Vicki Lawrence - Chronic Hives

[jayman75]

I stumbled upon this article today:

March 2015
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Ever since she first appeared on the "Carol Burnett Show" at age 18, Vicki Lawrence has had us laughing.

She still gets them from audiences in her current touring show, "Vicki Lawrence and Mama, a 2-woman Show."

But on Thursday, she was at 6abc with a more serious campaign, raising awareness about a form of chronic hives called Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria, C.I.U., something which hit her out of the blue 4 years ago.

"It started for me literally with my hands itching. I said to my husband - you gotta go buy a lottery ticket, because clearly, we're coming into a lot of money tonight," Lawrence said with a big smile.

"And I dunked my hands in ice water, and it went away. But the next day, I wake up like groundhog day, and my hands are itching again," she continued.

She tried to put the itching out of her mind by taking her dogs for a walk.

"By the time I got home from walking the dogs, literally, I'd clawed welts all over my body," she said.

Lawrence and her allergist tried to figure out what triggered those welts.

"Your immediate thought is I'm doing something wrong - changed my detergent, or I'm using a new cosmetic, or I've eaten something weird. and in many cases, that's the case," she said.

And she got a rafter of advice from well-meaning friends on how to solve the problem.

But after 6 weeks, the hives were still there, and Lawrence's allergist declared the case "chronic."

Treatment finally brought the hives under control. They flared once 6 months later, but have been out of sight since.

Now she wants to help the 1.5 million other people with C.I.U.

Lawrence has partnered with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which has developed a website CIU and You to serve as a resource for sufferers.

when she was diagnosed, there was no place for information, sharing, or advocacy on C.I.U.

"There were a lot of people with questions," says Lawrence. "But not a lot out there."

She hopes people with C.I.U. will come to the site to check their symptoms, download materials, and share their experiences.

She says patients are are urged to take pictures to show their doctors, because, on appointment day, "Maybe the hives won't be there that day."

With her hives under control, Lawrence is focusing on her touring show and the DVD-release of the first 5 years of the "Carol Burnett Show."

"We're gonna get together next week for some new features for the DVDs," she says.

"That'll be interesting to see, we did some fun stuff in the very beginning, and we're going to shoot it at Studio 33, where we did all those shows," she reminisces.

Lawrence admits she was sometimes in awe of the special cast she worked with.

"I'd find myself standing by Harvey Korman and Carol Burnett, and you know, you'd see the audience behind them, and I would literally have to snap myself out of it, and say OK, you've got a line coming up!"

The story linked to the CIU website, which has a 4-5 minute video on Vicki's story.

Vicki Lawrence is no stranger to being quick on her feet and playing off improv lines on stage. But when she was diagnosed with this form of chronic hives without a known cause, she was caught off-guard.

After the first outbreak of hives which were accompanied by an intense itch, Vicki tried to figure out the cause of her hives, with little success. “I was at my wit’s end. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I stopped drinking red wine, I changed soap, and I submerged my hands in bowls of ice water. I started avoiding things that I thought were causing the hives.

“My allergist tested me for everything but we still couldn’t figure out a cause for the hives. It was so frustrating to keep searching for a cause. And as much as I was seeking answers, I wasn’t getting any, and wasn’t getting any relief either. Weeks passed, but the hives didn’t. Friends and family offered suggestions and their own explanations but they didn’t understand what I was going through.

“I want to be open about my condition to show others that they are not alone in their struggle with this form of chronic hives.”

Had anyone else heard Vicki talk about this medical issue?

[rusty spike]

There's a PSA bit that's been airing on ME-TV.

I am glad that there's a treatment for her.