[Food allergy you won’t believe this moment]

I’m not at all an expert, so I only know what I know from learning about MCAS and reading what other people do to help, but I know some big triggers are beer, other alcohol, anything fermented, citrus, tomatoes, smoked or preserved meats, leftover food. Oddly, I have read a lot of people who say a carnivore diet helps immensely when they’re in this state. I don’t know a lot about what that looks like except that it’s not the same as a keto diet; you don’t want to go into ketosis. I know it’s no processed meats, fresh grass fed meat cooked that day. I don’t recall if you eat meat though. If you do, it could be one of the safer things to start with, assuming you don’t have any concerns that this is actually a red meat allergy post tick bite or something.

 

[Food allergy you won’t believe this moment]

39 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Thank you! I will get through the next few weeks and try this. I’m always up for probiotics.

You might look for the ones specifically selected to be low histamine. I have found selecting a MCAS-friendly probiotic to be confusing, but there are some brands marketing ones that they claim include only low histamine strains. 

[Kate Middleton]

1 minute ago, Corraleno said:

and had prioritized the public's obsession with her over the mental health of her children

Be prepared for the come back that it was the wrong choice for her to make for her children and she should have done that part differently, and other people’s judgment on what the ideal timeline for handling terrible news like this in her specific situation trumps her own, and therefore they are justified. 

[Kate Middleton]

3 minutes ago, Katy said:

So are you arguing that discussing leaked information is unethical? 

No. But I do think it’s in poor taste to continue to speculate and suggest all the different terrible things that might be going on with her.  And even more so to continue to do so in a vein of discussion that she’s done something wrong by not telling the public information they want to know and so deserve to be talked about. I just think she’s been treated so badly through all of this. I’m not even a fan of hers; I don’t know her and I don’t follow her. But just having read this discussion and the way it unfolded, even before she shared that it was cancer, it just all seemed kind of awful.

 

[Kate Middleton]

17 minutes ago, Katy said:

And I think many more people would be helped by her being open and completely honest.

That’s fine for that to be your opinion, but it’s her right to make a different choice about her privacy no matter what other people think about it. It should be her choice, not anyone else’s. Someone thinking she should make a different choice doesn’t give them the right to spread her private medical information, even if there are a whole bunch of people out there who are really hungry to know her medical information and thus think they are entitled to it.

She’s just a person. I feel like some people think the Royals are some thing other than that, but they’re not. They live weird lives that I don’t follow and I’m exceedingly glad I wasn’t a person born into that kind of situation having to live that kind of life, but at the end of the day, they’re just people, like we are, living their own particular weird life they ended up in. 

[S/O what’s in your purse? Narcan edition.]

5 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

We’ve found it difficult to give away narcan to citizens. I have 4 kits and 9 boxes of more doses from the piles dd had leftover from community outreach, and that was just a fraction. 

 

2 hours ago, DawnM said:

However, I would also be worried things may not go right and I would be on the hook legally.   What are the laws of administering narcan to people who can't consent or may be too under the influence to fully understand?

This is what I have heard as a reason most people aren’t interested (well, not to mention that around here, people seem to not want to do anything to help “those people” and have an attitude like they made their own bed and it’s their problem if they overdose). 

“GAO found that 48 jurisdictions (47 states and D.C.) have enacted both Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access laws. Kansas, Texas and Wyoming do not have a Good Samaritan law for drug overdoses but have a Naloxone Access law. “

CDC naloxone site: https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/naloxone/index.html

[Food allergy you won’t believe this moment]

53 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Oh, I’m so sorry about your DD. How is she doing?

I would love to have a conversation about all of this and compare experiences. My first probable MCAS crisis came just after our family may have had Covid (or the nasty adenovirus that went around in winter of 2019/2020, there was no Covid testing). Then after my first Pfizer shot, and then subsequently after the next three shots. I never had idiopathic anaphylaxis till now, though.

If you visit any Covid long hauler groups, you will find lots of discussion about post Covid mast cell disorders. There are people down to having only a handful of foods they can still eat. (If you are familiar with Physics Girl, she’s one in that situation.) I had forgotten about this, but in 2021, someone I knew casually kept having anaphylaxis with major face swelling after Covid. She was out of work for several months, but then it settled down and it didn’t seem to be a problem after that (I didn’t know her well enough to know what was going on behind the scenes, but she was back to working regularly and abandoned Covid precautions when most other people did and from the outside appears to just be living normal life.) I share the anecdote just to balance out the long hauler stories, so it doesn’t sound like everyone who has this deals with it forever  

 

[Cleaning After Prolonged Illness]

I just found the person whose method I was going to recommend. It’s KC Davis and she calls it “Struggle Care.” She uses a rolling cart on wheels to roll through rooms and pick things up. Amazon has small, manageable sizes of carts like that (here’s a small one that wouldn’t require bending to reach inside: Rolling laundry cart).

