u/New-Substance-1116

I (33yo female) have been dealing with a sudden onset of issues since January 2026. It coincided with an androgen blocker I took for a while (1.5 years?) and stopped, as well as a couple rounds of antibiotics for dental issues.

TLDR- does MCAS cause heightened sensitivity to things that didn’t used to be painful?

Symptoms include:

- Sudden onset of migraines with visual aura primarily during ovulation (or the few days leading up)
- other headaches and light sensitivity
- an extreme intolerance to caffeine when I have been drinking a lot daily since puberty - I develop tachycardia and PVCs in response to only a little bit of caffeine , had to go to the ER multiple times before I figured it out
- very heightened pain sensitivity - I used to regularly get waxed and electrolysis but now they’re so painful I had to stop
- heightened reactions to all supplements and medications - Zofran gives me tachycardia now, magnesium theornate I have to take 1/3 the minimum dose and it works too well, progesterone cream I have paradoxical activating reactions to now when I tolerated it fine for years , etc
- my last few routine blood draws have been very painful, and I even got an injury from a standard IV ??? (Nothing visible on outside but whole arm hurt for 2 months afterward)

About 5 years ago I was treated by a naturopath for histamine and leaky gut issues but primarily manifested as stomach symptoms in response to certain foods. It completed fixed all my stomach symptoms and it was a miracle as I struggled with it for a decadeI and people always blamed it on my anxiety. BUT I NEVER had neurological or HR issues related to histamine before.

But a month ago my psychiatrist brought up MCAS as a possible unifying issue and i restarted taking Xyzal and started daily pepcid. It has cut down on headaches for sure.

This could all just be related to me having depleted allopreg levels caused by the stupid androgen blocker but this is all so new to me I wanted to get thoughts.

I am only 33, generally healthy on bloodwork, exercise several times a week, and try to eat really well. Yet my body feels physically incapable of keeping up with the demands of motherhood and taking care of a home, and I HATE myself for it.

No matter how much I workout, when I stand for longer than 15 minutes, All my joints ache. At the end of 1-2 hours of cooking and cleaning and dishes, all I want to do is sit down, my knees and pelvis are screaming at me.

But then no my 5 year old then asks, can you play with me????? NO I FUCKING CANT . MY ENTIRE BODY HURTS. I WANT TO LAY DOWN AND NOT BE DISTURBED AND I WANT MY BODY TO REST. I feel unbelievably guilty at how often I say no to playing with her.

And this was after she was spending 30 minutes cooking with me. But no it wasn’t enough. Have them help you, they say. That will occupy them and you won’t need to play with them!!!! LIESSSSS!!!!!

I just want a different body. Can someone trade.

I’ll have just been on my feet for 2 hours

My kid is 5. Naturally they want to be outside all summer. I’ve been struggling off and on with migraines with visual aura around ovulation for 4-6 months now. I started with sumatriptan 25mg and it made me sort of woozy, hungover feeling, and very nauseous and rarely made the headache go away. A couple times it stopped it from starting.

The neurologist I saw then said rizatriptan is tolerated much better and prescribed me that- 5mg to start. I felt ungodly horrific taking that medication- chest heaviness and feeling like I can’t take a full breath, heart racing, more dizzy than suma, but at least not nauseous. Also didn’t really seem to help my headache even though I took during visual aura before pain started. I now feel like I shouldn’t trust her because she said it’s typically tolerated better?? Am I just weird??

She then sent in for ubrelvy or something like that, saying it would be better, but now I’m like fuck I don’t remotely trust her. With these meds, waiting out the migraine is 1000% better than adding this shit on top of it.

Does anything actually make migraines go away? Are these common responses? I’m so frustrated.

Not to mention it feels completely impractical to be told to stay out of sunlight, not get dehydrated, not be stressed, when its the summer and I have a 5yo clawing at me to go to the pool near daily and then screaming in the shower from their hair hurting afterwards. The headache started up again while they were screaming.

We just purchased our first home. In trying to be responsible , we were very proud of ourselves and purchased a townhome for lower maintenance life, to have more savings, and etc.

2 weeks after closing, before we even moved in, the filter compartment in the fridge broke due to the previous owners using a generic filter, which broke the filter seal. It flooded the hardwood kitchen floors into the basement ceiling and carpet below.

I can’t even explain all the appointments ive had now to try to fix this, from remediation company 1 to flooring to granite to now a new remediation company because the first one didn’t do a good job, etc etc etc. Plumber and appliance repair and more plumber etc.

