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General health

Chronic hives. Driving me mad.

39 replies

hellymelly · 05/05/2013 23:19

Had a reaction to antibiotics 6m ago, since then have had hives on and off, mainly on over the past 3m. Saw an allergy Doc who thinks I'm reacting to salicylate ( a chemical in fruit and vegetables) he has put me on a low salicylate diet which is really horrible and boring, and which doesn't agree with my system generally, as I feel rubbish on it. However I am still coming out in hives daily. (I've been on it nearly 2 months). The doc prescribed triple dose antihistmines but I tend to react badly to meds so am only doing the diet, am wondering now if there is in fact some other trigger. Has anyone had hives go on and on like this? If so did they go away? Last night I had weals all over my back and felt horrible, had to take piriton to calm it down. I'm eating far too much sugar and fat as I can't eat many types of fruit and not having any herbs or spices is hell. I am gluten intolerant and a veggie so the diet is very hard.

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Sh1ney · 06/05/2013 00:09

Yes , I get several attacks a day. I've either got pressure hives or dermographism...probably a mixture of the two!

I don't take anything, used to it now. It's caused by too much histamine in the skin. I sometimes take an anti histamine if it is really driving me mad but attacks last around half an hour and I just get on with it.

I find it more annoying when people point out that I have weals on me and say' God, you must have been scratching! ' when all I've done is lightly brushed my hand over myself or something. Mildly irritating as hear it all the time!

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Sh1ney · 06/05/2013 00:10

And I've had it for years now. Sometimes it goes away for a few months but always comes back.

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whatwouldyoudoifyouwereme · 06/05/2013 00:11

Dd gets this. Calamine cream seems to help. As well as antihistamines.

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hellymelly · 06/05/2013 15:23

shiney mine are worse under my bra strap or where there is pressure. I am hoping it has some other cause and not salicylate, was that ever suggested to you? I haven't had any tests, as there isn't one, he just asked what I ate, my diet was high in salicylate as any vaguely healthy diet would be, particularly if you are vegetarian. I am getting used to the hivesm but I also feel strange and slightly faint and tight chested if a bad attack of hives is erupting, and that frightens me. Doc said stress was an aggravating factor and I've lots of stress in the past 18 m. Dad died, Mum in hospital and now showing early signs of dementia, all hideously stressful.

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Slipshodsibyl · 06/05/2013 15:31

Go to a dermatologist. They cannot always help, but a combination of anti histamine and Zantqc sometimes stops chronic urticaria, though they dont reqlly seem to know why, and they might have other solutions. I use a specific anti histamine which has no side effects (Telfast) I think they are your best option really as the urticaria might go away but it might not and you need to learn to manage it. A bad attack makes me feel lousy too so I sympathise but you need to learn to manage living with it.

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hellymelly · 06/05/2013 15:58

ok, I will think about a dermatologist then. The consultant I saw at the allergy clinic has given me an anti histamine that can be taken at very high doses, I was supposed to take two to three times the normal dose, plus another drug that is normally used for asthma, to take at night, again at a higher than normal dose. I was on antihistamines when I had the initial reaction to the antibiotic, but the non-drowsy one I was taking made me faint, shaky, and terrified feeling, I ended up in A+E as I felt so awful. They gave me clorphenamine then, and I am ok on that if the hives are very bad, but the idea of the raised doses is to calm down the mast cells so they stop over reacting. I hate the idea of more drugs, the asthma one had lots of possible nasty side effects, so i have stuck to the diet. I would think by now the hives should have calmed down if it is salicylate, but I had some cardamom flavoured pudding (cardamom is high in salicylate) and had a reaction that I normally only get with gluten, very bad diarrhoea (sorry tmi) and gut pain, but not lots of hives, at least not more than normal. Am so fed up with it on top of all the other stresses of finding a care home place for my Mum and clearing her whole house as we've sold it. Sad Am fed up. Do hormone changes play any part? I'm 49 and although I was on an even keel, since my Dad's death I am hormonally haywire.

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Slipshodsibyl · 06/05/2013 18:52

I think maybe they do. Mine came on in my 40s and I have no other allergies of any kind at all.

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hellymelly · 06/05/2013 20:59

I do have other allergies, to wasp stings, and am generally a "reactive" type. My brother has asthma. My face went redder and more rashy, probably rosacea, at about 45, and now this, I do feel it must be hormonal to a degree.

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CoteDAzur · 06/05/2013 21:58

OP - There are different types of antihistamines. One you will not react to should be easy enough for a dermatologist to find.

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Sh1ney · 06/05/2013 22:41

Helly - a lot of thhe time this is just 'one of those things'.... No, I saw a doctor once and it is to do with the level of histamine in my skin. Probably. Sometimes I can write my name on my arm. Sometimes I am so itchy it is unbearable. And i come up in massive weals.

I'm used to it. It isn't an illness and I pop a pill if its really bad. At most it lasts half an hour so it isnt like its ongoing for hours at a time < that would be a different matter! >

Yes try seeing someone but my advice would be to try and forget about it and you'll probably see that it comes and goes

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hellymelly · 06/05/2013 23:02

Mine tend to last for a few hours, sometimes a day, only to flare up again almost as soon as they've died down. I get the wheals where I have scratched the itch, I looked like I'd been whipped a few nights ago as I had scratched my back around the bra strap. The itchyness keeps me awake at times and can be maddening if it is legs/back/tummy all at once. Sometimes my eyes puff up, one eye more than the other strangely. I get palpitations anyway, but they can be bad when the hives are erupting. My whole system feels "wrong". Oh and my head itches like mad too.

