The drama of Abigail, the girl allergic to water: she can’t cry even if the rain touches her

“I had to educate my doctors about my condition because they’ve never experienced it before,” she says Abigail Beckan Arizona teenager who is so allergic to water that she can’t even cry or shower due to the pain it causes on her skin, and he cannot drink it without falling seriously ill.

Beck has aquagenic urticaria, a rare condition, with only about 100 registered cases, which causes itching when in contact with water. The 15-year-old was diagnosed in April after telling doctors her tears looked like acid and that showering had caused her severe discomfort.

“I cry like a normal person and it hurts,” she told Kennedy News, describing her tears as “one of the worst parts” because they burn his face. “This affects my life, but I don’t want it to be like that. If I drink water, I vomit, my chest hurts a lot and My heart starts beating very fast.”

Due to her extreme allergy, Abigail He hasn’t had a glass of water for a year Instead, he takes rehydration tablets and consumes energy drinks and pure pomegranate juice. “I never feel like drinking water, the taste makes me sick,” he says, while doctors are now considering an IV drip to give him more fluids. “a more permanent treatment,” he said.

As her illness takes its toll, Abigail’s fears grow. “I’m afraid these will get out of control and nobody will know what to do, including me. I don’t even know how to help myself. I try to stay in a good mood and know that if something happens, people around me will do their best,” says the teenager.

Her condition prevents her from being active because even her own sweat causes discomfort and dehydration, which is why she hardly goes outside when it rains. “If it rains I try not to go out Because rain hurts, but if I have to make sure I’m fully covered in a jacket and three pairs of sweatpants,” she said. Luckily for her, it doesn’t rain much in Tucson, Arizona.

Meanwhile, she is forced to carefully read all food and drink labels, but she has a hard time. “I have to check the labels, but everything in this world contains water. I had a reaction a few days ago because I drank a sports drink that I didn’t realize had a lot of water in it… I had a reaction for about four hours with stomach cramps, chest pains, tiredness and dizziness”.

But the scariest part of this rare condition is the lack of medical information about itas it is very rare. “I don’t know if it could kill me because no one has told me otherwise until now. I have symptoms that could cause my heart to stop, but nobody knows anything about the condition, so they don’t know if my heart or my lungs could stop working.”

While she doesn’t yet have an EpiPen (the auto-injector device that delivers the drug epinephrine), she is working with a specialist to come up with a plan for possible allergic reactions when she’s in school. Abigail he started experiencing symptoms when he hit puberty for the first time three years ago, but it took a long time to come to a diagnosis. “It progressed slowly and started to get worse over time. When it rained, it hurt a lot, it felt like acid.”he claims.

“I had never heard of aquagenic urticaria. before that,” said his father Michael, 53. “Honestly, I thought you couldn’t be allergic to water since the body is mostly made of water.”

At first, Abigail thought there was something wrong with the water or that she was using lotions that didn’t suit her. But as she got older, bathing and swimming became more difficult. “When I take a shower, it starts off pretty mild, then I get a rash and red bumps, then it turns into hives. When I get out, the reaction really starts to happen. I have to dry myself as fast as possible. I have to run the water in and out of the water while I wash my hair,” says the girl, who is allowed up to three showers a week. “I am a very clean person and I try to stay clean without having to shower“, he claims.

“It gets really frustrating. People ask me to explain how it works. ‘had never experienced before,” says Abi, who today he lives on antihistamines.

“When I tell people I’m allergic to water, people think it’s absolutely ridiculous and a lot of people are shocked. Many tell me it can’t be because the body is made of water. Some people ask questions that are okay with me because I’d like to help educate someone, so I’m open to answering them,” she concludes.