Just over 0.0001% of the United States population has the disease erythromelalgia and senior Ridge Rose is one of them.

“It causes a reverse stress reaction which causes blood to flood to my hands and feet, and sometimes other places, and sometimes my cheek swells up so I have red cheeks,” Rose said.

There is not a cure right now, and no one is looking for one as there are about 400 people in the United States that have erythromelalgia.

“Last April, I thought I had a rash on my hand and started continuing up my arms and my feet and then we figured out it wasn’t a rash but was blood. Luckily, my doctor had another patient that had it and he knew what it was pretty quickly,” Rose said.

Rose’s doctor didn’t have to put Rose through tests as he was able to detect it immediately, unlike other diseases.

“All of my teachers know about it and they’re pretty good with helping me and allowing me to do my own thing when it starts to hurt,” Rose said.

If it starts to hurt Rose a lot, he will have to sit down, and raise his arms and feet above his heart so that the blood can flow down.

Rose’s disease is not fatal. However, when he gets older it will be harder to move. Right now it causes him lots of pain, and it hurts to just simply walk and hold things. For instance he can only extend his arms to a certain point and he cannot really hold a pencil anymore. Even though Rose has this disease, it hasn’t affected his everyday life too much. His personality has remained the same throughout this all.