Let me give you a little lesson in how not to mess yourself up. So, some of you know that I was put on a medication to help the inflammation from the histamine intolerance and MCAS, and it’s supposed to help stabilize my mast cells little. Well, I misunderstood how the meds work, and boy did I mess up my body. 
First, the medication does help a lot. For the first few weeks, I barely needed any Benadryl at all. And my body just generally felt better. However, somehow, I got it in my head that that meant I could go ahead and eat higher histamine foods again, and that it would take care of that issue. And that was a major mistake.
Long story short: I’ve been eating a number of foods that I normally can’t, and my body is inflamed like hell. And I now understand that, while the medication helps control reactions, it does not make it safe for me to eat the higher histamine foods. I’m going to have to go on a histamine detox, so to speak, and clear out the inflammation from the foods I’ve been eating. My medication helps manage the issue, but it doesn’t fix the core problem — which really, there is no fix for.
I’m sure going to miss some of the foods I added back in again, but I’m not going to miss the fact that I have way too many aches and pains again, and that I recently pulled two different muscles in the past two weeks, and my neck and hip are severely inflamed. There’s a very good chance that the muscle pulls either wouldn’t have happened, or they wouldn’t be nearly so bad, if I hadn’t been screwing myself over.
So it’s back to a low histamine diet, and trying to keep low-carb with it — which is difficult. And hopefully in a couple weeks, I’ll be back to no Benadryl and a body that feels much calmer again.
For those of you who are just joining me on my blog, here are links to my blogs about what histamine intolerance is (Part 1, Part 2), and a good general link to what mast cell activation syndrome is.
(And just an FYI: my doctor did not do a bad job in explaining the medication to me. Neither did pharmacist. I think I just heard what I wanted to hear, which I don’t usually do, but I think in this case, yeah, wishful thinking).
Oh, do I hear this!
I’ve encountered it from a different perspective.
I’m now on a reasonably effective regimen of medications and lifestyle changes for my chronic illness. I’m doing better than I was a year ago, which has resulted in comments (mostly from family) that go something like:
“…maybe your doctor can start helping you get off some of those other medications now that you have the new one.”
or: “Are you better now?”
I’m not better. This probably won’t go away. I’m on the new medication because all the other medications have gotten me to a point where my doctor and I can start fine-tuning the treatment to try to increase my quality of life.
If I am “better,” it’s because I’m using a lot of resources to adapt my lifestyle. I spend half of my limited energy monitoring things…
All this to say that yes, the struggle is real. …and yes, the temptation to see any treatment, especially when it’s given us relief, as an all-out “cure” is so real!
Yep–there’s no cure for MCAS. So it’s a ‘manage it’ strategy. And yeah, I hear that–the temptation is so real and so there.
Have you tried other anti-inflammatory foods or supplements like turmeric?
There are so many anti-inflammatory foods that are totally off limits for me, including tumeric, garlic, and a number of other foods/herbs like that. So yeah, I can’t do most of them given my other conditions.
So sorry that you went through all that. Hope you can get your body back on track soon.
I’m working on it. I really messed up but I’ll get back on track. Just going to take some time for my body to clear out the gunk.
Hello,
And now you know. So sorry.
Lady, it happens to the best of us. Don’t beat yourself up too bad about it. Just get back on track and move forward. I wondered about the weird feeling I got when you said you were going to do that earlier. But I didn’t want to interfere because no one knows our bodies like the person inhabiting said body. If anyone can work through that kind of balance, I know you can. You inspire so many of us with not just your writing but just you being you. And I wouldn’t exactly call it a mistake but a learning experience. Yeah, you knew deep down you shouldn’t but you had to try and see. Now that you’ve brushed yourself off, go kick that inflammation and intolerance in the butt. I know you know all of this but I also know sometimes we have to hear it outside our heads and from someplace outside of the norm. Hugs~~~
Yeah, and some people *can* reintroduce foods, especially if the HIT just came on as the result of a sudden glitch, and they don’t have MCAS on top of it. I’m slowly clearing through the gunk and yeah…it’s amazing what we can hear when we WANT to hear it. LOL