energy... energy which is very rare to come by... bad news for my health. At some point yesterday, I screwed up one of my doses of medications which I did not realize until after my health started crashing... bad news for my health. I also didn't pick up on a v...

Shortly after publishing my last post here last night, my health crashed. I had been feeling 'uncomfortable' all night long. Actually, I had been feeling uncomfortable and a little bit 'off' for the past few days so I knew something was amiss and my health would be crashing before long. What I knew was coming hit me in the wee hours of the morning last night. My stomach had been gurgling and making all sorts of noises all day long. This typically is an indication that gastro-intestinal problems are forecast. This held true last night. For those of us struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis, our mast cells indiscriminately choose an organ to attack (for lack of a better medical term... clinically speaking, "attack" is an appropriate description though). Mast cells control many bodily functions and are very important defensive cells in immunology, allergy, and infection. The problem is that my mast cells will respond/attack anywhere in my body for no known r...