u/crowisafool

I haven’t been able to play most pc or console games since 2022 due to my disabilities so I was really excited when I recently learned about steam link, especially since Fields on Mistra just came out! But I tried a test run with Littlewood and it was pretty laggy :( Unfortunately I’m not really computer savvy so I don’t know what any of the settings mean lol

My laptop is an old Macbook Pro from 2017 and it streams to my iPhone 17! If anyone can help the streaming run smoother with what I got I’d be eternally grateful 😭

Hello! Here’s some background info: Over a year ago, I drank a large amount of alcohol and was suddenly thrust into the most debilitating pain near my lower ribs (and a couple years before that I caught covid which messed with me gastrointestinally, but not enough to follow through in seeking answers). This flare snowballed into being diagnosed with the trifecta (EDS, POTS, MCAS, thalassemia, and other mysteries were working on) and I am currently managing my pain with mast cell stabilizers, but I am definitely still in the thick of it. I can’t work or go to school due to how unpredictable and awful the pain is day to day. Since the initial flare, I’ve limited my diet to small low histamine meals and have lost a lot of weight to the point of it being concerning.

I’ve been treating this pain as if it was costochondritis (inflammation in the cartilage in my ribs), but I’ve recently come upon MALS and it might be what’s actually wrong.

Here’s where I’m at symptomatically and I would very much appreciate input on if this seems like MALS:

- Upper abdominal/lower (especially right) rib pain. I have very pronounced rib flares, and the pain can happen on my ribs, but the worst most sharpest pain happens to the left of my right lower rib flare. Sometimes the muscles tense up like it’s cramping. This pain can happen during or after eating, standing, talking, lifting my arms up, or sitting. I get a lot of relief when lying down, but it sometimes persists even then. During a flare, it exasperates the pain tremendously to breathe in. Managing my MCAS with a (unsustainable) low histamine diet, cromolyn, and ketotifen have definitely improved how often I’m in pain! Before, eating consistent meals was scary due to the unpredictable pain (sometimes it flared sometimes it didn’t) and I was relying heavily on tylenol, voltaren (this never helped with the biggest pain), and a heating pad.

- Deep aching left shoulder pain that at its worst radiates down my left arm and up my face. I had to go to the ER for this one just to rule out a heart attack because so many of these symptoms were similar. When this pain is manageable, it’s a sharp aching pain that is MUCH worse when standing and nonexistent when lying down

- Early satiation and slow stomach motility. This has been an issue ever since I caught covid in 2022

- Nausea after eating literally anything (the more fiber the more nausea). No vomiting

- Irregular bowel movements. We got everything except the scary ones with no rhyme or reason.

- Small thing, but when I was much younger before covid I had awful upper abdominal pain from sleeping on my side that went away after walking around. Breathing in hurt and I started sleeping on my other side without issues. The pain I’m dealing with now is this times a billion

This is all I can think of that can be connected to MALS, but I’m also dealing with 50 billion other things like the classic POTS and MCAS symptoms, thalassemia, and possible Sjogrens and SFN in my hands and arms. MALS would explain a lot of the issues I’m having, but I’m unsure if covid or an MCAS flare would affect the pain.

I’ve had an upper endoscopy + colonoscopy and a CT with contrast three years ago with no issues found as well as a recent normal abdominal ultrasound and rib x-ray.

I think I’ve given all the info I can, but I’m so brain fogged and fatigued all the time so I might’ve missed a few key details. Thank you for reading it all!