Did I mention we already knew we had to install a new water heater and new washer and dryer? So we got those new too and more appointments for those.

Now we have to decide if we are going to use most of our savings to do a new kitchen to be absolutely sure there isn’t mold, when that’s 0% where we wanted to put our savings but now we feel like our hand is forced because they’ve already found mold at the base of our cabinets. Insurance may or may not cover.

That’s not including my 5yo who is showing signs of precocious puberty and needs a bunch of bloodwork, the poison ivy she somehow got on her leg the day before we moved in, me not being able to lift a ton due to a nerve injury from a freaking IV 2 MONTHS AGO, me having random bouts of tachycardia from weird paradoxical reactions to medications like Zofran and caffeine that have landed me in the ER - meaning I can’t take any stimulants for my ADHD or have ANY CAFFEINE despite being exhausted and they don’t really know what’s causing it.

We have no family anywhere nearby who can help and the family we do have are busy with their own shit.

I was supposed to start going back to work but we have been moved in 2 weeks and still have so much shit to unpack that I haven’t been able to unpack at all because of all of these appointments.

then we will have no kitchen for 2-3 months while it’s redone, I have no idea how the fuck we are going to do that because I have a limited diet. We will have to repack the entire kitchen we just unpacked.

Among all this our kid has had so little attention
and so much screen time with all these appts, I feel so guilty, but at the same time so frustrated because she’s always trying to get our attention and I can’t have one fucking 5 minute conversation with my husband because she’s always interrupting.

Oh and did I mention I tried to start some cardio exercise by jogging and literally peed myself later in the day afterward, thanks to my pelvic floor injuries from childbirth, so I don’t even know how I’m going to manage the literal panic attacks that this fucking shit is giving me.

I’m beyond mentally exhausted every single day, it’s very very difficult. I’m not tired or sleepy. Halfway through the day, I just feel like my entire body and brain want to shut down and everything inside of me needs to sit down and be still/quiet for a little while. But it feels so all consuming after a day that’s mot REALLY that demanding - I’ll pick up my kid from half day school, we will maybe make a couple stops, one at the ups store and then go to the grocery store. The more errands, the worse it is.

After the grocery store, it’s only 1pm and I’m dying. When we get home, it takes everything in me to unload everything from the car, bring in all of the groceries, put them away, make myself something healthy and eat something. And my kid immediately wants to play and everything inside of me feels like it’s dying and turning off. And I feel so heavy, I feel like I’m batting away the weariness and using all my might to do the next thing until I can finally sit down. At that point she’s already been watching tv for 30 minutes. But I want at least 60 minutes of a complete break , so she will end up watching 2 hours of tv.

But even with doing that, there’s garbage and shit in the car that I just left in the car because I’m too tired to make 3 trips just to carry everything in from the car. So shit builds up in the car every time making it so dirty.

Many times I’ll just leave bags of groceries on the floor in the kitchen because I’m too exhausted to put them away and need a brain break NOW.

Is this stuff adhd? I got a diagnosis of mild adhd but I cannot figure out what on earth is so exhausting to me about my days or how to fix it.

I fear I’ve somehow become in the “chronic injury / illness group” even though I’m only 33 and in general I would say I’m a healthy person.

But since I’ve had my kid I’ve had nonstop health issues, one after another, that make it very difficult to consistently exercise. And then if it isn’t a health thing it’s something in our lives completely out of my control going wrong.

In the last year I’ve dealt with two big toenail removals (can’t workout for weeks), phlebitis from an IV that STILL hurts to do exercise with that arm 3 months later despite a clear ultrasound, sudden development of awful migraines a few months ago and sudden intolerance to any caffeine, etc etc.

Then we are supposed to be moving in a week, our kitchen in our new house flooded a week ago, I’m basically acting as GC for remediation, plumbing, appliance repair etc, while having a young kid, etc. I am beyond exhausted every day dealing with all this and I can’t even imagine adding exercise to it. That’s the thing, this isn’t just a “season.” It’s been nonstop like this since I had my kid 5 years ago and I don’t knowing if I’m doing life wrong or if everyone else has all these problems too.

I used to be a college athlete and I want to get back into exercise for my mental health but something literally always comes up that’s all encompassing I don’t know how to stop all these things - it feels like I’m legitimately cursed - other than finding another body to inhabit in some real life freaky Friday shit or some voodoo person to lift whatever curse is on me.

