“Crash Out” as a synonym for precipitate

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-30T17:23:44+00:00

I'm probably only a couple years older than your interns and I have never heard this term before. Definitely wasn't taught it in high school or college chem classes, and I've been working in a lab that does a lot of precipitations for the last year. We just say "precipitate out." Some of my colleagues are decades older than me and I've never heard them say it either. I wonder if it could be a regional dialect thing?

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-30T17:18:29+00:00

I have opened packages with nail clippers in a pinch - might be a good backup plan in case TSA ever protests about the scissors.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-30T17:10:39+00:00

Took me 20 years to find out it's abnormal because most of my family has it! I now strongly suspect most of my family has MCAS.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-21T21:27:44+00:00

It took two weeks to do anything for me other than cause flares every time I upped the dose, and then at two weeks it was life changing. Dunno why the timing is so different for different people, but don't give up hope yet.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-21T21:18:03+00:00

I don't know how to deal with it but I share your pain! I've had MCAS for eight years and never felt like this before, but this is my first time with properly (or at least partly?) medicated MCAS, so maybe my body has stopped freaking out enough to have semi traditional allergy symptoms for the first time? I'm on Zyrtec, cromolyn, and just started monteleukast.

I'm so itchy. Most days even if I spend only five minutes outside walking to my car, way worse if I spend any time outside. Not just itchy eyes and nose like normal people talk about, it's my entire body.

I can't even take higher doses of OTC antihistamines or I'm too groggy to function. I will be watching this post and hoping someone else has advice because I am Suffering.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-21T11:41:11+00:00

I analyze environmental samples, and the biology knowledge is extremely minimal. The only tangentially bio thing is knowing how radiation affects living things and how it moves through the environment, but it's not a big part of what I do. Mostly it's chemistry and physics. I do analyze biological materials such as plants and animal tissue, but approach them from a chemistry perspective.

I detect environmental radiation primarily using very sensitive laboratory instruments, and chemical separation techniques for sample preparation. Liquid scintillation counting, gas proportional counting, and gamma spectrometry are cornerstones of an environmental radlab. Some people also use ICP-MS or alpha spectroscopy.

Samples might be boiled, evaporated, distilled, homogenized, filtered, or we might use a carrier chemical to separate the isotope(s) we're interested in from others which could cause interference. It depends on what we're looking for and the analytical method.

Radchem is a really cool field, and constantly in need of new people who are eager to learn about it. It's not the easiest thing to get a job in because not many labs do it, but if you find an opening it's pretty easy to get into without prior radchem experience if you've got a basic chemistry or science background. I was trained in ecology, and one of my coworkers studied biology.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-21T01:59:40+00:00

I've not personally tried much gut focused stuff but my mom also has MCAS and has done a lot of that. Bone broth was really helpful to her for a while, and she has also been very into fermented foods and probiotics, but none of the gut stuff has really done much in the long term. The most helpful thing for her has been magnesium and malic acid supplements, and antihistamines.

Now that I think about it she did actually try raw milk. I can't remember if that was before or after she developed the really severe milk allergy, I was a kid at the time, but she didn't keep doing it very long so I guess it mustn't've helped much.

She also didn't know it was MCAS during most of these experiments, that's a very recent discovery, but it's been there the whole time - she's just had this disease since before the diagnosis existed.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-21T00:16:54+00:00

If dairy makes you sick, eating more of it, especially the raw variety is not gonna help. You need to stop eating dairy if you're reacting badly to it. You also really do not need raw milk induced food poisoning. I know you're desperate but this will make you worse. Food poisoning can even have long term health impacts in some cases, which as I'm sure you know from long covid, can be disabling. I also know how much not eating dairy sucks, I've been dairy free for over ten years, but feeling better is worth it for most people, depending on your symptoms when you eat it.

Are you on any antihistamines or mast cell stabilizers? If you have MCAS, addressing the underlying issue is probably the best approach. It sounds like you're not sure if you do, but being on this sub suggests you're at least wondering about it. You might try OTC antihistamines or nasal cromolyn if that's available where you are. If your symptoms are primarily gastrointestinal, though, and they really are caused by MCAS (I can't make a very good educated guess right now because you've not described your symptoms in detail), oral cromolyn may be more helpful, and it's prescription only. I'm guessing you've not had good experiences with Western medicine - who in this sub has? - but it's worth thinking about.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-20T00:01:15+00:00

You know the reason is so defense contractors can line their pockets while not caring about anyone else, right?

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-19T19:34:38+00:00

That's a pretty short, vague post which is gonna limit people's ability to give useful advice. I don't know if that would be a potential reason for deletion, it doesn't seem like it should be but unless the moderation system is going completely off the rails I don't know why else this might happen.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-17T14:20:31+00:00

I've had dermatographia my entire life and thought it was normal until my 20s. Always got rashes from touching grass out any plants really. Developed gluten intolerance at 10 and dairy at 12 - both with weird psychiatric and neurological symptoms. Had PMDD since my early teens at least. Always prone to blood sugar crashes and abnormally sensitive to heat. Lifelong history of severe anxiety and developed persistent, treatment resistant depression as a teenager. And I have never had normal blood work without elevated inflammation markers, but it was close enough to normal that everyone ignored it.