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Rulesgirl · 06/05/2013 23:15

I got it when I had bad flu once and had to keep going to take the kids to school etc. Guess I took too many asprins cause I came out in huge welts all over my body. I do suffer from uticara though.

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dreamingbohemian · 06/05/2013 23:26

I used to suffer really badly from hives years ago, but they calmed down massively when I moved from the US to the UK (I have no idea why). I sometimes still get them during very stressful times (I also have rosacea, also mostly in remission).

I second seeing a dermatologist.

I had really good results from taking loratadine every day, as a preventive measure, when I was suffering badly from them. (that's the generic name, the US brand name is Claritin) It has very low risk of side effects, I think -- I didn't have any, at any rate. You can get it as a generic over the counter drug at Boots for very cheaply (get the Boots generic version).

When I was very good about taking it every day, it made a huge difference. It's a pretty mild drug so you could give it a try and see how it goes.

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hellymelly · 06/05/2013 23:34

I have loratadine, that is the one the doc gave me, but I was worried about taking it as it mentions nervousness and sleeplessness and that is what I had writ large with the other non-drowsy one I took after the initial antibiotic reaction. I was shaking and terrified, it was horrible. I think maybe tomorrow I should try taking the loratadine in the morning and see how I feel. My rosacea only started when I moved from London to the Back of Beyond, where I am now, and oddly my hives were a bit better last week when we were away. Still in the UK, but three hours away from home.

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dreamingbohemian · 06/05/2013 23:42

Ah, that's interesting -- maybe the pollution in London kills all the allergens, it was when I moved there that my hives and rosacea got better! It's all so odd.

I had absolutely no side effects from the loratadine but obviously everyone is different. Can you take half a pill to start with? I don't know what dosage I took but it was OTC so probably not too high.

I also found it helped when I started using cleansers without soap or parabens (stuff for really sensitive skin).

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Lorelei353 · 06/05/2013 23:57

My experience is a bit like Slipshodsibyl. A few years I developed chronic idiopathic urticaria. No-one knows how it started but it's kind of irrelevant anyway. Weirdly my dad got it about a year ahead of me (we live in different countries. The hives wold pop p and down all day and night. Some things made it worse -red wine, getting too hot etc- but nothing was triggering it as such. Also got horrendous wheals from the lightest touches on my skin.

I saw a dermatologist who put me on a dose of Telfast which helped manage it really well. I pass out completely even with non-drowsy anti-histimines but not with Telfast. I used to periodically cut back my dose to see if it was gone and after about 4 years it was. It can go after about 6 months but it does go eventually.

Dermatologist did say certain anti-depressants can also help but I didn't get that far.

Cold, wet cotton wool helps soothe and Sudocrem was also marvellous.

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hellymelly · 07/05/2013 11:03

Yes, the initial doctor I saw said that a certain anti-depressant helps, seemed to be mulling over putting me on it, and then mentiones patch testing, but got no further. That was in clinical pharmacology, as my initial reaction had probably been caused by one or both antibiotics I tried, I'd been referred to them. Then I saw a consultant immunologist and he put forward the salicylate theory, but I am hating this diet so much, and finding it so restrictive, that I'd almost rather have hives. (in a cafe last week with family, all eating lovely things while the only thing safe for me was a bowl of boiled white rice and a skinned potato. I had tears in my eyes!
Realise I am super whingey in this thread, its been a really gruelling year and I am generally so stressed now, the hives have tipped me over the edge!

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hellymelly · 07/05/2013 11:05

Interesting about London, I had thought about the pollution and wandered why it wasn't worse there. Here I am in remote West Wales, a mile from the beach, clean fresh air, and my whole system is reacting. In london I got tight chested if the pollution was very bad, super hot July days for instance, but otherwise fine unless I spent too long with the dog on Primrose Hill when the back field was very high with flowering grasses.

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hellymelly · 07/05/2013 11:06

Getting into the bath makes my hives come up badly. I guess its the heat?

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moonbells · 07/05/2013 12:06

I have had intermittent hives since last October. Wretched things! I was getting up this morning and the pre-rash appeared (I get itchy red marks first, which then are the focus for the subsequent swellings) and I ran for the Telfast. By 7am I'd puffed up everywhere and by 8am they were gone again. I hate them! You all have my sympathy, as mine are bad enough and I only have a mild case!

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Slipshodsibyl · 08/05/2013 09:15

I get the impression you are reluctant to endure the side effects of anti histamines, so I just want to say that I am affected by them, even when they are supposed to be non-drowsy. Telfast, however is different, and I have been told it is the only anti-allergy medicine which pilots are allowed to use, so get that to start with and you will feel much better immediately.

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buildingmycorestrength · 08/05/2013 09:23

My friend had this and switched to a low histamine diet, and takes a background antihistamine daily.

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Lorelei353 · 08/05/2013 09:24

I agree. Telfast really are great.

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hellymelly · 08/05/2013 13:29

ok I will ask my GP about Tefast, or can you get it over-the-counter?

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Lorelei353 · 08/05/2013 21:14

I needed a prescription for it. Don't think you can get it otc.

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