#mast-cell — Public Fediverse posts

Symptom: Mast Cell Itching

https://www.illmarks.com/symptom-mast-cell-itching/

#allergicreactions #Allergies #allergy #art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #buildingSafety #chonicillness #chronicIllness #claws #eds #ehlersdanlossyndrome #environmentalIllness #environmentalillness #fingers #formaldehyde #heds #hypermobile #hypermobility #hypermobilityspectrumdisorder #immunology #itched #itching #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastcell #mastcellactivationsyndrome #mastcelldisease #mastocytosis #mcas #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #nails #POTS #prop65 #publicHealth #publicHealth #pwLC #pwme #scratched #scratching #scratchy #severeallergy #vocs

2025-8-30 Post-Exertional Symptom Exacerbation & MCAS Environmental Illness

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-30-post-exertional-symptom-exacerbation-mcas-environmental-illness/

#allergy #art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #bodymapping #buildingbiology #cfs #chronicIllness #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #chronicIllness #environmentalillness #envrionmentalIllness #healthcare #healthcarereform #healthinsurance #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mastcellactivationsyndrome #mastcelldisease #mcas #me #mecfs #medicalArt #medicalactivism #medicalart #medicalblog #medicalreform #MillionsMissing #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #pem #pese #pwLC #pwme #SciArt #scienceart #usahealthcare #ushealthcare

2025 September & October: So tired of this same MCAS nightmare

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-september-october-so-tired-of-this-same-mcas-nightmare/

#Allergies #art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #bodyhorror #bodymapping #buildingbiology #chemicallysensitive #chronicIllness #chronicIllness #GI #immunology #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #mastcellactivationsyndrome #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme

Symptom: Environmental Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Hypothesis – Mold

https://www.illmarks.com/symptom-enviro-mcas-hypothesis-mold/

#allergy #art #blackmold #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #buildingBiology #buildingbiology #chronicIllness #evironmental #fountainPen #fountainpen #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mcas #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pnw #pwLC #pwme

Anyone who’s been a medium- or long-term vegetarian with #MCAS tried a DAO supplement?

How did it go digestion wise? Was it helpful?

#mastCellDisease #mastCell

2025-8-22 Almost a week out of the house stopped me from getting worse, but healing is SO SLOW

The MCAS Environmental Exposure Nightmare Continues

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-22-almost-a-week-out-of-the-house-stopped-me-from-getting-worse-but-healing-is-so-slow/

#art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #environmental #inktober #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastcell #mcas #medart #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #SciArt

Symptom: Arthralgia and Arthritis

I need to pick a “job title” to describe the work I do here. I initially tried to make a poll with a plug in, but alas it didn’t work the way I hoped.

Here are some of the options I’m considering. Feel free to reply/comment with any or suggest your own!:

• Health & Care Advocacy Designer
• Mast Cell Artist Syndrome
• Chronically ill-ustrating Health Advocacy
• Plague Artist

Rejected (not great for professional use) options that I’ll share with you because I love you, but don’t tell my PCP about any of these, k?

• Notorious Self-Diagnoser
• Health Insurance Reform Enthusiast
• Creatinine-level Checking Creative
• Medical System Subverter
• Bruh They’re a Totally Sick Designer
• Mario’s Brother Appreciator

https://www.illmarks.com/symptom-arthralgia-and-arthritis-and-a-poll/

#art #arthralgia #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #eds #heds #hsd #hypermobility #hypermobilityspectrum #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #mcas #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #osteoarthritis #pwLC #pwme #spondylitis #symptom #symptomVisualization #symptomtracking

2025_8_19 The symptoms are coming from inside the house.

2026-3-9 edit: A previous version of this page held steps you can take during the acute infection to lower your risk of Long Covid, or lower the severity of how a reinfection will worsen your existing Long Covid.

