My Story

Hi I am Brooke and here is my story.

In December 2005 I was ten years old. I was sitting at home and my hands and feet turned bright red and began to swell up and itch. I also had a butterfly rash across my face. I made the mistake of putting on the blue cooling gel you use with sunburns. Key word there cooling I began to swell worse as the day drew on. My parents came home to see me sitting on the couch looking like a swollen red balloon.
My parents took me to the Dr and the Dr said this looks like Lupus to me because of the 'BUTTERFLY RASH".
I took some Benadryl and went right on to the church Christmas party. It was great until the Benadryl wore off and I started swelling up again. All the kids at the party began to look worried as my face swelled up and turned bright red. I scratched at my face and it made it worse. The next day mom and dad took me to the doctor and had blood taken. The test results came back and there wasn't anything unusual about it. The swelling seemed to go away for a while, but later came back. I went back in for more testing. This time the DR found something that made her think I had a tumor in my kidney. I was sent over to the hospital for tests. Dad was at home because we were having our roof repaired from Hurricane Katrina. That day I learned about what an ultrasound is and I started to think about maybe having a career in that field. My kidneys checked out fine.
I was sent to a pediatric rheumatologist who sent me to an allergist. In June 2007 the allergist diagnosed me with Cold Urticaria. Problem solved right? No. In May of this year I was standing eating lunch and my legs began to turn a dark shade of purple and my knees swelled up.
I began the blood tests again and I went back to see the rheumatologist and so far they put me on a baby aspirin a day. We are still looking for an answer as to what this is. Everything takes time and fortunately time is what we have.
Cold Urticaria, a fancy name for saying allergic to cold temperatures, is very rare. It can be a symptom of other things like RAYNAULDS. When a person has this, they have to be careful when inside a really cold building or even eating too much ice.
The purple legs that I get some days is Livedo Riticularis and is not all serious, but the baby aspirin helps control it.
I return to my Dr in Dec. I know God has a reason for all of this. I am thankful to have great friends who do not laugh at me when I have to be bundles up in a blanket in the middle of July, or when I wear gloves in the summertime to keep my hands warm.