Imagine your face breaking out every time you cried or your entire body covered in a rash every time you worked out. Imagine fearing that your throat could close every time you stepped out into the rain.
For a third year Media Studies student at Western University, that is her reality.
Kala Wood has lived with Aquagenic Urticaria, or an allergy to water, ever since she could remember. “I used to always complain to my parents whenever they made me take baths as a kid. I always told them, ‘oh my stomach hurts, I can’t do it’” she says.
Prior to her diagnosis, her family had assumed that the symptoms she was experiencing were due to additional chemicals or soaps added to the water. But even the switch to “sensitive” skin-care products could not change what was happening. It was not until after several consultations with doctors and dermatologists that they discovered just what she was experiencing.
Now, as part of her daily routine, she takes medication two times a day that are six times more potent than normal allergy medication. She has incorporated many preventative measures such as drinking through straws in order to limit reactions. She also tends to take short and colder showers due to warmer temperatures making her reactions more severe.
Growing up, Kala was never fully able to enjoy the simplicities of playing in the snow or jumping through puddles. Luckily for her, her allergy has its good days where her reactions are not as severe as normal. On her good days, she loves to enjoy the few minutes she can swim with her friends in the summer months. “It sucked because the rest of my friends were able to stay in the pool for hours at a time, and I could only stay in for five minutes” she says. “Kids were really into those underwater cameras, so my five minutes in the pool would be spent taking these pictures with them instead of actually getting to play in the pool”.
Not everyone has understood her condition either, occasionally labelling her as an “attention seeker”. As she comes from a traditional small-town, a few of these negative experiences have impacted her socially. She recalls that even one of her former employers spread around that she was a liar. “We’re not taken seriously" she says, "That affects a lot of friendships and relationships too because a lot of people will think the same thing. They wont necessarily say it to my face that, “oh you’re just an attention seeker”, but you can tell. Some people don’t talk to me because of that.”
One can only imagine how difficult this allergy would be to cope with, but for Kala it is just one of many. She is also allergic to a variety of things such as latex, grape, maple and beef. While her allergy to water is the most severe, the others cause similar reactions and sometimes enhance the current reaction to water exposure.
As you can imagine, not many individuals have allergies to water. Its surreal to conceptualize a life where one is allergic to one of the necessities of life.
The clinical term for the allergy, Aquagenic Urticaria, is the rapid development of hives from contact to water. Symptoms can range from a simple itchy outbreak of hives, to the extreme case of a throat closure. With the condition being so rare, there is minimal data on the causes and treatments for the allergy. Even the exact amount of people with the condition is inconclusive due to a lack of reported cases.
“It’s like having a piece of duct tape on your skin and just having it ripped away repeatedly” - Kala Wood
According to research conducted on Health Jade, from the reported cases in literature, the majority of people with Aquagenic Urticaria are women and first display symptoms during puberty.
While reaction times are different for every individual, for Kala, she experiences symptoms within 15 minutes of contact with water. Originally developing symptoms on her thighs and chest, the hives started spreading to her face. Kala described her reactions as, “having a piece of duct tape on your skin and just having it ripped away repeatedly”.
If there is one thing someone should know about Kala, it is that she does not take ‘no’ for an answer. Whether it is a game of “Cat-opoly” or a water gun fight, she has never let anything stop her; not even her allergy. “She’s the kind of person that doesn’t let something like [her allergy] get to her. She’s always a strong, independent, woman and never lets that kind of thing stand in her way” says Duncan Bissell, one of her roommates this past year. “You never really notice it until she makes a point of it. It’s not something that I process in that sense. I don’t see it as a defining characteristic”.
As she has gotten older, Kala’s insecurities about her condition became evident towards her outward appearance. As a university student it is difficult for her to manage the busy lifestyle she has while having to be consciously aware of her face breaking out into hives all the time. Even going to the gym is stressful because she is fearful that her sweat would result in a reaction. “I really do enjoy exercising, but a lot of my friends want to go to the gym and exercise whereas I can’t because I’ll break out into hives and that’s really embarrassing”, she says.
While her condition does not impact her academically, any precipitation will result in an allergic reaction. For Kala, if she were to walk to the bus stop on a damp day, she would know that she would have to sit through class uncomfortably rather than actually pay attention. Despite having an EpiPen in drastic situations, some days she has to choose to stay home and avoid the risk all together.
For some people, a condition like this would be enough to make a person fearful to even step outside their front door in the morning; but not Kala. Regardless of her condition, she has never let anything stand in the way of what she wants.
As her roommate can attest, Duncan never even knew she was allergic to water until she made a scene about it one day. “It honestly becomes more of a humorous instance, not from the perspective of that it’s funny she get’s rashes, but it’s funny how she overcomes it and she tackles it” he said. Duncan mentioned that even Kala makes a point of being funny about her allergy and never lets it get her down.
In the words of the girl who is allergic to water, “People tend to think that because of my allergy, I’m somehow not able to do things. That I don’t have the same abilities as everybody else, but I mean, I do. I’m not going to let an allergy control my life”.