Raynaud & Dermatographia

Hello friends, friends of friends, and those who randomly stubble upon my blog.

Welcome.

Today's post is brought to you by a lifelong syndrome/disease I've been living with, and didn't even know it! Allow me to elaborate. For as long as I can remember, my hands have had this weird little thing where when I get cold, my fingers turn white. And not just turn white, but get numb and move really slow (which is kind of difficult to live with when you want to play the piano). I just shrugged it off as something that happens to everybody when their hands get cold. I mean, isn't that normal for you to loose feeling when you're freezing? Of course it is! But the catch that I didn't understand when I was yay tall (referring to smaller than I am now, not an actual measurement of height), was that I wasn't freezing. I was rarely even cold enough to be shivering when my fingers turned white! But being young and ignorant, I didn't care about it and moved on with life.

The second disorder I have is called Dermatographic Urticaria (meaning "skin writing"). What does that mean? Well, basically just what it says! I can write on my skin! Ok, well anybody can write on their skin with a pen or something. Let me be a little more specific. When I scratch myself, my skin 1) feels better after the scratching (which I hope is normal with all of you...), and 2) turns red. I can see all of you right now trying this out on yourself. Wait for it... Wait for it... WOAH! Your skin turns red too?! Great! Now let me continue. My skin stays red after I scratch it. Depending on how intensely I itch it or rub it, the time it stays red varies from a minute and a half to about three minutes. I bet your skin has probably returned to normal by now. If not, wait a couple more seconds.

. . .

Still red? Woo! We can be the 5% of the population with Dermatographia, together! So you may be wondering how I found out about these disorders. I'll tell you.

For the white finger syndrome, like I said, I didn't even realize it wasn't normal until my dad pointed it out one day. I had just come in from mowing the lawn in the early summer when the sun was shining bright and I was feelin' nice and warm! Then my dad said, "Woah, Trevor. What happened to your fingers?" That's when I looked down and realized I couldn't feel my fingers because they were white again. "Oh," I replied. "My fingers just get white at random times." My dad told me he thought that was odd, and gave me one of those looks. You know, with the raised eyebrow. I just shrugged, and continued on to my room. After thinking about it, I remember that my grip on the lawnmower was fairly tight, and the air was a little more crisp than it usually was (although it didn't seem like I was gripping the handle any tighter than I usually did). But another thing I realized that morning was that my little syndrome definitely wasn't normal.

How I found out about my Dermatographia was at school one day. It was in Jr. High and I was standing in the lunch line, when one of my friends who was standing behind me said, "Woah, Trevor, what happened to your neck?" My initial response was, Oh crap! What happened to my neck?! Then I decided to be rational and ask what he meant. "Well, you've got all these red lines across your neck! It looks like you were mauled." That's when I remembered that I had scratched myself a little while before on my neck. Then my little wheels got turning. Wait a minute, if the back of my neck is red... Then I scratched myself on my arm. HARD. After about 10 seconds, red lines started to appear. Huh! I didn't even realize that when I scratch myself, my skin turns red. Then I just assumed everybody's skin did that, until everybody started pointing it out. "Hey Trevor, you've got red lines across your neck!" "Hey Trevor, what happened to your cheek?" "Trevor. Trevor. Trevor. You're red all over!" So it wasn't normal.

Figures.

It was only earlier this year when I learned that these disorders I have actually have a name. There's Raynaud's Phenomenon (or Disease, called both ways), which is when my fingers turn white. And then there's Dermatographic Urticaria, which is my red skin... thing. (Although, if you visit the Wikipedia page that the Dermatographia links to, I'm not quite as extreme as the pictures show.)

Now the question that you've all formed in your minds sometime during this post: Are you going to die?


Answer:
Yes, I am. But not from these strange little syndromes.

Thank you for your time, and have a wonderful day. You've all just learned something to share with your moms.

(Meaning the syndromes, not that you're quirky friend who blogs about disorders has them.)