So many death foods: A taste of disability

I think it is safe to say all of us have learned things about ourselves during this crazy stupid pandemic. I, for one, learned I can be intensely allergic to latex products. This has been life changing, and it has helped answer bizarre health questions by turning my reactivity up to eleven.

I first had my first “you can’t ignore this” reaction to latex in 2016. In retrospect, it’s an allergy I’ve had my entire life. As I look at the foods and clothing I’ve avoided and the things that randomly bothered me … all latex or latex related. That nasty rash from a waterproof saddle in grad school? Latex. The similarly nasty rash from fake leather shoes? Latex. Throat swelling after eating avocados? Also latex. Sometimes, it can take a stupid amount of time to put all the pieces together, see the trend, and uncover the underlying trigger.

With the full reality of a progressively more severe latex allergy coming at me, I’ve been getting more medical tests, and I’ve been writing down “when X then Y” with health data. My trusty right hand woman, Lindsey/@tinyodom has been with me, writing shit down and noting the things I wasn’t noticing for myself… and she realized one day “oh shit, you have, like, every symptom of MCAD.”

She was right.

Mast Cell Activation Disorder is a suite of illnesses related to mast cells misbehaving (there are links below). I had never heard of any of this. It turns out that it is one of those hard to diagnose / underdiagnosed disorders that may…