Life Update

I’ve been debating if I should share this or not. I have decided to let you all know what has been going on. Most of you already know this, but some of you have no idea. As many of you know I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2014. I was having some more problems just thinking that it was my endo flaring up, but I was wrong. Back in the beginning of October I had a procedure done on my bladder to check to see if I have something called Interstitial Cystitis.  Before my procedure my urologist said that he was also going to be looking to see if I had a large mast cell count in my bladder. I wasn’t quite sure as to what he was talking about at the time. Michael and I were told the day of that I did have interstitial cystitis and that I was going to go back in two weeks for a follow up to discuss my options. Little did we know that the day of my doctor’s visit that our lives would be flipped upside down once again. I was told that I had a high mast cell count in my bladder and that I had something called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. He explained how serious it can be and gave me some websites and information and medications for me to try out. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s a long explanation but I will try to keep it as short as possible. Mast cells are what helps you when you get sick. The mast cells release chemicals in your body to help fight off whatever virus you have. But when you have a mast cell disorder, those chemicals are always being released into your body. Causing you to be allergic to basically everything around you. Your body is always fighting against your immune system, even when it doesn’t need to. I am always having some type of allergic reaction, some more severe than others. One of those reactions being that it causes me to stay tired no matter how much I sleep. Imagine having a horrible case of the flu all the time. How it drains you completely, how your body aches all day, how you just can’t breathe. That is what this feels like. I say all of this not for sympathy or attention. I bring this up for awareness and information. I’m tired of staying quiet and being ashamed of being sick. Being chronically ill makes you feel as though you have to keep things to yourself because you don’t want to seem needy or whiny or pitiful or for people to feel sorry for us. We often feel embarrassed by how we are, and we shouldn’t feel that way. 

This is just something that I have, it’s not who I am.