Information on supporting a FULL recovery from SARS-CoV-2 is now more accessible on its own permalink page here, or from the top bar: Information > Got a Covid Infection?

https://www.illmarks.com/symptoms-are-coming-long-covid-prevention-tips/

#allergy #art #backToSchool #backtoschool #besafe #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #cdc #chronicIllness #covid #covidIsAirborne #covidIsNotOver #covid19 #covid19 #covidcompetent #CovidIsntOver #environmental #health #healthcare #longCovid #longcovid #maskUp #maskup #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mcas #medArt #medart #medblog #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pwme #SaltingTheVibes #SaltingTheVibes #sarsCov2 #sars2 #sciArt #SciArt #WearAMask #WearARespirator

2025_8_18 I booked a hotel to try to identify/isolate variables. As soon as I walked in the hotel room, I felt my head swell.

https://www.illmarks.com/2025_8_18-i-booked-a-hotel-to-try-to-identify-isolate-variables-as-soon-as-i-walked-in-the-hotel-room-i-felt-my-head-swell/

#art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #chronicMigraine #chronicPain #chronicmigraine #covidIsNotOver #CovidIsntOver #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mcas #meCfs #mecfs #medArt #medart #medblog #medicalArt #migraine #MillionsMissing #neurology #POTS #pwLC #pwme

2025_8_14 I feel better out of the house, which is incongruous with ME/CFS Long Covid.

https://www.illmarks.com/2025_8_14-i-feel-better-out-of-the-house-which-is-incongruous-with-me-cfs-long-covid/

#art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #cfs #chronicIllness #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mcas #me #meCfs #mecfs #medArt #medart #medicalArt #medicine #migraine #MillionsMissing #neurology #pwLC #pwme #rheumatology

Symptom: MCAS Brain Fog

This post comes to you with a reminder that while “Brain Fog,” is an apt descriptor, it should not be used to undermine the severity of the condition.

“These are fairly identical functional symptoms that people with Long COVID have, to the symptoms that people within a traumatic brain injury have,” says Dr James C Jackson, psychologist specializing on cognitive rehabilitation and Long Covid.

“Strictly speaking, this is not a traumatic brain injury (TBI) because there’s no external trauma. Which is why if we go down deep, this will be not a TBI that people experience. It would be something called an ABI, the lesser-known cousin of a TBI. Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI) happen often due to internal processes, not external medical processes, inflammation, the 101 other mechanisms that drive these injuries. And when we look at the brains of some Long COVID patients, we see brain damage on MRIs, we see indicators that are not dissimilar from those of people with mild cognitive impairment or a mild TBI.“

Dr Jackson is the author of Clearing the Fog: a book on navigating life with the cognitive and mental health impairments that often accompany Long Covid.

Quotes from Dr Jackson’s appearance on the Me Myself & TBI podcast, edited for clarity & brevity.

https://www.illmarks.com/symptom-mcas-brain-fog/

#abi #allergy #art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #brainFog #brainfog #chemicallySensitive #chronicIllness #cognitive #cognitiveImpairment #cognitiveImpairments #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #medArt #medart #medical #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #neuro #neurology #neuropsych #psychiatry #Psychology #pwLC #pwme #tbi

2025-8-17 The water isn’t the whole picture… but what is?

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-17-the-water-isnt-the-whole-picture-but-what-is/

#allergen #allergy #art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #chronicPain #chronicIllness #chronicPain #dermatology #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mcas #meCfs #mecfs #medart #medical #medicalArt #medicine #migraine #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #rash #rheumatology #SciArt #sciartseptember #water

2025-8-11 My migraines are triggered by drinking water

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-11-my-migraines-are-triggered-by-drinking-water/

#art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #chronicMigraine #chronicPain #disability #disabled #longCovid #longcovid #mastcell #mcas #medBlog #medart #medicalArt #medicalBlog #migraine #MillionsMissing #neurology #pwLC #pwme #sciBlog #SciArt

2025-8-9 I almost went in to anaphylaxis from drinking water.

