Y’all deserve high quality writing. You do. But, this is what you’re getting so that I can find some personal time today…and it’s going to be relatively to the point and skip anything more elevated or artsy.

Life with a lot of allergies and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome can be complicated to navigate under the best of circumstances. And some of what I do with my risks are because I face the same types of realities as the nurse who discharged me when I went into anaphylaxis a few years ago. She told me that if it had been her, she would have stayed home and died because she couldn’t afford the ER bill. As I recall, my portion was over $2000, and we have (and had) insurance.

Challenge testing something in my allergist’s office isn’t cheap either. So, in the line of patients who reduce meds because they can’t afford it, I sometimes take risks or choose to try things out on my own on the basis of what I know about my body and any previous reactions I have had to something. CBD was a milder reaction for me back when I was reacting, never been anything but mild in all of the years I’ve been trying it. So I felt pretty comfortable trying it out at home. Not comfortable enough to do it while my husband was working (he’s got medical training, I take risks but I’m not completely careless). Nopales? Those caused swelling on my throat the first time I tried them roughly 10 years ago…so if I ever decided I really wanted to try them again, that’s something I would feel uncomfortable doing anywhere else but my allergist’s office. Because they are easy to avoid and I don’t really crave them, I’ve never even brought it up to my allergist (and they certainly don’t have that one on the standard food allergy tests), so he doesn’t even have that one on my medical record. But Stevia? It’s being added to more and more things, caused swelling on my face…so that challenge test is definitely scheduled for his office.

I can’t always afford to go in every time I react to something either if it doesn’t lead to serious symptoms. I have been reacting to things my entire life so while I feel the tension and sometimes even the fear when trying something new to me, I’m nearly 48 so I’ve been there, dealt with this for a long time. So if it’s something new to me, I’ll try it, see how it goes…and if it’s just hives or anything I can treat at home he’s not seeing me.

For me, loosing the CBD sensitivity and allergy has been a serious boon for managing my Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Symptoms and my allergies in general. I can still react to stuff, but some days I’m only doing one antihistamine right now – in peak allergy season- and doing way better than I was two months ago (the start of peak allergy season) being on way more antihistamine. This has been pretty awesome, life altering even. The main side effect I have is dryness, for both my skin and my eyes, but I can lotion and oil more and use products for dry eye and it’s more than worth it to me the trade offs.

But, it wasn’t completely easy to figure out what was doing what initially. Viral infection that came with a POTS flair up (thumbs down), hives to blue agave even with antihistamines in my system (sigh, me and the plants of the desert apparently do not get along)…at one point I got off of everything but 1 to 2 Allegra just to see what was doing what (I even stopped the CBD). And without the CBD, my Mast Cell Activation Syndrome got a bit cranky and started throwing up hives until the CBD resumed. Finding a brand of CBD gummies I can use hasn’t been easy, because many contain things like mango (yep, allergic) or other products I’m allergic to…fortunately, I found one that uses sugar and the spirulina that is coloring the green ones isn’t causing a problem.

The tea I mentioned last week? I love it, Andy hates it, and I’m not having any sorts of reactions to the ingredient I had never had before. For me, trying something new to me comes with potential risk even before I developed Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I know my allergist would probably be a bunch happier if I didn’t take these risks, but unless he starts comping my bills (which I would never expect or even ask for)…I am sure many of you probably understand and can relate. I do the best I can and I can’t always afford to do everything by a doctor’s version of the book.

So, do as I say, not as I do. If you want to be at the safest, you’re going to have to find the money. If you can’t find the money…I hear you. Health care costs have gotten out of control and most of us are just trying to do the best we can with it.