Allegra’s Severe MCAS Continued Care Fund

Allegra’s Severe Long-Covid (MCAS) Care Fund

I’ve known Allegra for about 1.5 years and have seen a dramatic decline in their ability to function, quality of life general outlook. Please consider donating as this fund will go directly to their extremely vital continued medical care. Below is a note from Allegra about the details of their condition.

“I was infected with COVID-19 in May 2022. From the moment I got ill, I started to come down with what felt like long covid symptoms, including severe brain fog, an overactive nervous system, insomnia, digestive issues, a fever, and constant migraines. I could barely walk, string sentences together, or remember basic things. Despite “surviving” the acute infection, I never fully recovered.

I started having weird reactions to things I’d never found intolerable before, including foods. I would wake up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations, severe nerve pain in my left arm, skipped beats, and primal levels of high energy and anxiety. After a year of uncertainty, medical gaslighting, and serious complications from new intolerances, I learned that these are called “adrenaline dumps” and that they’re a symptom of an overactive nervous system and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS).

MCAS is very rare - or at least it was, before the pandemic - and is very difficult to treat. It causes a histamine overload/dump into people’s bodies when they eat triggering foods that can cause anaphylaxis and even death.

In the last year and a half, I have developed so many severe intolerances that I can now eat only one food: oatmeal. The only way for me to get adequate nutrition as my condition worsens is through a feeding tube.

My life has become unlivable, and I need to see an MCAS specialist for treatment. However, due the significant boom of MCAS patients since covid, none of the ones in my state that are in network with my insurance are taking new patients. The nearest doctor in New York is Dr. Lawrence Afrin, an expert and well recommended MCAS doctor who is willing to treat both my MCAS and comorbid conditions that exacerbate it.

His treatment plan is very expensive but comprehensive, and it is what I need to address my condition. Funds raised here will directly contribute to Dr. Afrin’s payment of initial consult, follow up consultations, and labwork that he will order for diagnostics and treatment planning (see below for a full cost breakdown). I am hoping that with Dr. Afrin’s help I will be able to eat, digest and sleep much more soundly again, while treating the nutritional deficiencies that I am developing from lack of food and supplementation.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If you are able to contribute or share this page, it would mean so much to me.”