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-9-i-almost-went-in-to-anaphylaxis-from-drinking-water/

#allergy #art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #immune #immunology #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #mcas #medArt #medBlog #medart #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #sciArt #sciBlog #SciArt

2025-8-9 Is this MCAS anaphylaxis, anxiety, or anaphylaxis from anxiety?

I almost didn’t want to share this one, because I’m in a bit of a nervous state, and I was worried about the people who think people with Long Covid are psychological malingerers, etc. When I had to leave work, and filed for US Social Security Disability, I kept my Generalized Anxiety Disorder out of my initial application, afraid of getting the dreaded “just anxiety,” dismissal that many complex chronic illness kin are familiar with. (I was later told this was a bad move, and to definitely include all mental health and neurodivergence things, which I did for the ongoing process.)

Even as I’m having less anaphylaxis risk, it’s taking time to recover psychologically. I told my therapist how I felt like I backslid over a decade in mental health work overnight from the first recent anaphylaxis episode. She kindly said that while I might feel as scared and threatened as I often did back then, that the trigger was different. I was not feeling that anxious about an email, I was feeling that way about a literal life and death situation, one which I still don’t fully understand the triggers of.

A decade ago, de-stigmatizing mental healthcare was really important to me too. Now, I’m especially aware of how much these issues intersect, so heck yeah, publishing the medical art about anxiety.

Lastly, I wanted to include few examples of the ways in which these issues intersect. These are absolutely the tip of the iceberg.

• Mast Cell Activation Snydrome (often MCAS for space, in my art) can trigger so, so many pyschological symptoms. Mast Attack has a great overview of the topic, and while I haven’t been able to read the study fully because of the severe brain fog, Prevalence and treatment response of neuropsychiatric disorders in mast cell activation syndrome caught my eye.

• Anaphylaxis, or near anaphylaxis, has many symptoms in common with anxiety, from chest tightness to clammy skin, and “a feeling of impending doom”. While MCAS is not allergies, All Things Allergies has an easy intro to anxiety & anaphylaxis, and here’s a study The impact of anaphylaxis on the quality of life and mental health of adults.

• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome co-occurs with many mental health issues, and I really appreciate how this article lists suspected mechanisms, misattributions, and related factors.

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, is a form of autonomic dysfuntction (when things your body normally does automatically stop behaving normally), and is a part of my Long Covid. It involves a high heart rate, and often symptoms like room spinning or lightheadedness, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, and poor bloodflow. POTS is often misdiagnosed as anxiety, and The Disabled Ginger wrote about it here.

Theories that diseases are caused by mental states and can be cured by will power are always an index of how much is not understood about the physical terrain of a disease.

Moreover, there is a peculiarly modern predilection for psychological explanations of a disease, as of everything else. Psychologizing seems to provide control over the experiences and events (like grave illnesses) over which people have in fact little or no control. Psychological understanding undermines the ‘reality’ of a disease. That reality has to be explained.

Susan Sontag, illness as metaphor (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977), p. 55.

p.s. mental health is physical health and physical health is mental health. you got a literal brain in your body and all of your body is involved in everything that you do. please take care of yourselves and each other. <3

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-8-9-is-this-mcas-anaphylaxis/

#allergy #anaphylaxis #anxiety #art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #gad #generalizedAnxiety #immune #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mcas #medart #medblog #medicalArt #medwriting #mentalHealth #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #SciArt #sciblog #sciwriting #symptom

2025-7-30 I woke up to the migraine spreading. What is it and how do I stop it?!

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-7-30-i-woke-up-to-the-migraine-spreading-what-is-it-and-how-do-i-stop-it/

#art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #chronicPain #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mcas #medart #medicalArt #migraine #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #SciArt

Symptom: MCAS Bucket Explosion
Triggers Include: Drinking Water, Brushing Teeth, Being Inside

Seattle area folks who can attend IRL events:
I will be teaching a respirator-required art workshop related to this project, Bookmarks on the Body, at QTBIPOC Arts Space The Fishbowl on August 27, 6-9pm. I would love to see you there.

