Mastocytosis: Five Year Review
October 20 marks the general anniversary of my diagnosis of Systemic Mastocytosis , and is also Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Disease Awareness Day , so I inventory and demarcate my health developments and changes year-to-year on this day. I had 27 mast cell reactions in a 6-months span (May – October 2022) and I cut that reaction level in half this past year (26 mast cell reactions from October 2022 – October 2023). So, what’s changed in the past year to create such improvement? I quit multiple volunteer leadership commitments to reduce stress and in the hopes that would allow me to stay in my chosen career of teaching. That didn’t quite work, unfortunately. I controlled the trigger of stress but was unable to control the environmental triggers of perfumes and chemical smells. I was hauled out of campus in an ambulance twice in the first two months. Samantha and Eric bore the burden of being my emergency health advocates, Lola received insensitive questions like “Your mom’s not at work
