Inhaling can definitely cause symptoms for me. Even a tiny amount at a large distance. There is scientific debate about the validity of scent anaphylaxis etc, but there is no question in my mind that it is a real phenomenon for us mast cell people

Airborne latex is a big trigger for me!  So is silicone spray.  The worst symptoms are respiratory, but I sometimes get hives too.

Heather

Thanks. Those reactions make more sense to me. I have had headaches from perfume or breathing issues from airborne stuff but never itching that I am aware of. That is why I am doubting this.  For instance when I go out to eat there are people around me that are eating wheat and I don't start itching. Maybe I will try Lisa's suggestion. I just think it is really weird for me not be able to touch a container with wheat inside it.  (This last time I made sure there was nothing on the outside of the container so I know I did not touch any wheat.)

Think about it gang, who´s not going to get anxious when you have something come out of the dark, or out from behind you and wham you on the head with a heavy stick and practically knock you off your feet?!  If you do this to somebody more than twice, they're going to get paranoid about dark corners and anybody walking up behind them?!   Well, this is what happens with us, only we not only never SEE our aggressor, we can't even tell when he's going to come popping out at us!!!  

So, if we consider anaphylaxis in this light, as a mugger who comes out of nowhere and jumps us, can anyone blame us for getting anxious when we walk down the street?  And yet HOW MANY TIMES IN A ROW does this have to happen to us?  So, why should anybody blame us, especially our doctors, if we do get emotionally involved in the anxiety of history repeating itself?

Gosh, I can't tell you how many times now, when I step into an elevator and I can smell perfume around me, how I have to tell myself that no, this is NOT going to bother me, NOT THIS TIME IT WON'T!!    I literally must talk myself down so as not to emotionally trigger myself, which can be almost as explosive!!    I no longer am taken by surprise when it happens cause I've learned that this is not a freak thing.  So, in a way, I have found a means of dealing with my emotions so as that they are not adding to the "fun"!  Instead, I'm learning to be "cool" with the stupidity of it all.  In fact, the last time I hit the ER due to a perfume reaction the doctors were quite surprised that I was dealing with it so well!  I think they were more freaked out than I was!  It really makes me more mad at myself that yet one more time I got "caught" by the perfume, even though I know there's no real way to avoid it.  If it happens, it happens and no matter what I do can I revert it, but I can be quick to the draw and get meds into myself ASAP and that's been a help for then it gives me a means of counteracting it and if I still have to go to the ER, then it's cause there really was no other way around it.


So, although we are all SCARRED by doctors who have said "EMOTIONAL" you really must try to help yourself get over that for it does indeed become a factor.  Instead, just recognize that this can indeed be a factor and find a means of blowing off the anxiety so that you end up difusing that part of the bomb so that it doesn't add to the explosion.   I try to find something to laugh at - I find that laughter, even nervous laughter helps to distract myself from giving too much attention to what is distasteful.

I hope this helps!

Lisa

Okay, let´s go to some basics, some things I´m learning about.


When we talk about triggers and mast cells we are talking about MOLECULES.   Let´s all go back to our high school biology classes.  Consider the size of a cell and the size of molecules - we´re talking TINY, TINY!!!    

When we look at wheat flour or anything in a powder form we are looking at miniscule molecules.   We see most of them, but there´s plenty for the eye to totally miss.   Yet, when you take that flour and mix it with things which bind those molecules together, like egg, milk, etc. and then add heat, you have force those molecules to bind together.    They are essentially the same but because they have been bound they are no longer free to wander at will with the wind or on the hands, etc.    

Yet, when you have it in its unbound form, then the process of pouring it from one container to another means that those molecules are loose and will easily become stuck on other things.  They won´t be bound, but they will get stuck, like on the outside of a container, or on the outside of a bag, or on the inside of your nose.  Are you now able to see the picture?    Just because the flour is sealed inside of a hermatically closed container doesn´t mean some didn´t get airborne or fall on the outside of the container.  Then to pick up that container, since it was not bound, it will be losened in some fashion and thus either airborne or through your hand travel to your mouth and nose again.  

Are you able to see what I´m talking about not?    And what about those packages that allow us to smell the product through the container - the molecules of the container have spaces between them which are larger than the molecules of the perfume or product.    Are you seeing the connection?

This is why some things are so very complicated for us for we must have a means of protecting ourselves, but I´m coming to the opinion that part of the process, nasal wise, is to be using a nasal spray that has an MC stabilizer inside like nasalchrom.  By specifically targetting the mucus membranes in the nose this may be of real help to avoid triggering to smells so easily.   This is like using the eyedrops with ketotifen in that you target an area where the MC stabilzers don´t reach so well and get that medication right at a spot where you are most vulnderable.


I hope this makes sense.


Lisa

As much as I understand the psychological aspect, I can also vouch for smells being a ridiculously bad trigger.  For months, I have been reacting to the smell of food cooking.  We now eat cold foods for breakfast and lunch, and my husband makes supper for us and the kids while I nap in the early evening - with my bedroom door closed and a towel under the door.  It's ridiculous!  And I know it's the smells, and not the emotional side of it, because times when he's left the door open and started cooking, or made grilled cheese or the like at lunch with me in the next room (no doors), and I've started reacting before I even woke up.  It's one of the most frustrating aspects of this right now