Reader\'s Digest Canada - 10.2019

illustration by victor wong

THE PATIENT: Eva*, a 36-year-old

city clerk

THE SYMPTOMS: Intense itching

and skin rash

THE DOCTOR: Dr. Laurence Toutous

Trellu, dermatologist, Geneva University

Hospitals, Switzerland

I

N THE SPRING of 2015, Eva and her

husband had no immediate plans

to move from their cozy apartment

in Geneva, Switzerland, where they’d

lived for years. But when Eva started

itching all over—even waking up at

night to scratch—and her skin erupted

in lesions, her family doctor guessed

that her home was likely infested with

bedbugs. Eva hadn’t spotted any signs

of the pests, nor did her husband

complain of bites. Nevertheless, she

called exterminators.

When their services made no differ-

ence, Eva’s anxiety escalated. The

unbearable itching was constant, and

her sleep suffered. Pushed to a break-

ing point, she and her husband found

a new place to live. But the itching

didn’t stop.

Eva’s doctor ran a few simple blood

tests, including one looking at kidney

function and another at liver enzymes,

and took a chest X-ray, but these were

normal. Eva had a slightly high level of

*BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS HAVE BEEN CHANGED. an antibody called IgE, which could

BY Lisa Bendall

rd.ca 31

WHAT’S WRONG

WITH ME?

HEALTH