She has a website and videos. This one shows her method in a three minute video, but it appears she no longer uses the rolling cart and grabber like she used to several years ago (appears to me she’s feeling a lot better than she was when she made earlier videos):

 

[Cleaning After Prolonged Illness]

I would also recommend the method of starting with trash, then moving on to clothing (picking up any clothing in places out doesn’t belong) and then items that belong elsewhere. I wanted to suggest getting a nice garbage pickup grabber tool for these tasks. Not having to bend down repeatedly will save you a lot of energy. The chronically ill person in my life loves his. 
 

Don’t try to get this all done at once and set your health back in the process. It may be that you need to sit in a chair and direct your family members what to do in each room. 

[S/O what’s in your purse? Narcan edition.]

Wow. Thanks for sharing this. I have had a tab open in my browser to order it for months but for some reason I haven’t moved forward. I think your post is enough prompting for me. 

[s/o Any boardies that have become really well-known or are now celebrities?]

18 minutes ago, Grace Hopper said:

 

Ok is this the gal who was eating poutine somewhere? And the whole thread about her rabbit trailed into what is the heck is poutine anyway and how could anyone like the stuff?

 

1 minute ago, Halftime Hope said:

It was in an airport in Canada, and they were eating poutine and reading the forum on their phone.

How in the world I remember that detail, I have zero idea, other than I remember trying to figure out how to pronounce poutine, and to this day, I couldn't tell you. 😄 

Amazing memories, you two! I remember about poutine now, but never would have pulled that out on my own. 

[Why do people do this?? (VENT)]

37 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

While a more direct path to success sounds better on paper sometimes that just isn’t your kid.

Agree with this as well. A degree that leads pretty reliably to a job is ideal to me, but it's not a practical path for every one of our kids. I advocate it for the ones it is, but embrace the alternative for the ones it isn't.

[Kate Middleton]

4 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

Oh man, I just saw why she went underground.  That's rough.  I hope she sails through chemo has has an ideal recovery.  That's scary when you have small children.

Yeah. Imagine finding out you have cancer while still having young children and having to deal with the public conducting all this nonsense that’s been going on. I’m sure there will still be people who say she has no right to complain because she married a prince and should have expected this to happen if she ever got cancer. 

[Why do people do this?? (VENT)]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I have found it to be an INCREDIBLY difficult line to walk. I’m terrified for my music major, and especially because of his ASD (when it comes to networking and collaborating.) Rather than discouraging, dh networked to find him an internship opportunity *before* (or instead of) student loans, but my rule follower insisted on a degree being necessary for success.

I’m proud of my kid for SO many reasons, including his passion and talent for music, and I tell him often. But I am afraid for him in that competitive world.

Agree with all this. I’d actually be thrilled with the scenario of the special ed music teacher. I don’t know why her dad would not see that as a solid path. But I absolutely understand parents worrying about whether their kids will be able to find a job and/or support themselves. It’s a valid concern.

 

[Omicron anecdata?]

12 minutes ago, Amoret said:

And some are linking the rise in shingles to Covid itself.

In 2020 I used first principles to note that where there was T cell death, there would likely be dysfunction of the immune system subsequently

It is still highly contentious but there are deniers that would prefer you not attribute shingles to Covidhttps://t.co/PLFdz2h3WK

— AJ Leonardi, MBBS, PhD (@fitterhappierAJ) March 21, 2024

Right. I think the million dollar question remains about to what degree illnesses that appear to be increasing since 2020 are a result of the effects of covid on the immune system. I gather it's going to take a good deal of time before that hypothesis is either accepted or discarded. I don't know why the suggestion is so controversial to so many people though--clearly the virus has impacts on the immune system, so it stands to reason it needs to be investigated how covid impacts immunity to other viruses.

[Omicron anecdata?]

38 minutes ago, maize said:

if we can find a shingles rate breakdown by locality we would also need to cross-check it with shingles vaccination rate by locality. 

True! I had gone looking for more detailed rate information, but I was only finding data for rates of shingles vaccination. Shingles isn’t a reportable illness, so apparently our case rate data isn’t very good.

