The Mast Cell Block Tango

  So I am sorry I ended up using the cheap and nasty Paint program to add onto this absolutely funny 'Cokeback Mountain' cartoon. I despise RFK Jr. with everything within me. Why? This commercial he did for the MAHA movement as broken down by Dr. Zachary Rubin. Take a quick gander at it, I'll wait. * Jeopardy theme song   plays *  As some of you know I tend to already eat the way RFK Jr. is claiming here. No #2 red dye balls going into this mouth. I eat organic real food because it provokes the food allergy aspect of my systemic mastocytosis to eat processed foods with tons of preservatives. Here's the rub, the lie in the weeds of this shifty ad -- eating real whole foods does not prevent or cure mastocytosis. The thinking now is that it may well be genetic! Those Hopkins professors I was talking to last week almost said as much after we went over a detailed family history. They want me to get a genetic mastocytosis test done. I am going to! I suspect being raised in t...

  A funny before talking about unfunny stuff. Yesterday was a cluster-you-know-what. We did the PriceSmart run for all our gringolandia stuff the husband eats but I mostly cannot eat. But I can fill up on veggies, fruits and fresh meats for me there. My husband considers french fries and mashed potatoes veggies enough. He's been sick with the flu, I am recovering from the same mixed with my bouts of crazy low blood pressure so our dear friend drove and we just sat back. The husband slept, I did not, I spent the drive hanging onto the overhead strap terrified we were going to crash. Friend drove like a turtle, too close to the side of the road with people whipping around us on the left and right, people drive crazy here. Not long into our drive I noticed something -- that dust was being whipped up by the extreme Papagayo winds. The winds have been wild the last few days. Mix high winds with crazy commercial land clearing everywhere. Looked something like this:  Well, crud, I ca...

  Can you guess what this is? Well, besides my chonky thick as heck wrist? It's a positively out of the blue mast cell reaction to a bracelet I've been wearing over fifteen years now. My very nice Medical Alert bracelet of pure silver beads and deep blue Swarovski crystal beads.  Bought it all those years ago upon the insistence of my critical care pulmo Bought one of the not so cheap or cheap looking ones, bracelet going on wrist I wanted a nice looking one if I had to wear every day. The way the bracelets work is that one side has that international emblem for medical alert and the other side has a few of your conditions named along with your name, registration number and the phone number to call for complete information needed in case I'm too incapacitated to talk. Now a days after occupational therapy and learning rescue breathing I no longer black out, so the bracelet is less important. Back when I bought it the way my asthma episodes went is exposure-->wheezing--...

 My husband involved a doctor this week and I was steaming mad! It's been quite the week. Bear with me, this will be long. Sunday, stupid Sunday, I climb out of our car, open the back door for the handicapped friend we always give a ride to church. Just as I'm standing up a man with a shaggy ratty-looking sheepdog walks up and the wheezing starts. I get away from the unwashed and ungroomed dog. Every time I turn around the dog is near me. By the time I start donning my N95 I shout at the strange man to get his dog away from me, that I keep moving away from him. Earn dirty looks galore for donning the mask and have a few unpleasant interactions with people of the church. One guy from Africa asked me how I was, and I truthfully wheezed out " Not good! " only to get the lecture from him about not trusting Jesus enough.  Can we talk about this for a second? If you ask someone how they are doing. You can see they are struggling then why would you not offer to pray for them...

  Worst flu ever. Nearly a month in leaving. The only good thing about having the flu is that I had zero symptoms of Mr. Mast Cell while it was ongoing. Right now the issue is low blood pressure. Apparently when I gave up Diet Coke (which is a mast cell help) my blood pressure reacted badly. So badly I think I must be caffeine sensitive. Still drinking coffee, off all my blood pressure drugs I've taken for the past seven years. Go figure. I do know that low blood pressure runs in my family and there are folks with a legitimate POTS diagnosis. I am not looking to add another diagnosis to the mast cell. So I'm lagging around like a sluggard until this settles down. Heck, I cannot even visit the clinic because it is shut down being remodeled. I would have to travel a ways to one of the other clinics in the group. Considering I am crawling along I'm not doing that yet. Mast cell information I had no idea about~ Found out that the very fruits I cannot seem to get enough of, appl...