© Good Morning America/ABC News
Mastocytosis is a rare disease that causes an abnormal accumulation of mast cells in one or more organ systems. When mast cells are activated, they can induce immediate allergic inflammation. The disease is exceedingly rare and has a broad range of symptoms and severity, according to the Mastocytosis Society.
But for KK, a 7-year-old from Apex, N.C., these allergic reactions can be fatal and can escalate quickly to anaphylaxis or fatal shock.
"She gets too hot, she gets stressed, she has an infection," said her mother, Michelle Krawzyck, 39. "Her reactions range from mild, like being flushed or irritable, to life-threatening drop in blood pressure, vomiting and difficulty breathing."
Doctors had warned the family that KK might not even be able to go to school.
"They said it wasn't safe," said Krawzyck, who has four other children, ages 4 to 16. "She could go into anaphylaxis quickly and we would not know the trigger. We were devastated."
KK needs to be monitored all night long so her parents worry that anything, even hot blankets, might lead to a reaction that causes a fall down the stairs, unconsciousness or worse.
But for the last 18 months, they have a much better medical watchdog: a terrier named JJ who can smell the cell changes before she has a serious reaction and warn her parents that she needs her medical kit.
Comment: We find it mind-boggling that the author will write these conclusions considering the health catastrophe that stares him in the face. Perhaps his gluten and carb addiction blinds him from the simple facts of our present reality, so he cannot possibly endorse advice that would ease the problems we are dealing nowadays.