The girl who is allergic to water – When she bathes or cries she feels like she is “on fire”

A teenage girl’s life took an unexpected turn in 2021 after almost a year of visits to doctors. 14-year-old Sandy Tesmer was diagnosed with hydrous urticaria, commonly known as allergy in the water!

The girl noticed that something strange happened every time she finished her bath: her skin was very red and this made her mom joke and tell her that she was allergic to cleanliness. But the situation was getting worse every day. Her every contact with the water, even with her own tears, brought unbearable pain. “I felt like someone was pouring gasoline on me and setting me on fire. I get red and feel like I’m burning every time I shower, wash my hands, or sweat. I can’t stand everything that’s happening, I start crying and it makes my situation even worse because I’m allergic to my own tears,” she describes to the Independent.

The rare condition, called hydrogenic urticaria, in which blisters form on the skin regardless of the temperature of the water, affects 50-100 people worldwide. At first the 14-year-old couldn’t believe that something like this was happening to her. “If someone told me the same thing was happening to them, I would think they were kidding me,” she says, describing her frustration at everything she has dreamed of and can’t do.

“I was worried about the things I could do in my life, in my career or even in school. I was depressed for months and I feel very anxious when my friends ask me if I want to go swimming at the beach. I keep thinking my life is over. I’ve wanted to join the army all my life and found out I can’t do it anymore because I can’t exercise, which was devastating,’ he admits.

Her mother, in an effort to make the 14-year-old’s daily life more bearable, has brought a tutor to the house to do her homework, even gymnastics so that she avoids physical activity at school, which causes sweating and excruciating pain.

Sandy loves soccer and swimming, but her hobbies have become her worst nightmare, causing her to quit. Even drinking water he has become a Calvary. So to avoid any accident he only sucks with a straw!

Her mother says she is breaking down like a parent knowing she can’t do anything for her child. “She comes out of the shower red and crying and I’m trying not to cry because she’s going to cry some more,” he says. “I just hope more research is done to make sure she can live a full life doing all the things she wants,” her mother added.