While this is not a hybrid event, I am creating virtual-only and disability-focused workshops! I will be using what I learn from this first workshop to improve the format, structure, and content.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me illmarks @ nyx mir dot com

https://www.illmarks.com/symptom-mcas-bucket-explosion/

#allergy #art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chronicIllness #chronicPain #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastcell #mcas #medart #medicalArt #migraine #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme #SciArt #seatac #seattle

2025_5_6 Eternal Suffering of the Mast Cell

https://www.illmarks.com/2025_5_6-eternal-suffering-of-the-mast-cell/

#art #autoimmune #bodyHorror #chronicIllness #longCovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastcell #mcas #MillionsMissing #pwLC #pwme

2025-2-12 Starting imatinib for resistant mast cell symptoms.

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-2-12-starting-imatinib-for-resistant-mast-cell-symptoms/

#art #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #chemo #chronicIllness #chronicIllnessArt #disabilityArt #gleevec #glivec #imatinib #invisibleDisabilities #invisibleIllness #invisibleIllnesses #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mastocytosis #meCfs #mecfs #medart #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #nausea #pwLC #pwme #SciArt #scienceArt #tki

2025-1-19 MCAS trigger: allium smell

https://www.illmarks.com/2025-1-19-mcas-trigger-allium-smell/

#bodyHorror #chronicIllness #histamineBucket #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mcas #medart #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #SciArt #scienceArt

2025_1_20 environmental allergies triggered (MCAS)

MCAS, or mast cell activation syndrome, is a common post-viral illness which can give severe, dangerous allergic reactions even to people who had no allergies previously, like me.

A few days ago I tried to clean out my old apartment, which we’d removed the air purifiers from, and immediately broke out in rashes and hives. I was mentally struggling and afraid. When I remembered I had a KN95 mask in the car, it helped a lot, but MCAS is a deeply terrifying and hard to understand condition.

There are resources in my about page about MCAS, but here are a few:

Broadwaybabyto’s “Welcome Guide” to MCAS:

– When You’re Allergic to Everything and Nothing… That’s MCAS (MCAS pt 1)

– MCAS and Histamine – Diet isn’t the ONLY Answer(MCAS pt 2)

And two other blogs dedicated to Mast Cell condition information:

– Mast Attack (Blog, on Mast Cell Conditions)

– Jodie Ettenberg’s Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Resources (Blog, on Mast Cell Conditions)

https://www.illmarks.com/2025_1_20-environmental-allergies-triggered-mcas/

#bodyHorror #chronicIllness #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #mcas #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #postViralIllness #pwLC #pwme

2025_1_20 environmental allergies triggered (MCAS)

MCAS, or mast cell activation syndrome, is a common post-viral illness which can give severe, dangerous allergic reactions even to people who had no allergies previously, like me.

A few days ago I tried to clean out my old apartment, which we’d removed the air purifiers from, and immediately broke out in rashes and hives. I was mentally struggling and afraid. When I remembered I had a KN95 mask in the car, it helped a lot, but MCAS is a deeply terrifying and hard to understand condition.

There are resources in my about page about MCAS, but here are a few:

Broadwaybabyto’s “Welcome Guide” to MCAS:

– When You’re Allergic to Everything and Nothing… That’s MCAS (MCAS pt 1)

– MCAS and Histamine – Diet isn’t the ONLY Answer(MCAS pt 2)

And two other blogs dedicated to Mast Cell condition information:

– Mast Attack (Blog, on Mast Cell Conditions)

– Jodie Ettenberg’s Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Resources (Blog, on Mast Cell Conditions)

https://www.illmarks.com/2025_1_20-environmental-allergies-triggered-mcas/

#bodyHorror #chronicIllness #longCovid #longcovid #mastCell #mastcell #mcas #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #postViralIllness #pwLC #pwme