The Big Sleep

 

Expect me to start with an idiotically silly meme each time! That's how I roll! As much of a pain in the rumpus mast cell is being able to laugh helps.

You know I've had mastocytosis so many years now that I have how I handle it down to a science now. I hope talking about it helps someone else deal like a boss. In my home my master bedroom suite is set up in such a way as it is my refuge when it hits. The windows are hermetically sealed. The air conditioning has a HEPA filter. I have a secondary HEPA filter I turn on sometimes. The room has a sitting area, a large dressing room and the master bath. I hole up there when I'm sick and have no need to leave except for getting something to eat. 

The doctors here don't quite know what to do with me because none of them have ever treated any of the mast cell disorders. Head doctor at the clinic is my doctor, and she's always been open to ordering the things that have helped that aren't common in Costa Rica. She's awesome, and yeah, I've had the opportunity to educate the younger docs. 

Whoa~ Just woke up after the big sleep. No, not the permanent kind of big sleep that ends with you in a pine box six feet under the dirt. No siree! The big sleep I get when the latest asthma-mast cell bullshit finally lifts. After nights of not sleeping well, grinding my teeth all night from the nebulizer meds being little better than amphetamines, suddenly I crash and sleep a good 12 to 18 hours in one stretch because I can breathe easily again.

Had a little big sleep because it was a little reaction week. A week kicked off by my skin erupting first after swimming. The pool is always an iffy thing because of the chemicals the pool guys use in it. If I'm well and non-wheezy, don't get my face too near the water and I immediately shower off and moisturize I am fine. I was, I swam, the skin when haywire itching and breaking out and then the asthma started. Not the worst of the worst asthma but not good either.

The pool will be switched over to saltwater once the pump dies. It's a major thing to switch it over right involving changing multiple parts and the water. Big expense. We already did it to the hot tub. Now I can use the hot tub for the first time since we installed it. All saltwater in there. 

I compounded the asthma on Saturday by accidentally almost ingesting a peanut. Peanuts are high on my "So Allergic List" I was at an art class It was entirely my own fault. I'm eating a few pieces of chocolate strewn on the table while I inwardly grumbled that I hated painting this ugly ass painting. Decided to pick a pecan or two out of the mixed nuts in front of me, and I hadn't been eyeballing it that hard. Second pecan was not a pecan. As I bit down I caught a faint whiff of peanut, it was a peanut coated in some sort of crunchy burnt sugar. Immediately spat it out, rinsed my mouth and grabbed my portable neb, using my last two vials of neb solution.

 Very little reaction. Apparently my silly body decided the reaction wasn't going to be big. Just tossed in on top of the skin stuff, general wheeziness and low oxygen stats already going on. By yesterday afternoon I was merrily defacing my painting with brush tipped markers. Only sad I was unable to put Godzilla parachuting into this insane apocalyptic scene. 

 Sorry but snow never picked up that kind of yellow glow and you rarely see a yellow sky during winter. Purplish shadows happen on the snow but not to the degree the painting designer insisted on. 

Ah, I feel refreshed after all this sleep! Is this how normal folks feel?