My Mother often told me a story about her first awareness of a place called ‘Canada’. She was born in Finland during the war. Of course, food was scarce, and rationing continued long after the war was over. Canada had sent a fair amount of food aid to Europe, including a lot of canned vegetables.… Read more Corn, MCAS and the Nordic Diet
Perhaps I’m as dumb as a bag of rocks, and you’ll all think I’m a touch touched, but I finally figured out what doctors mean by an ‘elimination diet’. If you aren’t already aware, basically, you don’t eat anything, and foods are added back into the diet one at a time. I’ve always wanted to… Read more ‘The Elimination Diet’ Finally Makes Sense!
The big question: Why are we sick? We all want to know why MCAS is exploding. Is not just that we are understanding more, redefining things we have been aware of for ages. There’s a real increase in inflammatory disorders in humans. Why? There are too many possibilities- toxins, plastics, pollution, mobility, environmental change, use of… Read more A Tantalizing Clue. Why aren’t viruses making me sick!?
Hello fellow Masties! I could use your help with a question that’s been on my mind. As you probably know, MCAS often follows a ‘stair’ shaped progression, marked by a sudden increase in severity followed by some partial improvement with changes in your medications and trigger avoidance. But then you see another sudden increase in… Read more MCAD/MCAS Progression Survey
Hear Hear! A topic close to my heart. Lisa Klimas at Mast Attack published an open letter to healthcare practitioners on the topic of pain medications. I started to write her a message, and I realized that it could have a wider audience, so I put most of it here. The more voices there are,… Read more Response to Lisa’s Letter on Pain Meds
I couldn’t have scripted my latest reaction any better. I went to see internal medicine to address my BP. Somehow the fact I have mind blowing blood pressures has suddenly become ‘important’, though it hasn’t changed in two years. My usual internist wanted me to see a different doc because she specializes in hypertension. In… Read more Seeing is Believing: The Perfect ‘Told ya So’ Moment
Since the beginning of September I’ve seen the dentist, the allergist, the pelvic floor surgeon, internal med, cardiologist, rheumatologist, trigger point therapist and GI specialist. No wonder I didn’t write much, I wanted to catch you all up. Here’s a super fast overview: Cardiologist is concerned about my BP, as is everyone else. Baseline is… Read more The Specialist Parade
I started this post a few weeks ago, just as Trump was trying to say that there were ‘good people on both sides’ i the protests in Charlottesville. Since then, the ugly truth about people abusing their power-especially men with young women (or girls). I am still stunned by Trump supporting a senate candidate who… Read more Don’t stand so Close to Me
After breaking my arm as a child, it looked like I simply had a high pain tolerance. (If you havent already done so, you might want to read part 1 here.). As I got older, it seemed to normalize. In many ways, it seemed like I was actually ‘too‘ sensitive to pain. I’d had some ‘minor’… Read more My Weird Pain, Part Two
When I was six, I fell out of the big maple tree in our front yard. Anyone who has known me for a millisecond knows this story, my apologies to those who are sick of it! I had been hanging from my knees on a branch, only a few feet off the ground, but upside… Read more The Tale of the Broken Arm (or, My Weird Pain, Part One).