Hi Judy,

I highly doubt that the removal of a few mm of blood are going to cause any real stress upon the system to the point it would trigger a reaction.  And if it did, the reaction would be right away, not hours or a day later.  

I´m pretty sensitive and I´ve reacted to a glucose tolerance test as well as the effects of some medications due to the stress they put my system through.  It´s known that some of us are this sensitive, but this would be the insertion of something.  It is known that a bolus injection (an injection where meds are given quickly) will cause histamine release and I´ve experienced this, but the removal of a few mm of blood generally should not do this.  

However, having said this, I have freaked out my hematologist because the BMB triggered intense reacting, something she was totally unprepared for.  However, this has been seen to happen amongst some of us.   I´ve never heard, however of a mere blood test doing this.

Now, that being said, it is a WELL KNOWN FACT that there are people who faint at the sight of a needle and if you remove blood they are OUT.   This is NOT the same as to the reaction caused with a BMB.  This is a triggering of the sympathetic nervous system and it´s a well known emotional response.  

Could this be happening with the person you love, YOU BET!  Why would we masto patients be any different?   Our emotional system is closely tied to our nervous sytem and the mast cells throughout our bodies.  There are a number of mediators on the nervous system and the MCs have tons of receptors primed just to those mediators, which is why strong emotions will trigger us like anxiety and frights, and being overjoyed, etc.    We ALL get nervous with exams, even doctors.  Our instinct is to protect ourselves and when you've got someone wrapping your arm up in rubber and coming at you with tons of tubes, just the visual impact of it is enough to get your heart beating faster.   That increase means a chemical reaction triggered it and that chemical reaction was caused by some kind of input and of course, the MCs are going to react to those same chemicals.    

So, in this respect, I can indeed see that a blood draw would indeed create reactions, but definitely through the stress system.  

How do you deal with this to prevent it the next time?  Some kind of anti-anxiety medication, I'm afraid.   Or the person doing the exam must do some serious de-stress therapy to help deal with these thoughts and feelings.   It's like going into the Dentist, which is probably the least like doctor out there.   Some of us have to be really worked with to be able to get through a session, and that doesn't include the mastocytosis, that's just normal anxiety to dentists!  Go figure!


I hope this helps make some sense of it.


Lisa