This is a quote from The Mastocytosis Society on their Facebook page. The interesting part for me is that I had almost all of these symptoms for many years, but my doctors and I didn’t know there was a disease/illness known as MCAS:
“We agree that some patients, in the early stages, manage their disease by avoiding triggers. An example would be someone who figures out that they cannot use a hand mixer because their hand and arm itches, so they use a stand mixer instead. They may not realize that this is a symptom of mast cell activation in response to vibration, but may simply avoid hand mixers. There are probably lots of people who do this for a long time until they develop multiple symptoms that affect many organ systems, such as chronic itching, dermatographism, diarrhea, abdominal bloating, reflux, headaches, lightheadedness, brain fog, skin rashes, intolerance to heat, cold, or temperature change, shortness of breath, severe reactions to bee/wasp/other venom stings, sensitivity to odors or chemical smells, reactions to medications, especially antibiotics and opioids, anxiety/depression and inability to tolerate alcohol.”