My husband and I live in a small town in NC. Most folks here that have a serious or rare disease or dysfunction travel to Duke University or Wake Forest for treatment.
My husband has been plagued with problems over the past seven years or so that appear to be systemic in nature to me.
His history involves working for approximately 38 years in the printing industry, exposed on a daily basis to blanket wash fumes, and all the other solvents and chemicals necessary for printing. About 13 years ago he suffered an isolated attack of idiopathic anaphalaxis, which sent him to the ER. At that time, he had no other symptoms, other than occassional sneezing when eating foods with white flour. About seven years ago, the trouble really started to escalate. In the spring, he suffered another idiopathic anaphalaxis attack, again sending him to the ER. Before we could get him to an allergist, he was back in the ER 2 days later with the onset of anaphalaxis. We found a local allergist to treat his allergies- he has my husband taking zyrtec and singulair and my husband uses flonase and carries albutarol for his diagnosed asthma.
Since those visits to the ER 7 years ago my husband has had subsequent problems. His food allergies have become much worse. He has a very short list of foods that do not cause offense to his system, and he has suffered with a severe attack of Ulcerative Collitis and now sees a Gastroenterologist, who has him on Asacol. He also is on Asiphex for Esophogitis. At times he is extremely sensitive to any odors, and he reacts terribly to chemicals like flea drops on dogs and perfumes. We never know what substance might trigger a reaction. My husband is 57 years old, and his quality of life is quickly deteriorating. We need more help for him.
I see this as a systemic problem, even though his Gastroenterologist and Allergist really won't even discuss the relationship of the two diseases with me.
I truly believe he needs MORE help. When I began reading about mast cell dysfunctions and Systemic Mastocystitis on the internet, I truly thought this mast cell dysfunction looked like him. Also Multiple Chemical Sensitivity seems to play into his problems. Can you PLEASE help us? Perhaps you know a doctor in North or South Carolina who can give a more accurate diagnosis. Thank you for any help you can give us.