Also I can’t just go into exercise mindlessly because I had a couple severe pelvic floor injuries from childbirth so I have to be very mindful while exercising and build up to it.

TLDR- wouldn’t we have to remove the cabinets to make sure there still isn’t moisture and mold growing between hardwood and subfloor beneath the cabinets?

The previous owners seemed to break the filter compartment so when we went to replace it, the fridge leaked. It was only overnight—sometime between 6pm to 1pm the next day when I went back to do some more painting.

Part of the hardwood kitchen floors had standing water, there were some wet patches in the basement ceiling below, and areas of the basement carpet were wet.

The neighborhood contractor had us get fans and dehumidifiers and he cut out the parts of the ceiling that were damp to let dry.

I was able to get a remediation company to come the next day who brought in their commercial drying
Equipment. He said the kitchen hardwood would all definitely need replaced because it’s damaged. But he didn’t touch anything in kitchen bc I hadn’t filed homeowner claim yet - I did later that day.

I asked him how likely is it there’s still moisture between the subfloor and hardwood. He said it’s possible and if hardwood goes underneath the cabinets, cabinets need removed too.

But The remediation’s flooring guy called me yesterday and I asked about the floor being under the cabinets and he said he wouldn’t count on insurance replacing anything but the floors.

But I don’t understand , if there’s water under the hardwood and the hardwood goes under the cabinets, wouldn’t we need to remove all of it to make sure no mold can grow? The water was standing against the cabinets and the paint is peeling along the bottom (I didn’t paint them lol).

I just don’t want to worry about long term mold issues, we have a young kid. I want to know how aggressively to advocate for getting cabinets replaced and how hard to push back on people.

I (mom) am average weight 165lb at 5’10” size 8 but have PCOS. My husband (5’11”) struggles a lot with weight but is also very dense and naturally very strong.

I eat very well due to my PCOS (and OCD lol). I know how to eat best for my body to feel best- I eat no processed grains, lower carbs and focus on low GI carbs like berries, etc. I don’t eat dairy or gluten. I primarily make all the meals and snacks for my home (but will serve her Cheese and yogurt). We rarely have juice or soda, maybe once a week or two if we go out to eat.

My 5yo daughter looks overweight, but she really has been the same way since she was a baby essentially. There was maybe a short period in there where she looked more average. it’s noticeable compared to her peers, but I wouldn’t say it’s severe. She’s also much taller than her peers, last measured at 51 inches and 72lb about a month ago.

We saw an endocrine and they said all bloodwork and bone scan “looked good” and just make sure you’re not feeding her second and third helpings of things. That literally never happens, and she rarely is hungry for breakfast. As someone with PCOS I know doctors often dismiss hormone and metabolic issues and to be honest, I don’t think we will really get much help in this arena until it’s too late.

She is in a few activities per week in addition to school but we could get in some more NEAT in for sure.

I just feel like I’m working so hard to help her health, and then I see other parents giving thier kids much unhealthier foods and/or way more carbs, and all their kids are a healthy weight.

I’m feeling really discouraged because I just noticed a black pubic hair on her when I was helping her change her pull up this morning. I fear the PCOS and puberty process is already starting for her, and I’m really sad. I was hopeful that everything I was doing would prevent major issues from cropping up until puberty (assumed that would come early though).

I guess I’m just really sad. I don’t care what size she is, but PCOS is an awful chronic long term condition to manage, that most doctors don’t take seriously and don’t know the ins and outs of. I seem to have more severe version because I can’t just “pair carbs with fat or protein” I still get severe sugar spikes despite my A1C being normal.

Thanks for listening.

I try to vet services before I hire them. I ask for personal and local recommendations. I usually use the person who is most highly recommended.

Even with that, i get constant mistakes, and it happens so consistently it makes me feel INSANE.

- Tried to order new carpet, company sent quote to incorrectly spelled email address even though I confirmed it twice. Delay almost cost us the install date. Then they said they reached out via text to schedule, but they also got my phone number 1 digit wrong, so I never got it. Thankfully they’re still getting us in on time but if I didn’t follow up multiple times to clarify it never would have gotten done??

