4 AM Wakeup

4 AM Art Therapy Ink and Digital Manipulation 

Since April I have been waking up at some time between 2-4 AM in various degrees of sickness. It is a major bummer and means I have been getting about 3 or 4 hours sleep. It is, as some remind me, an improvement to waking 4-6 times a night.

Previous to Finding The Mastocytosis Society on Facebook, and Dr Lewis at Mayo  clinic, I would wake struggling to breathe. Even with my C-Pap machine running. It was very scary.

But since adding treatment and removing some triggers it is reduced to once a night, being a thick feeling in my throat, a cough, itching, and mild flushing for the most part. A benedryl clears it up but I usually don't fall back asleep for hours. Friends from Masto facebook groups have suggested this is common as our bodies release a "histamine dump" at 2-4 AM daily. Great... more research is ahead of me on what exactly that means, and I have made a note to ask Dr Lewis about it. 

I have been making art in the mornings daily, since I am awake anyway, and my art helps me to deal with the stress until the symptoms improve.  Today I decided to deal with the stress of the 4AM histamine rush by making art about it. ART Therapy works really well for me!

I share about this here in order to keep track for myself of what has been going on, and also to raise awareness of what some  people with MCAD and Mastocytosis experience in our daily lives.

I am only one person, So can only share immediately from my personal experience. However, I plan to interview others with Mast Cell disorders and will post those interviews to this blog in the future. Also, I have been collecting links to blogs by people with illness like me.

If you would like to share about what it is like to live with a mast cell disorder of any kind, please comment below and we can connect to discuss how best to share your story.

To see more of my art, please visit http://PeaceFullCreations.blogspot.com