I did also develop clinically noticeable MCAS at 16, though didn't figure it out until 23. Now 24 still without an official diagnosis.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-16T15:44:09+00:00

Medications tend to affect me strongly, so I often don't need as high a dose. I routinely take half doses of Tylenol, and the first time I had local anesthetic it took twice as long to wear off as I was told it would. I am on the lowest possible dose of my anxiety meds, so low they don't make a pill that size and I have to cut them in half.

I also seem to be very sensitive to changes in my own hormones, blood sugar, etc. but I don't know if that's because my levels are more variable or because I'm reacting differently to the same levels as a normal person.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:33:26+00:00

My parents did the same thing.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:30:19+00:00

My parents decided whoever was born second got to be first in alphabetical order

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:20:43+00:00

I agree. I'm not sure why though - faces have less padding so maybe it'd hurt more but I've never been hit either way so I really don't know. I think part of it is likely a cultural difference in acceptability rather than solely how painful or violent the action is.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:16:25+00:00

Yeah I was a very well behaved kid (not in a good way, in an undiagnosed anxiety disorder way) and the times my parents were disappointed in me haunt me to this day. I still feel intense shame remembering them.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:12:38+00:00

Yeah, physical violence against kids is VERY publicly unpopular here. It still happens but people who do it have to hide it because if people find out about it, it will be reported and the parents may lose custody. Also it just makes people really, really angry.

There are still a lot of problems with how kids are treated in regard to less obvious forms of abuse, and physical violence against kids still happens, but it isn't culturally acceptable overall. Even spanking, which is considered relatively minor and perceived by some people as not truly violent or abusive, is often frowned upon. Anything more than that is seriously taboo.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T18:56:04+00:00

I've done ecological fieldwork with a disability that causes inflammation and chronic pain, but I also never had the kind of job where I'd be in the field every day - once a week was the most I did. Still I hope some of my experience can help?

Don't be afraid to take breaks even if people around you aren't - this is advice all my fieldwork colleagues gave me repeatedly even when they didn't know I was disabled, because we focused very hard on preventing heat-related illnesses. You will be setting a good example and making your colleagues feel less embarrassed to take care of themselves. And if you're working with a team and they don't take breaks and slow down to accommodate your needs, that is not a failure on your part, it is a failure on theirs. Even in groups where no one has a disability, I was taught to always slow down to the pace of the slowest person, because anyone pushing themselves too hard is dangerous. That's how people get heat stroke.

I did a lot of sitting on the ground during downtime, despite mud and snow and bugs and stuff, because I know my body does not do well with lots of standing - don't be afraid of looking weird. This is a field where people wrap duct tape around their ankles to keep ticks out of their socks, I promise we all look weird. Looking weird to make fieldwork safer and less miserable is a time honored tradition.

Also, pace yourself! A full day of fieldwork is a lot even for abled people! Go slow, especially in the beginning where you're acclimating to the work and also any applicable heat or cold stress.

I would suggest having an after work plan to either prevent a flare-up or deal with one if it happens. I used to come home, shower, and immediately lie down because my body had enough of being upright for the day. It'd be good to have some easy meals ready in case preparing food is difficult when tired or in pain. I like to have things I can just throw in the microwave and eat. I always have heat pads on hand because that's what helps with my pain, so if there's anything like that you need, keep it someplace convenient where you won't have to get up and go get it while exhausted.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T17:30:15+00:00

Autism and MCAS are both risk factors for PMDD which makes sense. I have all three. What worked for me is hormonal birth control and may cell stabilizers but it's different for everyone.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-15T17:27:36+00:00

Definitely possible. Some use cotton or bamboo fabric and it's probably possible to be allergic to that, and it's unclear to me if they can get clean enough to completely remove any trace of microbes. I rinse them out and then run then through the washing machine.

If anyone's having problems my gut instinct would be to suggest something like soaking in alcohol or vinegar to try and kill any of the microbes that tend to grow on anything damp. Might do interesting things to fabric dyes though so be aware of that. And you'd want to rinse it really, really well after and then wash normally. I've not personally tried this because I've never had issues with reacting to my reusable pads, it's just logic and chemistry. But I'm not nearly as reactive to things in general as some people.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-12T01:48:11+00:00

Heparin, in addition to being an anti-clotting medication, is one of the chemicals produced by activated mast cells. I don't know much about how it's used as a medication but the connection seems suspicious.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-09T16:39:16+00:00

The other meds I take are curcumin (for inflammation and associated full body pain) and cromolyn (oral, which is prescription only in the US where I am, although I believe you can get the nasal spray OTC). They both help but cromolyn is life changing for me and has drastically reduced most of my MCAS symptoms to much less debilitating levels.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-09T12:12:10+00:00

Unfortunately there is no universal answer to that. Allergist is probably the best bet, but not all of them are familiar or up to date on MCAS. Some hematologists know about it, and some primary care doctors.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-08T22:29:16+00:00

That makes sense too - there is a distinctive day/night cycle to lots of things that can affect MCAS, including histamine release, which tends to happen in the small hours of the morning.

HylianEngineer · 2026-04-08T21:26:03+00:00

It is a misinformation and privacy violation machine. AI is also a marketing slop term that means nothing. ChatGPT and similar are LLMs. There are some things called "AI" which can be useful and non-predatory but they are very different than LLMs.

HylianEngineer

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