Dermographism

I'm going through old photos tonight to try to get caught up on the blog and realized that I never posted about Anna's dermographism episodes. Anna was diagnosed with dermographism in March- a condition where the skin is abnormally sensitive to be scratched and rubbed. Dermographism can happen to someone once, can happen on and off throughout their lives, or it can be a permanent condition. Sometimes there can be a clear trigger at other times no one knows what started the problem. Anna's seems to be triggered by cats. Anna is allergic to cats- we knew this because of her skin testing in early March, but she displays none of the typical symptoms when in a household with cats- sneezing, itchy eyes, runny nose, etc. So we figured she's mustn't be very allergic to them. We've discovered she is very allergic when her skin is pierced- as in a scratch or a bite. Twice this has happened and both times it has triggered a dermographism episode that lasted for a couple of weeks. When Anna is having an episode even a very gentle scratch leaves a mark. When she rubs her eyes the skin around them turns pink. She gets small hives for no particular reason.

Why is Anna hanging out with all these violent cats, you ask? There is a cat at both grandparent's homes. Junior, the cat belonging to the Van Hals is incredibly laid back and lets Anna do whatever her little heart desires. He does not seem to mind in the least when Anna pulls on him, lays on him, etc. He has all his claws, though, and accidentally scratched Anna's belly through her shirt- probably he was sitting on her lap and then used his claws when he stood up. Samson, my sister Kathryn's cat, does not enjoy Anna's attention nearly as much as Junior. While we were in St. Louis the week of Easter Anna was scratched once and bitten once, and trust me, she deserved it. We tried to keep her from provoking the cat but Anna absolutely adores cats and she is FAST.

Anna has been on Zyrtec to help manage her symptoms but we stopped giving it to her a couple of days ago as her pediatrician said to stop giving it to her when she's been free of symptoms for a week or two.

In the meantime we still haven't been trying peanut butter because her skin has already been so sensitive.

I took this photo the day Anna's pediatrician diagnosed her with dermographism. I (gently) drew a smiley face on Anna's back with my fingernail and this was the result a couple of minutes later. Bryan thinks this was a little cruel of me, but I swear it didn't bother her! Sorry, Anna, I couldn't resist.