Alligator Woman from Klagdar 6

Ayyyyyy, mast cells, lmaoooooo

Writing posts about symptoms I experience as a result of wonky mast cells (or any of my health issues, really) is still a little weird for me. They're not often shared by others, so it's not really something I post to commiserate about - and I'm constantly worried about being perceived as an attention whore or a pity monger. In the end, though, I take the pictures for my records anyway (which is a great thing to do if you have chronic health concerns and are fortunate enough to have external indicators) and I guess I feel that I have just as much a right to share them as someone else would with a selfie of them and their friends at a dinner or a picture of someone's cute baby. Dinners and babies are someone else's life. Symptoms are mine.

I'm actually kind of excited because I found the pattern for this one: predictably, regardless of soaps or weather I get cracking, thickening, swelling, itching, stinging skin on both hands that lasts for two weeks. Over the past three months I've ascertained that this starts developing during the second half of my cycle, when everything else usually gets worse anyway.

Same hand a few days ago. 

Most attempts to put normally OK products on them leads to weeping, even more swollen wounds. Once in a while I can get away with shea butter (at least for now) but, usually, I wind up with hands similar to this with no way to treat them. They're worse this time around due to my increased seasonal reactivity. I think there's more overall swelling than usual, too; recently my nails have looked a bit lost in their nail beds, and the pulling at the cuticles means I have a lot of deep hangnails.

Sometimes while out and about they'll crack open and the blood starts dripping down my hands in stores, which sounds kinda metal until you realize it's happening to a fat Midwesterner in a mobility cart who may be wearing a cartoon shirt. I'll be chillin' at home and I'll suddenly feel a tiny "ping"; I'll look down to see that I just felt my skin split in a new place.

I guess I just wanted to share another post-diagnosis discovery with yall as a bit of a test for this new format. I honestly view it as a positive; I like knowing what causes my health oddities because then I know that it's not my fault. With a medical history involving doctors like some of the ones I've had that knowledge is absolutely a priceless gift.