Our first guest is known for her role in
the Carol Burnett Show and Mama's family,
but she's also a comedian and
spent the summer touring the
country with her two woman show.
Vicki Lawrence is raising awareness
about a chronic condition that is no
laughing matter and joins us now alongside
allergist Dr Travis Miller welcome.
Hi, how are you good?
Thank you so much for coming
on the show and Vicki tell
us about some of the latest
projects that you're involved in.
Well, I've perfected my
cooking this past year.
During that lock down, you know
what I mean? Yeah, I'm starting
to go out on tour a little bit
again, which is so nice to
get out and see my peeps.
I'm missed everybody so much a lot of
places still aren't opening back up yet,
so I hope next year is going
to be much better.
But yeah, I'm dipping my toe.
Got a little bit of a fall schedule so
get on my website vickilawrence.com and
maybe I'll be in your neighborhood.
Oh, that
would be awesome.
Little bit that would be great.
Shower you know?
Yes yeah, I understand Vicki.
You have chronic hives.
Can you tell us about the
condition and your diagnosis?
Yeah, I was diagnosed
about eight years ago when I woke
up one morning with the palms of
my hands itching and I said to my
husband go buy a lottery ticket.
Honey, 'cause I think we're coming into
a lot of money tonight and we laughed
about it and when it wouldn't stop,
I went in in the kitchen and I
soaked my hands in ice water.
Fast forward to the next morning when
I wake up with my hands itching again
and I said it's like Groundhog Day.
Fast forward to a little later when
I'm walking the dogs and my whole
body starts itching and when I got
home and lifted up my T shirt,
I had welts everywhere that I
had scratched myself and Al said
you better get to the allergist
'cause something's going on honey.
So I went to the allergist and he said
almost everybody breaks out in hives.
At some point in their life.
It's probably nothing we will get rid of it.
Not to worry.
So he did everything that you can.
Think of that you would do
for an allergic reaction.
Mean time at home.
I'm doing everything you can think of that
that you would try for an allergic reaction.
I'm assuming it's something
I ate a it's a soap.
I've changed.
It's a cosmetic.
I've changed my daughter said
get an elimination diet mom.
One of my friends said stop
drinking the red wine Vicki it's
the tannins and the red wine.
I said if I stop drinking the red wine,
I'm going to lose my mind.
You know we I tried everything,
I tried to blame myself I six
weeks went by nothing changed.
I've still got the hives the doctor said
I'm going to diagnose you with CIU,
which is also now known as CSU,
which is chronic spontaneous
urticaria and the doctor can
explain to you better than I can.
What that is.
Yeah,
doctor
Miller. What are the signs
and symptoms of CSU?
Yeah, so each patient will
present a little bit differently,
but there's 33 areas that
we really want to focus on.
The chronic we we call it chronic.
If it's been there for at least six weeks,
some some patients that they've
had it for much longer than that.
The S stands for spontaneous.
That means that there's no identifiable
trigger, and you heard with Vicki
story she was looking for a cause,
something she'd change,
something she did wrong.
But in this case,
there won't be an identifiable cause.
And then the last part is the urticaria,
or hives, welts.
Those are red, itchy spots that
we patients develop on their body.
They come and go,
and there's some sort of unpredictable.
So if we see a patient who has all
three of those were very likely to.
Move towards a diagnosis of chronic,
spontaneous or decaria and
Doctor Miller. If someone does have
CSU, what steps should they take?
Well, the biggest thing that we want is
for them to connect with an allergist.
We think that as allergists
who are physicians specialists
that are trained in allergy,
asthma and immunology conditions,
they're probably the best partner
for patients who have chronic hives.
And they can help with the diagnosis,
the management and the treatment plan.
So we really want to encourage
patients to reach out.
And I think Vicki has some
resources how patients can do that.
Perfect thank you both so much.
Vicki Lawrence and Doctor Miller for more
about Vicky's story visit CSU and u.com.