I have had hives for the last month and am at my wits end for what to do next, any help would be greatly appreciated! Here is what I've done so far:
1) Went to Good Sam Urgent Care - Confirmed hives. Was given Medrol dose pack, hives went away until medicine was done
2) Suspended suspect birth control medication - hives improved for 2 days
3) Went to dermatologist as suggested by Good Sam doc - he prescribed a stronger antihistamine. Things improved a little bit, but then got worse.
4) Called the dermatologist back, he put me on prednisone for 12 days and things got better until the medication was gone.
5) called an allergist, but he can't get me in for 2 weeks and the hives are continuing to get worse.
Can anyone suggest something I've missed doing or something that can help me get through the next 2 weeks without coming out of my skin? I'm trying to take care of 2 young children while not feeling good and it's getting really difficult.
I randomly break out in hives and have for years, I have NO idea why! But the second I do, I just pop one generic brand mini tab of Benadryl and it clears right up. There is also a Benadryl spray that works immediately too but I can't use it because I would go thru a bottle a day! I hope you find something that works for you, I have just learned to live with mine. :0/
It sounds definantly environmental not something your ingesting. The same thing happened to a friend of ours, he went through the same treatments, even considered getting rid of his pets. Turned out it was the plug-in air freshners his wife had in the living room. They used them for years but he suddenly developed an allergic reaction to it.
First off, sorry you are having to deal with this, I had roaming hives for 3 months and I know how miserable they can be!
Turns out I had a bladder infection and when I took the medication the doctor gave me, most of it went away. But I still got traveling hives in random places on my body. I went to an allergist and he said he had no idea why they started, but to get rid of it, we needed to get a heavy dose of anti-histamines in my body. So he prescribed 2 Zyrtec and 3 Zantac a day.
The Zyrtec is a non-drowsy Benadryl and it's supposed to be taken once a day, but with all the histamine in your system, you need a stronger dose. The Zantac seems weird because it's an acid-reducer, but my allergist said that there is a secondary histamine blocker in it that the Zyrtec doesn't have.
I know it sounds strange, but I did this and I saw progess within a week and was hive free within a week or two after that and haven't had them since. Hope this helps and you get some relief soon!
change your laundry detergent.
Ask for an allergy test to find out what you are allergic to.
go to the ER if the hives are worse. or call the allergist back and tell them it's URGENT that you see him NOW.
Have you taken Benedryl? If so - did that help?
I would start with the most obvious thing to me - the laundry detergent - strip the bed - wash the sheets with baking soda and vinegar and find a "pure" detergent. then wash all the clothes. if your clothes are dry cleaned, find out from the dry cleaner if they changed their solution and see if that makes the difference.
I know what you are going thru! I have had hives on and off over the last month. I ended up at the ER - got an epi shot, prednisone and pepcid. I agree with others who are saying try benadryl and pepcid every day. Now I can only take benadryl at night because I would be asleep in minutes. It is strange to take pepcid, but there is something in it that is an antihistamine.
My hives were coming from something outside that was blooming.
Good luck!
I'm with another responder, try benedryl. It sounds like it's either stress related or possibly food. Sometimes food we never had issues with before can all of a sudden come out as a reaction. Strawberries are one but I have a friend that cannot eat tomatoes anymore. She can eat pasta sauces and ketchup but cannot eat salsa or fresh tomatoes. She brakes out in a horrible rash. Nuts can be another one. Nuts are healthy for you, if you do not have a severe allergy to them, but sometimes people find that they have problems with nuts. Dairy is another one. Even if you never had a food allergy before, I would start looking at what you are eating, hopefully that helps. Oh, perfumes give me hives, no welts, but only if I get it on my neck!? I can wear perfume but if even a drop gets on my neck I get huge welts. Good luck!!!!
.
Try minimizing your foods to something really simple like chicken and rice and water and see if they go away. My DH got a horrible case of hives from eating churiso from Meijer's. He was fine once we figured out it was that (new food) and he stopped eating it. It took a couple of days to clear up. Have you started anything new?
I used to get hives really bad. They would come and go for months. I even had a doctor step away with a look of disgust on his face and not want to touch me.
I never found out what caused them. I had to figure it was stress and lack of sleep. It has been years since I had them so I wish I could be of more help to you. At the time I had them I would take Claritin for hives. I am not sure if they still make it, but I would ask the pharmacist. That was the ONLY thing that helped. Mine seemed to stop over time.
