Chronic Urticaria

[curlydog415]

I am a 29 year old female.  I do not feel physically ill in any way.  Last January or February I started getting itching feet, legs and hands but there would be no rash of any kind.  Then in March I started getting hives.  Sometimes there could be only one the size of a pencil eracer or a group of dots that look a bunch of red goosebumps.  Sometimes I could have one or two "welts".  It really varies.  I get these every single day, through out the day.  Sometimes I'll be clear and have nothing and other times I'll have from one to four or five on my body.  Usually they come on my hands, arms, legs or feet.  I never get them on my face.  They usually start to fade after about 15 minutes and after 20 minutes or a half hour they are completely gone.  Unless they are on my feet they do not generally itch me at all.  I went to a dermatologist who just told me to get some blood tests.  I don't have insurance at this time so I'm just living with it.  I am taking claritan every morning and one or two benadryl sometimes at night.  I don't know if this is helping or not.  Here are my questions:

1.  Being that I don't feel sick could these hives be the sign of a serious medical condition?  Wouldn't I have other symptoms?

2.  In your practice do you see alot of people with my symptoms?

The most bothering thing about these hives is not itching.  It's not knowing why I have them.  I've read lots of articles on the net about chronic urticaria.  I know that doctors do blood tests generally to rule out thyroid problems, lupus, etc...  If I had one of these conditions wouldn't I have other symptoms?  In your opinion what is the outlook for someone like me.  I have not changed my diet or soaps or anyting like that to trigger this.  I am nervous and scared about this.  Might I just wake up in the morning and they'll be completely gone indefinitely?  Might I have this the rest of my life?  Again, this is worrying and scaring me.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Got cut off-I wanted to add that you should not be concerned that you don't know the cause.  We only know the cause in under 1% of cases, and that's fine.  They generally last a few weeks to a few months and go away as mysteriously as they came.

Not to worry.  If they're still there in 3-4 months, I recommend consulting a doctor again for further advice.

Dr. Rockoff

[arries]

I've been having problems with itchy rashs since 1987, prior to 1987 I never had any medical problems other than a fractured foot and foot swelling from boots.  I first broke out in a red rash that itched all over my body along with other symptoms, 1987, I would also get bruise like rashes on my ankles that itched, but later years these all came and went.  No one understood any of this, and I just got tired of talking about my itchy rashes.  Later years, I'd get them on the waist band and on the finger webs with tiny bumps that itched and even on my thigh just above the knee.  They'd go away, on their own.  One time they thought it was a type of fungus, but it came back negative.  I changed soaps and tried to change all kinds of other things, but nothing would stop it, some days are worse than others, and I used to think that they only came seasonaly like around spring time, but that doesn't seem to be the case with me.  Currently, I've been itching since december, and my doctor suggestion Nutrogena Bath oil for dry skin and Eucerine lotion, but neither have stopped any of the itching.  I believe I do have a rash on the back of my neck under my hair, and I notice it when I get a hair cut because I shave the back of my neck and can notice it.  That comes and goes.  I also get "pearly" white papules that old medical records say.  Since I'm still itching now, I keep looking for stuff like a rash becasue for the past  6 months I have had no noticable rashs until I itch harder, I then noticed some raised bumps that appear to be pearly on my leg, but I'm not sure how long that's been there.  On my hand just on the first knuckles were I'd get some rashes that seem to be in remission because I see pearly looking raised dots [small] but they are not currently itching.  BTW, did I mention that I had been exposed to TELONE II in 1987.  I was also expose to shooting range particles for 27 months during that time.  I've looked it up and TELONE II [1, 3 dichloropropene] can cause itchy rash [hives] along with other symptoms that I had in 1987.  My exposure of this Telone II would probably be considered chronic exposure [low level] and acute exposure [high level], though I never knew that this chemical was being used in that area until the BIG accident of Nov 1987, were I had been exposed because the wind.

My question would be, can chemicals in the enviroment [initial dose] cause a person to become sensitive to substances in later years?  Kind of like sensitizing the body to react, and subsequently cause mild eviromental exposures to cause flair ups.

[ssingh]

My Wife has similar rashes since October 2003, we don't know the exact cause of it. Those are very itchy. She is taking Zyrtec 10mg and that is controlling hives from breakout. If she don't take that medicine then it breakout again. She has gone through blood test, Urine test, Nasal and Chest X-rays and all results are fine. We went to so many dermatologist and one says that these hives may go away within months, years or may remain for life time.
Can anyone suggest what else we can try to permenantly stop these hives and stop taking any medicine?

Thanks

[savvina]

A related discussion, chronic urticaria was started.

[songling]

A related discussion, Chinese medician for Chronic Hive was started.