Is this story medically accurate?

Ok, fraud—I guess one issue is how much traction you could get. Scientists, doctors, etc. would debunk it fast. But as for reasons: notoriety/celebrity, greed (set up a fake Go Fund Me account for this poor kid with this impossibly rare conditon), maybe one of the parents is a scientist and also a crackpot and wants to submit papers on this invented illness. Maybe there are other psychological factors at work.

 

Sounds good. I'll try that!

 

No respectable newspaper is likely to cover it as if it’s true. Slimy websites, maybe.

 

The Onion.

 

Is the Independant (UK newspaper) and Birmingham Mail respectable?

 

I don’t know. If you’re going to write a story about a medical fraud, it seems to me that it should be one that’s less easily debunked.

 

On the light allergy thing, the most common one is solar ulticaria, which follows the same pattern as the water 'allergy' that does exist. Then there's lupus, which is an auto immune condition (where the body identifies part of itself as a threat and attacks it) that creates the same kind of hives.

But to have anaphylaxis wth water? I'd shelve that as the work of someone with less anatomical knowledge than a primary school child.

I think Heidi would be rumbled very quickly. If she believed it so much I'd be asking if she perhaps has had an actual allergen mixed into her water.

 

Well, if she lived in the U.S., all posing with a boxes of epi pens would prove is that she's either got a hell of a lot of money or the best health insurance I've ever heard of. Those puppies are $300 a piece here.

 

Since the OP has mentioned British papers I'm guessing it's set in the UK, but there are bigger problems than that:
-EpiPens have a shelf life of about a year.
-EpiPens contain steroids, which the body can and does develop a tolerance of if used too much. This is something I've been taught because my boyfriend is asthmatic and his inhaler for when he has an attack is also a steroid. If he exceeds a certain frequency of attacks he needs to check in with the doctor for an assessment before that tolerance develops.

 

Hey guys, what are your thoughts on this? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1172102/Mothers-allergy-water-means-drink-bathe-wipe-away-sons-tears.html

She says she cannot even drink water or she could die as her throat swells up, very similar to my story. Or is this a medical fraud?

 

You're back to aquagenic urticaria. Your description of your character's issue does not match aquagenic urticaria. If you want it to match, so that you're describing a condition that actually exists, then change it.

 

The news article may say Aquagenic Urticaria but she also says she cannot ingest water as her throat closes and swells up, which isn't consistent with Aquagenic Urticaria as it's a skin condition.

 

So... why are you believing the article about some details (mostly those that are self-reported by the patient rather than explained by a doctor) but not believing the article about other details?

It comes down to what makes sense. If you tell me there's a woman who is allergic to drinking water and can't drink tea, coffee, or juice because of their water content but CAN drink diet Coke, which surely has a similar water content, I'm coming into your story skeptical and disbelieving. A big part of writing fiction is trying to get people to believe in the story you're telling. Why handicap yourself with something that seems absurd?

 

OK, you have two goals:

1) A story about a water allergy.
2) A realistic story.

You can't have both. It seems increasingly clear that you want goal (1) and don't care that much about goal (2). So abandon goal (2) and write the story about the water allergy. People write surreal stories, fairy tales, etc., all the time. The Light Princess, a story about a baby who was born with no gravity, is a lovely story, even though it's utterly impossible.

So move on. You can't have both goals. Pick one.

 

It is consistent. Swelling of the throat after drinking water is one of the listed symptoms in literature I read on this disorder.

 

Then if that's the case it's the H2O molecule itself being an antigen and not something on the epidermis being solublized by water.

It'd also mean that saliva isn't made of H2O either since they say they only react when drinking water but their throat and mouths aren't constantly swollen/blistered.

 

My dude, you really just gotta admit that you don't understand biochemisty as well as you apparently think that you do.

That, or just write your story and don't give a damn what we / other people / science think about it re: realism.

 

I'm staring at this. You're not serious, right?

So your answer to my question about whether you understand that the human body naturally contains water is...no?

I'm curious--when you spit or urinate, what do you think that stuff is?

 

Neither of these things follow, sorry.

The H2O molecule isn't an antigen. That is something that I think has been clearly established, and there's no point in even making that argument anymore. From there, you have to understand that the mechanism of the disease isn't understood, so you can't make conclusory statements like those above and expect to have them taken seriously. There is evidence in some cases it is a compound carried by water. There is evidence in other cases that there is some reaction with a compound in the skin that results in histamine liberation. There are probably different causes in different people, but no one knows because the disorder isn't well understood. From both a scientific and (hopefully) common sense standpoint, we can say H2O molecules are not acting as antigens.

And because H2O is not acting as an antigen, you have the explanation for how saliva can be comprised of water and not harm them.

If you're writing a story where H2O is an antigen, you're writing science fiction and you're going to have to invent a lot of explanation as to how it works, because it's not real.

 

Diet Coke, apparently.

 

[nevermind]

 

You said the following before you went "nevermind":

"Well apparently there's cases in the news of people being allergic to water to the point they cannot even drink it without going into shock or having their throat and mouths blister and close up, yet, they aren't having the reaction constantly, only when they drink water? Like they aren't reacting to their own saliva in their mouths, so maybe saliva actually isn't made up of H2O but something really similar?"

I really feel the need to document this, as background to whatever you say next.