Histamine Bucket
As I started this blog post I realized The Histamine Bucket isn’t all that hard to explain, just hard to wrap your head around… The Histamine Bucket controls how reactive, how severe, how soon my reaction is, which makes a few things kind of tricky. For one it makes it difficult to find triggers when you don’t react the same way each time, but with the help of food diaries, limited diets, food challenges, and just slowly learning how to listen to my body and accept my new limitations one-by-one I felt better. When first explained to me I was told to picture a Bucket and every time I was exposed to a trigger add water to the bucket and the fuller the bucket the more reactive I am. Looking at it from a sickly perspective, if I’m healthy and exposed it hurts and adds to my bucket but, a reaction can be could be stopped/less severe if proper medications happen ASAP! On the other hand, if my bucket is full/ I’m not 100% and I’m exposed to a trigger then the reaction is more severe, more immediate, and often results in an ER visit because my at-home medication can’t control my reaction and then to top it off, it can take up to 2 weeks to fully recover from the episode. There are triggers that are so sensitive that no matter how empty my bucket is they still set off worst case reaction with just a small exposure. This is all a case-by-case type of thing, no MCAS patient is the exact same so trying to predict what will happen is easier said than done.
So, trying anything new is scary because I just have no idea how my body is going to react to this new stranger. From a simple soap in the bathroom in a store to a medicine that’s SUPPOSE to help me, but does the completely opposite. For this simple fact my anxiety is on all-time high, most of the time. It’s a lot to take in and accept that this is part of my life, the levels to my illness seem endless sometimes and my restrictions can feel like a trap, it’s part of why I started this blog. MCAS has made me put on my big girl pants in more ways than one and being more open and honest with my friends and family, with my doctors, and with myself was a big step for me.
My goal is to write about my journey, The Histamine Bucket was a rough lesson to learn and invited doubt with doctors and some of my loved ones because it’s so unheard of and the levels that go along with MCAS and all the buddies that join the party (like POTS and EDS) that just add to the complication. If one of them gets triggered or thrown off balance than they ALL get thrown. I understand it’s hard to take in and wrap your head around that the human body can be so complex. All the nation’s top allergists and immunologists now understand MCAS and it’s many challenges but, there’s only been TWO medical conferences in the United States over Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and the first one was held 2019 and this October 20 is the FOURTH annual Mast Cell Awareness Day. My goal is to educate from my experience and to help myself get more comfortable using my voice, it took years to get where I am at and it made me put things on hold, shift my lifestyle, change my diet, find a new career, and cut people off.
I guess The Histamine Bucket helped show me who my people were because they had to take my word for it. I’m not one to advertise my weakness or be sick/vulnerable in front of people and when I do, I feel I share to much… but I’m learning and growing and finding my way through this life. I’ve found the people that truly care have no problem helping me stay away from my triggers and the ones that tested them or had no concern for the consequence I would have to pay. When my histamine bucket is low my reaction can happen the next day and be a day spent in the bathroom and the next day depleted so much that I have no energy to move, let alone adult… a day where if I stand for more than 5 minutes, I get dizzy and light-headed and can ultimately faint. If my histamine bucket is full and I’m exposed to a trigger the reaction is more severe and violent and can be WEEKS down feeling faint and sick. The bucket can be emptied with medications and simply staying away from my triggers and with time my body heals, and my old Mast Cells die. The Histamine Bucket is a big deal because it put things into perspective for me and pushed me down a road (Literally). Next week I’ll talk about How RV Life helped me create my new path.
