By the end of the weekend, the swelling hadn’t stopped, so Holman got an antihistamine shot.
It took five days for the swelling to subside.
“[My hands] didn’t look human,” Holman toldCosmopolitan.
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“Nothing like that had ever happened before.”
It wasn’t until Holman called her sister that she realized what was going on.
Hereditary angioedema is an incrediblyrare genetic conditioninvolving an inability to properly produce something called a C1-Inhibitor protein.
This causes edemaor swellingin places like the hands, feet, and face.
The condition only appears in1 in 50,000 people(for context, that’s 0.002 percent).
Still, 20 percent of cases are spontaneousmeaning the condition wasn’t passed down from a parent.
Patients can take prescribed medication to treat symptoms.
Since it’s so rare, it often takesseveral yearsfor people with the condition to get diagnosed.
And that’s exactly what happened to Holman and her sister.
His explanation: Plenty of weird things can happen during pregnancy.
Naturally, Holman was frustrated.
But she refused to give up.
After speaking to her mother, Holman learned her grandmother had experienced similar symptoms.
This was enough information to keep Holman intrigued about what was happening to the women in her family.
Holman’s interest only increased when her symptoms flared up again six weeks later.
And by the next year, they’d gotten worsemanifesting internally as well as externally.
Then one day, Holman’s sister read a newspaper article talking about hereditary angioedema.
“It’s exactly what happens to us,” her sister said.
And the veil of confusion was lifted.
Holman quickly made an appointment with a local specialist to confirm her sister’s suspicion.
She’d experienced another flare-up that day, which the doctor wrote off as an allergic reaction.
After insisting she get tested for hereditary angioedema, the doctor conceded.
Though difficult to hear, Holman found solace in a hereditary angioedema support group.
Holman is now 60, and has fewer flare-ups than she did before menopause.
Her sister has experienced a similar drop-off.
“Its annoying, but it is getting better,” she said.
(h/t Cosmopolitan)
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