I got a condition called MCAS as a parting gift from a COVID infection and it’s given me so many adult onset allergies. They’re scary as heck. I’m glad you sought help and pulled through!
I had Covid before I got the vaccine. Now I can't take NSAIDS or drink wine. I get giant , painful hives that burn and itch. I thought there were some food triggers but that does not seem to be the case
Ah, sounds like me. MCAS suuuucks. I can’t believe how many people have histamine and mast cell issues now after COVID. My doc said that virus flipped a switch in so many people’s immune systems.
Did you happen to develop an allergy to anything topical (like deodorant)? I started experiencing this intermittently around 2020 and this may be something I need to explore. I also have endometriosis; they have recently started to explore a possible connection between MCAS and endo.
Once I got COVID in 2023 I got MCAS and became allergic to pretty much everything overnight. I have very few soaps and steroid creams I can tolerate - stuff like deodorant is off the table completely 😭 I see a lot of endo patients with MCAS on the MCAS subreddit - I have a lot of gyno issues myself, it seems like there’s a connection there!
Thank you, I think I need to learn more about this. It’s all so new to me, I just heard about MCAS for the first time in the last few months. This sounds really hard, I’m sorry you have to deal with this every day!
This happened to a lot of people! I had covid, and then suddenly had issues, and the allergy/immunology specialist told me that allergies just happen when you get older and to just avoid what set me off. A year later I was down to baked chicken, broccoli, rice, and some fish when I saw another specialist who said he had been seeing a lot of people like me after Covid and put me on medication and suddenly I could eat again (except dairy and some uncooked fruit).
Yepp! My allergist said he’d only seen a handful of MCAS patients during his career and then after COVID it was like an immunological bomb went off. Now he has MCAS patients every day and his wait list is 7 months out. It’s wild how much damage COVID does to the immune system. Sad high five for being in the same boat haha
I had been to the Dr's and ER a few times because of hives and angioedema and basically was told to " lower my stress levels". Finally had a physician's assistant realize it was NSAIDS setting me off. She got me a referral for and allergist/immunolgist and then all HE said was that I'm allergic to dogs , cats, dust, pollen etc. I had never had those allergies before Covid, with a "potential " auto immune component. 😒 I'm so sick of Dr's not believing us. Believe me , I don't want any of this.
Ugh, I’m sorry you got so brushed off. It’s wild how dismissive some healthcare providers can be about MCAS. I’m glad you’re doing better on medication now - can I ask what kind? The ones I’ve been trying with my docs have not been very effective, sigh.
The second doctor kind of assumed I had already been diagnosed and was getting a second opinion with him. When he figured out that I genuinely had no idea and that the other doctor just said ‘it happens’ he was baffled and slightly upset on my behalf.
We’ve been trying various H1/H2 antihistamine combos to start with, and as long as I try to be strict with what I eat day by day I might not need to take any mast cell stabilizers. Sometimes I still get the histamine dump at 3 or 4 am, though, which can be distressing because I’m sometimes at work then.
I like Allegra and Pepcid mixed with Prilosec because of the GERD that was diagnosed before the MCAS, but those two conditions do tend to go hand in hand sometimes. There are some side effects for taking those long term, but even my GP at this point says that it’s better to take them because they saw what could happen when I don’t.
My allergist said he rarely saw MCAS patients in his career til the pandemic hit. Now he sees MCAS patients every day and his wait list is 7+ months. Something about the virus switched on histamine and mast cell issues for so many people, or worsened them in people who already had them. 😔
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u/Job_Moist 9h ago
I got a condition called MCAS as a parting gift from a COVID infection and it’s given me so many adult onset allergies. They’re scary as heck. I’m glad you sought help and pulled through!