We knew allergies to pollen or peanuts. Abigail, from Arizona in the US, suffers from an extremely rare allergy … to water. If her skin touches her, she immediately develops a painful rash. Even worse, she would vomit if she tried to drink it and spoke of her tears as “acid”.
The 15-year-old suffers from what doctors call “aquatic urticaria”, which often affects women after puberty. She returned to her illness with the mirror: “My tears cause a reaction wherein my face becomes red and burns badly. I cry like a normal human being and this hurts me (…) I vomit if I drink water, my chest hurts a lot and my heart begins to beat very quickly.”
To stay hydrated, she has no choice but to swallow her rehydration tablets with juice.
Abigail fears the lack of information about this pathology. “I don’t know if it would kill me, I wasn’t told. I have symptoms that could stop my heart, but no one knows about the disease so they don’t know if my heart or lungs might stop working. I have no idea what could happen. Which scares me,” she said wistfully.
While waiting for news about this particular allergy, the girl avoids showering every day. When the weather is bad and it rains, Abigail must also take precautions to avoid any rashes and burns.
