Yesterday, hives returned to me. Damn, I thought I was in the clear! So - let me back up: Several months ago, out of "nowhere", my body erupted in hives. I had been riding bikes on a hot summer day, working up a sweat, and a few hours later, noticed hives all on my upper body. They were concentrated on areas where I would have had sweat: back of neck, armpits, under my breasts, along my waistline. Eek! I popped a benadryl and in a few hours, they were gone. That was on a Saturday.
Two days later, Monday, they emerged again -- but this time much worse. I had been sitting in a meeting, and started to feel very itchy. A colleague said, "you are getting a rash on your neck." I excused myself to the bathroom, and saw my entire neck (all around) and chest had wheals all over, and some starting to appear on my chin.
I have long struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, so the sight of this put me into a panic. What was going on with me??!! I decided to head home, and before I reached my house, noticed that my lip was starting to swell a bit. My panic escalated, and I drove straight to the ER, where they shot my up with a steroid, gave my a Benadryl and Pepcid, and sent me on my way -- with directions to see my doctor within 3 days.
So, my doctor the next day had no idea -- told me to take Claritin daily and referred me to a dermatologist. I managed to get a dermatologist appointment for later in that week (total luck). In the meantime, I continued to have hives daily, despite the Claritin and the Prednisone that the ER told me to take for 4 days following my visit there. The dermatologist basically shrugged and said, "sometimes, we never know what causes hives" after my answers to their standard list of allergy-related questions provided no clues ("no, I didn't change soaps. No, I wasn't hiking through weeds. No, I haven't traveled outside the U.S. recently..."). He said it could be stress related, but said that it technically wasn't CHRONIC URTICARIA (hives) yet since it hadn't been 6 weeks -- usually the cut-off for acute versus chronic distinctions. But the dermatologist also said 50/50 wasn't likely to end up chronic. I didn't like those odds. They told me to see an allergist if I wanted, and prescribed Atarax to take in addition to the Claritin and Prednisone.
By now, the Prednisone was making me very jittery and wired, and frankly, since it wasn't helping at all, I stopped taking it. I tried the Atarax one day, but it made me feel 'strange' so I stopped that as well. But I kept taking daily the Claritin, and also Pepcid (which is an H2 histamine blocker and suggested by my PCP) for good measure. I continued to have hives for the next week as I awaited the appointment with the allergist.
I stopped wearing perfume, using lotions, wearing jewelry... I stopped exercising, for fear of my own sweat. I tried to stay in the AC all the time, to keep cool, which put a damper on summertime outdoor time. I went into work when I didn't look a-fright, other times, I worked from home. But I knew that all of that couldn't continue.
As my appointment with the allergist approached, I started to have fewer hives each day. "They are going away!" I was so hopeful that this wasn't going to be a CHRONIC case, which based on my restrained internet searching, certainly didn't sound pleasant.
When I met with the allergist, they could not do skin testing since I was taking antihistamines, but they ordered a barrage of blood tests. My PCP had also ordered a number of blood tests as well -- I was to take them all at once and get them done, and share the results with both doctors. The tests included a complete CBC, various auto-immune tests, and some specific allergy tests that can be done through bloodwork samples.It was at that time peak pollen season where I lived, and the allergist was wondering if my history of seasonal allergies had this time manifested in hives -- not something they generally see, but not without possibility. And though I had only a few hives at the time of my appointment with her, the allergist told me to switch to Allegra 24 hour, stay on it for a month (hives or no hives) until our follow up appointment, and that we'd take it from there once she'd reviewed the test results.
Oddly enough, in a few more days, I was hive free. Yippee!! But I continued to take the Allegra each day without fail, until I learned more from the doctors.
My PCP was the first to call, about a week after my bloodwork was drawn. Everything came back looking great -- no signs of infection, no indications of autoimmune issues. I had tested positive for ANA (anti-nuclear antibodies), which I knew from previous tests in years past, but they were very low (I was in the 1:40 titer). Other tests ordered included: DNA Antibody Double Stranded (negative); Complement C3 and C4 (both well in normal ranges); Rheumatoid Factor (negative); Sjogren's Antibodies SS-A and SS-B (both negative); Sed Rate (well in normal ranges); and complete CBC with platelets (all in normal range here too). She assured me that there is no reason to believe that it was auto-immune based. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
One week later, I got the allergist's test results: Above-normal ranges for various tree pollens (birch and maple, slightly high for oak); extremely above range for Timothy Grass; but negative for the IGE Antibody -- a blood test that had to be sent to a special lab, one of only a few in the U.S. that can test for this, which helps to indicate if it's auto-immune based.
At this point, I blamed it on the pollens. The timing lined up, and the fact the the daily antihistamine regime seemed to clear it up further supported my theory, and when I met with the allergist a few weeks after all that, her theory as well. She told me to start to wean off of the Allegra, pollen seasons was pretty much over, and to call back if the hives returned and did not respond to Allegra again.
Almost three weeks went by with no hives after stopping the Allegra. I was so happy, so relieved. Until...
Yesterday, I was enjoying a relaxing Saturday at home, reading quietly in my room -- when a bathroom visit look in the mirror revealed, "
what's this?!", a big hive -- a nice, round red wheal with its hallmark white border -- on the front of my neck! "WTF!!!"
I started to panic again, "Oh my god, they are back! The hives are f-ing back!" I was so upset. I had done nothing to trigger them. Ate nothing unusual. My husband said, "Maybe they are from stress?" since I had been a little stressed earlier that day. But stress had never brought hives on before, so why now?
After simmering down, I told myself, "Let's just see what happens. Could be a random thing." The hive actually faded rather quickly, in about 90 minutes. But like the game
whack-a-mole, a new one had appeared on my belly and a small one on one of my hands. A few hours later, those were gone, and I went to sleep hive-free.
This morning, a look in the mirror showed me to still be hive free. "Whew!" But by noon, I noticed one on my lip, and it was causing my lip to get slightly puffy. A took a deep sigh.... and reached for the Allegra.
Now, four hours later as I type this, my lip is still a little puffy. And I have a small hive on one of my hands now too. I know it will take a few days for the Allegra to build up in my system.
I am feeling confused and sad and a bit stressed. I don't know what will be in store for me -- I've certainly read a few very difficult personal experiences shared on the Internet from other chronic hive sufferers, and I try to avoid those so as not to overly worry myself. But I am hoping that this blog will serve as a way to cope, learn, share, contribute, and maybe also lead to some answers....eventually.
