I Am Allergic To The Cold

hi guys i'm tiffany i didn't have any allergies until i was 16. but last year i developed an illness called cold urticaria or cold allergy when i say cold i don't just mean cold weather during winter i'm allergic to all types of cold including ice cream i even have to sleep while wearing socks on hot summer nights i'm pretty sure you'll be shocked to hear of all the things i've been through my dad has been working for the same company for 12 years he'd been in the same position for years so he wasn't happy last summer he finally got the promotion he'd been waiting for he decided to take us to a beach resort to celebrate we hadn't been on a beach holiday for a long time so we were really excited we got on the road early on a saturday it was really hot so we had the cars ac on the whole way when we got to the resort i noticed there were red spots all over my body they were itchy too i didn't care because i was in such a good mood we didn't know it back then but it was because of the ac we came down to the lobby after leaving our stuff in the room my dad said he had to send a few emails for work my mom and i went to the seaside the beach was absolutely amazing there was a pier that stretched out into the sea everyone was diving into the sea from it after sunbathing for a while i wanted to go for a swim my mom said i'm going to stay here a little longer you go ahead i'll catch up later i was happy because that meant i could dive from the pier my mom would have never allowed it i did it just as i had imagined i ran down the pier and then made a perfect dive in the water i felt like a thousand needles were prickling my skin i didn't understand what was happening so i thought did my feet touch a sea urchin i had to come back up to the surface i realized it wasn't just my feet but my whole body that was in pain i said to myself i must have touched some jellyfish they sting like this i didn't see any jellyfish around but i couldn't think of any other reason i no longer felt good so i came out of the water when my mom saw me she jumped in panic tiffany what happened to you i didn't realize that my entire body including my face was covered in red blisters everything was itchy too when i said i got stung by a jellyfish it really hurts my mom said let's go to the room and put some lotion on i didn't want to but i said okay we later learned that my body had an allergic reaction to the cold water at the time we didn't know that one could be allergic to the cold so we didn't imagine that that was the reason i keep saying allergy but many of you might not know what this illness is really about don't bother googling it i'll tell you what it is allergy means the immune system has extreme sensitivity to something but this is in fact a false alarm the immune system isn't supposed to react yet it activates its defense mechanisms unnecessarily for unknown reasons allergy is a widespread illness some people are allergic to dust others to peanuts some people's immune systems react to cat fur while others to bee stings i am allergic to the cold my immune system activates its defenses and starts giving a variety of reactions when faced with cold these reactions are usually redness itchiness swelling and blisters on the skin it would be fine if it stopped there however it can be really dangerous too and unfortunately i had a very bad experience it was a week after the resort incident i met up with my friend leah she had wanted to get a tattoo for a long time we visited all the tattoo parlors around but she wasn't happy with any of them we were sweaty from the heat so we stopped by an ice cream shop on our way they had the ac on so it was cool inside we decided to eat the ice cream inside and got a table after we got our ice cream we were chatting and eating at the same time after a short time i felt a tingling and then an intense burning in my throat i stopped and tried to understand what was happening leah realized that something was up tiffany are you okay she asked all of a sudden i wasn't able to breathe i felt like there was something in my throat and it was blocking the air from coming in i held my neck with both hands i opened my mouth really wide to breathe but no oxygen was passing through the last thing i remember before i passed out was leah screaming something happened to my friend please call an ambulance please hurry i was at the hospital when i opened my eyes my mom my dad leah and a doctor were there everybody was happy to see that i was recovering what happened to me i asked the doctor smiled you said you couldn't breathe but everything looks normal i think you had a panic attack so the reasons for this must be psychological get some rest you'll be fine tomorrow he said my parents and i weren't satisfied with the panic attack explanation on our way home we decided to visit another doctor to get a second opinion we went to a really famous doctor he did a comprehensive examination he listened to me carefully as i told him what happened finally he said i don't think this is a panic attack he did a bunch of tests afterwards but he wasn't able to give a diagnosis because all the test results came back normal one day when i was at the supermarket with my mom she said can you get some frozen peas i'll grab some milk and eggs i'll meet you by the cashier i went to the frozen food aisle i opened the huge fridge it was really cold i looked for peas for like to 20 seconds i grabbed a peck once i found them then i closed the door of the fridge that's when i started itching i had red spots all over my arms i took out my phone and looked at my face it was also covered in red spots i realized what was happening i ran to my mom she was shocked to see me that way i teared up and said mom my problem is the cold cold stuff does this to me and started crying yes i had diagnosed myself we immediately went to a dermatologist he agreed with me when he heard my story this is called cold urticaria it's also known as cold allergy it's very rare i've only seen three cases so far you're the fourth but i need to do a test to make a definite diagnosis he said the doctor gave a small ice cube to my mom and said put this on tiffany's arm for a few seconds my mom did as the doctor said it felt prickly where she put the ice ice does normally hurt but this was really painful afterwards my arms swelled up and had red spots it was itching really badly too the doctor said you can remove the ice unfortunately this is the worst case of cold allergy i've seen so far so it was official that i had a cold allergy honestly the diagnosis didn't make much of a difference in my life because there is only one cure for this allergy staying away from cold weather and cold things you can take allergy medicine but like with most allergies it's not very effective you know that i had problems during the summer so imagine how it would be in winter last winter was so difficult my mom drove me to and from school she would heat up the car before i came out of the house i spent very little time outside but i still had to wear really thick clothes i looked like an astronaut i had a hat that covered my whole face a really tight scarf a really long jacket that was filled with goose feathers thermal tights a really thick pair of pants and thermal gloves that you'd usually wear when skiing even with all these precautions i still had three or four incidents throughout the season one of them was actually really funny guess where the allergy got me in the bathroom the toilet seat was cold i sat on it in the morning without checking the result was a disaster my backside was completely red thankfully i didn't get blisters but i couldn't go to school because of the itching will i be like this for the rest of my life thankfully no this allergy is usually seen in women between the ages of 15 and 30. it usually lasts 5 to 10 years and then disappears so one day you wake up with a cold allergy you live with this condition that affects your whole life for years and then just like that it disappears it's really weird you can get more information about this allergy if you search on google if you think that you might have the allergy you can do the ice test but the best thing is to see a doctor the illness doesn't have a cure but it requires the support of an expert thanks for listening to me if you like stories like this i suggest you subscribe to the channel bye you

Channel: That's My Story

Views: 1,585,760

Rating: 4.8489442 out of 5

Keywords: personal stories, story, experience, animation, short film, stories, animated stories, real life, allergy, allergic, cold, winter, cold urticaria

Id: czLoOcueEis

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020