[s/o Any boardies that have become really well-known or are now celebrities?]

2 minutes ago, Susan Wise Bauer said:

I have the vaguest memory of this--and for some reason I'm thinking Lisa Whelchel?

Oh, I think that might’ve been a different incident than the one I’m thinking of then. But now that you say that, I’m remembering that name coming up here long long ago. 

[s/o Any boardies that have become really well-known or are now celebrities?]

17 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

Years ago there were rumors that a famous homeschooling celebrity was a poster here. People were trying to figure out her user name and others were saying leave it be, she deserves privacy. For the life of me I can't remember who that celebrity was. Any other old timers remember this? Do you remember who it was?

My recollection of that event was that it was never (publicly) determined? If we’re talking about the same thing, a known poster here shared they had been in public (a cruise? Restaurant? I can’t remember) and saw someone who is a celebrity and then could see that they were reading the forums on their phone. For the privacy of the celebrity, they didn’t want to share who it was. Which I thought was appropriate. 

[Omicron anecdata?]

35 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Now imagine the potential impact of those repeated infections also causing permanent (and possibly cumulative) brain damage and a reduction in executive function skills in a wide swath of the current workforce! And with children likely to be infected at least yearly, if not more frequently, that really does not bode well for the future.

I can’t figure out why this is mostly being ignored, despite the fact it keeps being found to be true. I guess its kind of like climate change—so big and overwhelming and disastrous that it’s easier to pretend it isn’t happening. 

[Omicron anecdata?]

41 minutes ago, maize said:

Since community exposure to chicken pox in the wild likely still plays a role in boosting our defenses against the virus hiding away in our own bodies, isolation and masking during the pandemic could also have contributed to a rise in shingles cases.

Thanks for the link to data. I agree the overall rise in shingles incidence that started in the nineties is likely due to childhood vaccination. I don’t know that pandemic masking could account for the current rise though. I don’t expect there has been enough wild chickenpox out there for those encounters to be making a significant impact on older people’s immunity for quite a while, so the lack of those encounters doesn’t seem it would change it. Not to mention that for much of the country, nobody masked for years anyways. It would be interesting though to look at the shingles rates by location and see if the current rates are higher or lower in states that had schools closed and people masking for longer and if they are higher or lower in states that experienced the highest rates of Covid disease. 

[Dissatisfied w/ Neuropsych response]

I thought everyone learned it the alligator way! That always made perfect sense to me, even without the teeth. I don’t think I specifically said alligator with my own kids, just that the “mouth” opens toward the bigger number. 

[s/o: Which Boardies have passed on?]

1 hour ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

StellaM changed her username, and now is taking a board break. I'm in semi-regular contact with her, and last I heard she is doing fine.

I saw her reaction on a post recently and was happy to see it and hoped she might be back again.

[s/o Any boardies that have become really well-known or are now celebrities?]

There’s the boardie whose mom became suddenly super famous for winning all those cooking ribbons at the county fair and ended up on the media circuit. I’m suddenly forgetting whose mom that is, which I feel bad about!

[Anyone have advice on Life Estates?]

The extra context seems to make the arrangement idea make less sense, unfortunately. IANAL, but if your sister is leaving him, I can't see any reason you would be able to stay in their previously shared house if she were to pass.  Can you and your sister find a place to live that each of you could afford if you needed to be solely responsible for it at some point in the future?

[GI experts- FODMAP and other Q's]

Is she a reliable enough reporter that you can feel confident the doctor said viral and not bacterial and antiviral and not antibiotic (those are the kinds of things my own parents would easily mix up). Although, if the doctor felt it was bacterial, it would make no sense at all that he hadn't tested her (still makes no sense to me anyway), so that suggests he probably really did say viral.

3 hours ago, Alice said:

I don't know if it's seen as much in adults, but in kids we often see post-viral diarrhea. It's often a post-viral lactose intolerance. So when a kid has diarrhea that is persistent after a virus, I'll usually recommend them trying completely going off all dairy. If it is that, it should improve fairly quickly, within a week. And then we usually recommend them continuing for something like 4-6 weeks and gradually reintroducing dairy.

Definitely seen in adults as well (particularly post acute-GI illness), and this is a really good thought. We found it took much longer than 4-6 weeks to recover from it. But removing ALL dairy would be an excellent first step to see if that improves things. Much easier than trying to figure out FODMAP if it turns out it's just dairy.

I'd also start florastor, unless it's contraindicated for her for any reason.