The teenage girl who is allergic to WATER

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Maverick, Feb 28, 2008.

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Maverick Lord Vader

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Allergic to water!!!

The teenage girl who is allergic to WATER

Teenager Ashleigh Morris can't go swimming, soak in a hot bath or enjoy a shower after a stressful day's work - she's allergic to water.

Even sweating brings the 19-year-old out in a painful rash.
Ashleigh, from Melbourne, Australia, is allergic to water of any temperature, a condition she's lived with since she was 14. Scroll down for more ...

Ashleigh, 19, has been allergic to water for five years

She suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.
When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.
She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.
These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn't miss is the washing up.
"People find it hard to believe, they say things like 'Oh my god, how do you wash. Scroll down for more ...

The rash Ashleigh gets after coming into contact with water is MORE painful than it looks

"That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person," she said.
Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it's a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.
"Although my rash is unsightly, and often looks like I'm diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks," she said.
"I can't go anywhere for about two hours afterwards because it's so severe.
"There's been many occasions where I've been so itchy, I've made myself bleed from scratching."
Away from water pretty Ashleigh appears like any other healthy teenager.
She leads a busy life studying Journalism and Public Relations at university and working in an office.
But if she gets wet she attracts unwanted attention.
"People stare at me in the street," said Ashleigh who lives with her mum Louise Miller, 42.
"After a shower I stay at home until it goes away, that frees me of the burden of having to explain."
Ashleigh spends a lot of time explaining her condition because few people have heard of it. Most doctors and dermatologists have never seen a case of it. "Many people don't even believe me when I tell them," said Ashleigh, who hardly believed it herself at first.
She developed the condition five years ago after an acute case of tonsillitis. She was prescribed a heavy dose of penicillin that rid her of the tonsillitis but left her with another problem.
"I suddenly started getting a rash after I showered or swam," says Ashleigh who used to swim regularly and spend a lot of time at the beach.
"I tried to ignore it but it got progressively worse so I went to see a dermatologist."
Ashleigh's dermatologist, Professor Rodney Sinclair, told her the penicillin had altered the histamine levels in her body and caused the Aquagenic Urticaria to occur.
There is no cure and no successful treatment for the condition so the gravity of the situation began to dawn on the 14-year-old Ashleigh.
"I was in disbelief for a while, but I soon realised how serious it was.
"I cried for a few hours, then picked myself up, and kept going. I realised it was something I had to live with," she says.
So Ashleigh found ways to avoid water - she stopped doing sports and anything that made her sweat.
She makes sure she stays in air-conditioned places and always has an umbrella in her car. Her family and boyfriend of three years, Adam, 23, are very supportive but her condition makes intimate moments with her Adam a little difficult.
"We have to sleep with a sheet between us at night, and I can't go near him if he's sweaty," said Ashleigh.
Even the experts seem a little vague about Aquagenic Urticaria.
Dermatologists agree there's an association with elevated blood histamine levels, but there are other processes at work since antihistamine drugs often provide no relief at all.
Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists says: "There isn't a wealth of information about Aquagenic Urticaria because it's extremely rare. "We're not sure how many cases there are in the world and we do not yet fully understand the precise mechanisms that trigger the weals."
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#1 Maverick, Feb 28, 2008
shw Well-Known Member

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wow crazy cant imagine what its like

#2 shw, Feb 28, 2008
MissCheekS Reconnaîssant ❤

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wow...that stinks >_<

#3 MissCheekS, Feb 28, 2008
Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|

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one hell of an allergy there.

#4 Knoctur_nal, Feb 28, 2008
dragong87 Well-Known Member

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whoa!! that must really suck!! drinking water must be really painful!! itchy rash on the inside of ur throat.

#5 dragong87, Feb 28, 2008
babs Well-Known Member

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that totally sucks. poor girl. she'll become a human lab rat for them soon probably

#6 babs, Feb 28, 2008
bionca88 Well-Known Member

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OMG its so hard to believe she is allergic to water. Poor thing so many things in life she can't enjoy with water. For example swimming or even a nice soak in tub. Hm... she is allergic to contacting water. What about drinking water?

#7 bionca88, Feb 28, 2008
khaotic Fobulous

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So how does she drink water? Or does she only drink stuff like juice?

#8 khaotic, Feb 28, 2008
mr_evolution ( • )( •ԅ(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)

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Wow, that's terrible, no water, no drinking, no showers.

Bad Luck.

#9 mr_evolution, Feb 28, 2008
monkiesxrule Well-Known Member

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that hella sucks to have an allergy like that! but how does she re-hydrate herself since she cant drink anything?

#10 monkiesxrule, Feb 28, 2008
bbes Incredible

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MissAngieCheekS said: ↑

wow...that stinks >_<
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im loving ur pun. -clapclap

#11 bbes, Feb 28, 2008
turbobenx .........

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MissAngieCheekS said: ↑

wow...that stinks >_<
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i really dont like the way angelcheeks addresses this whether it's negatively or positively........these r really sad situations and i pray and hope that there's a cure for this.

#12 turbobenx, Feb 28, 2008
Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|

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well..i would take it cheeks means it "stinks" in the sense its bad for the kid..cheeks...

#13 Knoctur_nal, Feb 28, 2008
tiffer858 Well-Known Member

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dang that sucks. but how can she drink water? also i bet she use like a lot of lotion bottles. lol

#14 tiffer858, Feb 28, 2008
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bbes said: ↑

im loving ur pun. -clapclap
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your overestimating the meaning of that statement....it's from angie you know... i would think she always tells it like it is :laugh2:

anyways sucks for the girl to be allergic to one of the most useful/ essential resource in life...

#15 [N], Feb 28, 2008
xmichelly Well-Known Member

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:O that sucks ...
feel so sorry for her >.<

#16 xmichelly, Feb 28, 2008
lee-lee Well-Known Member

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poor girl...
to not be able to enjoy a bubble bath....cry...
how about drinking water?

#17 lee-lee, Feb 28, 2008
fearless_fx Eugooglizer

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no bukake for her

#18 fearless_fx, Feb 28, 2008
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fearless_fx said: ↑

no bukake for her
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fuck man........-bowroflarms cruel as hell but was wondering when some shit like this would be brought up lmao

#19 [N], Feb 28, 2008
fearless_fx Eugooglizer

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im surprised it never came up sooner. sex must be a very itchy and uncomfortable affair for this girl

#20 fearless_fx, Feb 29, 2008

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