- Tried to hire new cleaners for our house. It was a move in clean so I asked what was included and asked if they could wipe out / clean kitchen and bathroom cabinets. They were very thorough in other areas and I didn’t give the cabinets a good enough look that day (my bad). The next day I noticed lots of crumbs of food and hair in most of the cabinets. I contacted the cleaner and they said they did wipe it out with a cloth but there’s no way they could have??? Or maybe they did but I didn’t really think I needed to specify to use soap and make sure to get all the crumbs and hair out????

This happens on a daily basis, I’m not kidding. Am I the only one????

Meaning, does it mean I’m doing something that is reinforcing the whining somehow and he is not (aka I’m doing something wrong), or does it mean she is “masking/positive” more with him but feels she can fall apart more with me (aka he is doing something wrong)?

I want to fix this and don’t feel like I’m reinforcing the whining 90% of the time (I ignore, time out etc.), but the pattern is apparent and idk how to fix.

32 year old female.

Since having my kid 5 years ago, I’ve struggled with new onset motion sickness. I mildly struggle in a car if I’m not the driver- mild nausea and headaches. I never had this before. That time was also when COVID and the vaccine came into the world.

In December of this past year (2025), I suddenly started getting migraines with visual aura like clockwork every month during ovulation , sometimes 3 days in a row. I’ve never had migraines in my life before having a kid, and I only had probably 2 migraines in the 5 years after having a kid, before this cluster began in December. (Very classic migraine) They were triggered by caffeine is all I could put together, aside from the ovulation piece. I stopped caffeine in January but They continued for 3 months (a little better tho) until I realized it might be related to a med I was taking (GLP1). I stopped that med and this past month didn’t get any but ….

This month I feel like the dizziness/vertigo has been more noticeable. Especially when I try to use my phone, I almost get dizzy when I transition from looking at my phone to looking around, and vice versa. Today it’s been bad and guess what, I’m around ovulation.

I’ve never struggled with any of this in my life until recently. I’ve used my phone a LOT more since having a kid too and your posture changes so much with a baby.

I have a neurologist appt coming up but I have a LOOOONNNG history of being dismissed for medical things, only for it to be a real issue discovered later, so I really want to advocate for myself.

Does this sound like vestibular migraines? Any other leads ?

She has basically never in her existence had a joyful shower or bath. Every single time, it’s a fight to get in, it’s a sob fest or whine fest during it, it’s a cry fest afterward. we just try to stay calm and let her cry, but it is truly exhausting. It’s not painful or the pain of it but it is nonstop complaining or honest genuine crying with tears coming down.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this some kind of diagnosis? I will take literally any insight at this point .

The worst part is she has incredibly thick and tangly hair and some early adrenarche so she needs frequent baths or showers or hair washing, at least every other day if not every day.

It was a checkup to make sure everything is fine before the crown goes on. The periodontist sort of dismissed this pain as normal, saying that it can be sore as it irritates the tissue going back in. But it definitely didn’t feel like surface level pain, it felt deeper in the screw or jawbone, it was a sudden soreness specifically with the screwing in. There was a little bit of pain with the unscrewing but very minor and I would describe it more as discomfort, it was at a level I expected. But to be honest, the screwing back in was a sudden pain and painful enough it made me concerned about the crown procedure and made me concerned something is wrong.

I feel like in general I’m a more sensitive person, it took tons of numbing injections to get me numb and they kept wearing off quickly.

Is this not unexpected or is it a red flag?

It’s hard to ask this clearly, but my daughter is now 5yo. Last summer we met someone who we learned was going to be at her school in the fall. We were hopeful their daughter and ours might want to be friends because us as parents connected well. We tried a couple of play dates before the school year started, but immediately upon starting the play date, their girl avoided ours and didn’t really engage. This happened both play dates, when they had never interacted before.

I figured maybe they needed some time to warm up, but they’ve now been through the entire school year together, and their kid still won’t play with ours—not just doesn’t seek them out, but actively says no to playing with them. The other girl is friends with most of the girls in the class, and so unfortunately my daughter hasn’t been able to make many friends because she’s not in the “in group.” My daughter is friends with all the other kids in the class who aren’t in that “group.”

My kid must be more sad than they’re letting on because apparently, my kid told that girl that she would give her her doll if she played with her. It broke my heart.

I 100% get sometimes kids dont click and I never force it. But this kid seemed to not want to be my kid’s friend before any interaction at all??? Is that normal for kids this age?

We had been debating whether to put her in a different school next year and this situation with this girl is almost a factor, which feels insane to me??? This was never an issue in her old school.