A woman in California has spoken out about her rare ailment, Aquagenic Urticaria, or water allergy. Tessa Hansen-Smith told ABC News that she discovered the allergy when she was eight years old and that it has deteriorated over time. She used to play, swim, and drink a lot of water as a child, but she began to suffer symptoms when the sickness began. Baths and water cause itching, rashes, and hives on her skin. Ms Hansen-Smith has provided additional information on her travels and hospitalizations on Instagram.
Drinking water causes her throat and body to burn
“I would come out of showers and have huge welts on my skin, and my scalp would be bleeding after showering,” she told ABC News. “So, the first things we kind of did was, ‘OK, let’s take away your shampoos, take away your conditioner, take away any soaps you’re using’,” Ms. Hansen-Smith added.
Drinking water causes her throat and body to burn, so the 25-year-old claims she drinks milk because the fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in milk enable water molecules to “sneak past” her immune system. Karen Hansen-Smith, her mother, is a doctor who has encountered many unusual illnesses, but seeing her own daughter suffer is heartbreaking. “I feel a little guilty as a mom for not having seen when she would get out of the shower that she had hives and figuring it out way earlier that it was a water issue,” she told the outlet. “It is heartbreaking. I still have my daughter. But she’s not living the life she wanted to live,” the doctor said.
Aquagenic Urticaria is thought to affect only 100 to 250 people worldwide
Ms Hansen-Smith has an elder sister who is not allergic to water. The family has set up a GoFundMe page to pay the $8,000 expenses for her latest hospital stay. She has expressed gratitude to all of her supporters for assisting them in raising $10,000 in just three months, which will also assist her with doctor’s appointments, follow-ups, and physical therapy. But she has had her share of difficulties. Ms Hansen-Smith said her condition was made worse by the skepticism of others around her. (https://www.enov8.com) “When I did tell people about it in college, I would have people try to purposely splash water on me, or I would have people throw ice cubes at me,” she told ABC News.
Despite her disability, Ms. Hansen-Smith excelled in college. After graduating from Clovis Unified’s Buchanan High School, she attended UC Davis. She goes on walks but must avoid overheating, so she spends much of her time indoors, working on art, playing with her cats, and reading. Aquagenic Urticaria is thought to affect only 100 to 250 people worldwide.
