I started with hives 3 weeks ago. I ensured it was not a bug in the bed. I noted abundant and itchy hives after eating greek spicy food for 3 days.
Hives are perfectly round (5 to 10 mm). They look amorphous when two or more individual hives merge. Hives only start popping around 9 pm. A warm bath makes them worse (hot water may expand blood capillars-more histidine all over).
Hives can appear on palm hands, tongue, lips (swelling lips and tongue), and soles of feet. However, they most commonly occur around knees, in the back of upper legs, butt, underarms, forearms, hips and ankles. This may vary in every person, but in my case hives appear symetrically: hives in the same opposite areas of the body.
I cancelled snaks (artificial colors and flavors), chicken, almonds, peanuts, milk, granola bars, and meat. They slightly decreased in intensity at nights, but not in frequency. Some days is worse than others.
The most mysterious thing is the tongue and lip swelling. Even staying on water for two days they suddenly appear. No stress, no sunshine, no condimented food, no pool chlorine, no lotions, no fabrics, why would they appear? Hives are never painful, but tongue and lip swelling hurt in the beginning (2 min) and last for some 1 to 3 hours.
I first got Benadryl and worked for a day. It did not work the next, plus I felt very heavy, so I quit on it. I never took anything else since then, and have been careful with what I eat, so my hives are more less controlled. but they do appear every night.
I know for sure allergies and immune response are not well understood yet. I do not trust doctors much (they tend to prescribe whatever is common these days), but they see patients with the same symptoms every day, so they may know. Eventually, exercise and more water (avoid sodas and sugary juices) might help getting rid of this miserable allergy.
Some people say this lasts for months or years. I hope not to have this for long. Please post your experience. HB