Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum.  ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.

Allergy Community

This patient support community is for discussions relating to airbourne allergies, eye allergies, shots, anaphylaxis, asthma, children's allergies, hives, insect stings, rhinitis, sinuses, and allergies to drugs, foods, and pets.
Post a Question Back to Forum
 | 
MedHelp Member's Question

Chronic Hives with Severe Flare Up

by Melinda999, Feb 21, 2007 12:00AM
Hi Doctor,
I've been under the care of an allergist for the past 5 years for the treatment of hives from an allergy with an unknown source. I had been taking low doses of Zyrtec and Singulair (5 mg each) which seemed to keep them at bay. For the past 2 months, I've had a severe flare up which has been treated with a 6-day Prednisone patch, Allegra, and now 30 mg of Doxepin daily with no relief. In addition, I'm taking OTC Bendryl (200 mg) daily. With previous rare flare-ups, the Prednisone patch worked to clear up the hives and bring me back to 'normal'. The hives currently are all over my body, exaggerated by stress, with pain at times from my hands / feet swelling as well as the hives themselves. At times my face / lips swell as well, but no issue with breathing. I've been tested for RA with no significant positives and skin tested for specific allergies and I'm wondering what the next step should be? Should I see a dermatologist? I'd like to get relief soon and hopefully reduce the amount of meds as well. Thanks in advance!
Member Comments (12)

by laura1977, Feb 24, 2007 12:00AM
To: chronic hives with severe flare up
Oh my gosh!
I really cant believe this.  I hope that you get this.  For the past 11 years I have had this problem that no one can seem to figure out.  I get these bumps on my body that come and go.  Half of my lip will swell up about 3 times the norm size.  My knees some times swell.  My hands swell sometimes as well.  I have been to doc after doc trin to figure it out.  No one knows.  I do know that I had surgery one month ago, and it sent my body into problems!  I probably had 100 bumps one day.  They were gone the next morn though.  They have put me on chortizone, allegra, singulair... nothing helps.  I have tried seeing if it due to foods or additives I eat...nope.  I know one way that works though.  Being pregnant.  I have been pregnant twice, and each time I didn't get them the whole 9 months.  I really hope these are some of the same things that you have because it would be nice to know I'm not the only person with this problem.

by laura1977, Feb 24, 2007 12:00AM
To: me again
Oh, and I also would like to add that one thing that is really strange is that sometimes I will get just one finger tip that swells.  You are correct though that stress makes it worse because that would explain why when I had surgery I got so many.  One bad thing is that one doc put me on anti flam meds and one side effect is that it could cause seizures in some patients if you are pron to them. Well, it caused me to have one 10 years ago in my car while I was driving.

by baby1234, Feb 25, 2007 12:00AM
I also had chronic hives from May 05 to Dec 06. I had them every day, at minimum on my hands and feet only, but on the worst days all over my body. It was horrible! They would itch and just looked gross to me...although no one else ever commented more than stating they were back. I found that antihistimines, steroids, and benadryl were useless. The only thing that helped was to hold ice packs on the affected area.

I started to chart when I got the hives, to what extent I had the flare ups, and what/if anything would help alleviate the pain. I discovered that the hives correlated directly to my monthly cycle!

I asked doctors (numerous) if there could be a relation and all said that they had never heard of it, blah, blah, blah. No one really took me seriously and I suffered because of it.

At the same time, I was trying to get pregnant. I, of course, had trouble conceiving and went on to have fertility treatments. I found that again the hives were more intense as I neared ovulation time and again just before my period. I also had hives with medications containing fsh (follicle stimulating hormone--the same hormone your body makes to ovulate). When I added progesterone each month, the hives would disapate quite a bit although not go entirely away.

That changed when I got pregnant in Decmeber. I haven't had a hive since! I ended up miscarrying the pregnancy in early January, but they still haven't been back. I am more convinced than ever that the hives are horomone related.

If you haven't checked your hormones, I strongly suggest it...you might find that a change in levels (due to aging or whatever) might be a reason.

I wish you luck. Hives are awful and I wouldn't wish them on anyone.

by laura1977, Feb 25, 2007 12:00AM
To: hives
Had my hormones checked.  They unfortunately said that they could not go by that because your hormone levels change so much every day of the month.  Had my uterus removed last month because I had so bleeding.  That is what caused this last case of problems with hives.  For the past 11 years I usually would get one or two bumps a day, but after I had my surgery that is when they got worse.  Stress does seem to make them worse.  Found a doc though that is going to run a bunch of tests on me.  Plus he is going to do this one test that has something to do with yeast in your body.  When I was younger I had been on antibiotics probably 30 times total over about 20 years due to upper resp. infections.  They are discovering that can cause an over growth of yeast in your body.  (Not in your vagina).  I guess we'll see how that pans out.  I am to the point though that I don't believe that anyone will figure out why this is going on.  I told my husband that if it finally kills me that maybe then they might figure it out.  Look up auto amune deases.

by Catherine38, Mar 21, 2007 12:00AM
I started having hives about 3 years ago...It started approximately 6 months after the birth of my 1st (and only) baby...about the time I started having a period again.  I went to doctors...dermatologists, allergists.  I took zyrtec daily and prednisone for several months to just get through the day!  Finally after 6 months of hives, one dr. tested my thyroid & hormones.  My thyroid antibodies were elevated and progesterone low.  I began thyroid tx and natural progesterone cream and about 4 months later, hives disappeared.  (10 months of hives total)  Now, 2 years later, I am trying to conceive once again and have discovered after using a fertility monitor and charting temps... that I have been actually taking the natural progesterone cream too early in my cycle (BEFORE I was to ovulate) and have been basically preventing my ovulation for the past two years.  Since I got that straightened out, and have begun ovulating again, I have started breaking out in hives again!!!  This is driving me crazy!  Anybody have any solutions???

by laura1977, Mar 21, 2007 12:00AM
To: hives
Good luck, I have been trying for the past 10 years to figure out what is wrong with me.  Docs don't know.  I get these bumps under my skin usually just one or two at a time.  They are raised, red, and hot to touch.  Sometimes one finger will swell.  Couple of weeks ago I had half of my lip swell.  No one knows.  I have started going to a doc that is going to check my hormones to see if that shows anything.  My hopes are set to high though.  Usually after I have surgery it gets really bad.  I just had a supercervical hysterectomy 2 and half months ago, and after that I got hives every where.  Oh, heres something funny.  My first child was conceived because the doc put me on cortizone for the hives and didn't tell me that it messes up the birth control pill.  he he.  She was due on my husband and my one year anniversary.  That was almost 5 years ago.

by jillentiva, Mar 26, 2007 12:00AM
Hello,  this is the first time I have posted a comment to any online site.  I too have hives.  I have had them for a year and 9 months.  I have to take prednisone to keep them in control-nothing else will work. (I' v tried tons of medications and herbal remedies)  
I just had an ablation on my uterus which removed the lining as well as a large polyp and a hugh fibroid.  I am hoping that this will cure my hives.   I have hives every day if I don't take the steroid  and they seem to be worse around my period.   However, I am determined I will get out of these hives and with a positive attitude and help from  God I will be healed.    

I'll keep you all posted on how my hives responded to my ablation.  

I will pray for all hive sufferers.

by itchybitch723, Oct 17, 2007 04:38PM