I’ve only gotten full body hives twice in my life before today. When I was about 8, I had a reaction to codeine. I had the little measel type spots/bumps of hives all over.
About two years ago, I had another drug reaction to sulfate, and I got the big boil types hives, but they were only on the left side of my body, and very spread out. There were maybe only 12 spots total, but I had asthma attack symptoms and my tongue swelled. The hives also blistered, and later peeled.
Last week, I had another attack of full body hives, and they were again the smaller measle like in appearance. They started on my throat at work, then went away for a few hours. I went to a friend’s house changed into a borrowed shirt, and the hives came back, first on my back, then quickly spread.
I had missed a dose of Clindamycin, which had been prescribed for an abscess on my back when the hives appeared. I was told to stop taking the Clindamycin, that it was yet another allergic drug reaction, and put on prednisone, 3 pills together once a day for three days. Benadryl and Hydrocortisone were prescribed for the itching, but neither seemed to work. A friend gave me Atarax, and that really helped. They also loaned me so heavy duty Rx severe dry skin cream in a jar, dunno the name. It seemed to work too, until the Atarax wore off, so I’m pretty sure it didn’t actually help.
As they started going away, they seemed to be moving down my body, healing behind themselves as they moved along. Like at first, they were only on my head, ears, neck, and upper back, but then they disappeared from my shoulders as they reached my hips and groin. They barely affected my arms at all, and even then, the arm spots did not itch at all, except the upper arms near my shoulders.
I started getting hives again yesterday, on only my elbows. Then a few on my breasts. I was also feeling sluggish, heavy and moving drunk, almost as if my body was trying to go to sleep, even though my brain was wide awake, and it was also hard to breathe. Not like my throat was closing, just like my body was trying to slow down to go into a sleep cycle. I have had a few occurrences of SP over the last month, feeling an urgent need to wake up, but then unable to move at first.
When I got home last night, I had the big raised clustered wheals all along my bra line. I WAS wearing this same bra for 3 of the 7 days last week when I had the smaller measel type bumps of hives.
Today when I woke up, I was horrified to find that they had again spread, but this time it’s mostly on my chest and lower abdomen, particularly around my hips and thighs are where the worst of the raised clustered wheal are located. But there are also still lines of wheals where my bra was. The areas where the straps were, are not raised, not in welts. Just blotchy and red.
Hydrocortisone and Benadryl really don’t seem to be helping at all. Yesterday when they first appeared on my elbows, a half dose of Benadryl cleared them right up, but they came back with a vengeance. The itching this time is a million times worse.
Thanks,
Anya
Hivesguy says
Hello, Anya.
It’s hard to say what type of hives this may be. It doesn’t sound like cholinergic urticaria (hives from heat). The part where you mentioned the hives being around your bra area sounds a bit like pressure urticaria, but the fact that the other hives don’t seem to be connected with pressure makes me doubt it.
The thing about hives is that they can occur for so many different reasons. It could be something you’re eating, or any number of things causing them. I’d definitely examine your diet to see if it’s anything you’ve eaten. Have you used any new detergent, lotions, etc.? Based on your past reactions, it seems that your body tends to react to allergens by forming hives. Every person responds to things differently. When my wife eats stuff she’s allergic to, her eyelids get eczema on them, and/or get puffy.
I certainly hope they go away soon.
Anya says
Yeah, the very first thing I did was evaluate “what changed”. There is only one thing: I’m still in my first month of a new job after a 6 month period of unemployment. I’m making half of what I used to, and it’s not enough to pay the bills, but I LOVE this job, and it seems like the universe doesn’t want me to have it. It’s a delivery job, and since starting, I’ve had to call out of work to treat the initial abscess, spent my entire check on that and had to borrow gas money from my boss, the next day I had a nail in my tire, the day after that my driver’s license went missing, two days later I was T-Boned in a parking lot. I was not at fault, but the car will be in the shop for several days whenever the insurance comes through. Two day later I had the drug reaction and was asked to leave work and go to the ER, and I also suffer from DSPS/DSPD. A condition where the sleep cycles are abnormal, and in my case, fixed and cannot be changed.
I cannot get restful restorative sleep, unless I sleep in my set 5 hour window, which is 6-11AM. I live 45 minutes from work, and I have to be there at 11am. I have to leave at 10, sometimes I have to get up at 930 to get ready. So I’m losing up to an hour and a half of my restorative sleep time. I’m always tired, and even if I sleep at other times, my mind is fighting my body to be awake, resulting in fatigue, or oversleeping, and more recently, sleep paralysis.
I do also have poor circulation from a knee deformity, and very sensitive skin due to my night schedule. Sunlight and heat have always greatly fatigued me. I prefer night, dark, and cold, or rainy and cloudy. I’m never tired or sleepy when it’s rainy, even during my natural sleep times, because sunlight triggers my sleep cycles. I’m a day time delivery driver.
I know what’s causing my hives. STRESS. What I can’t figure out is why two different kinds of hives within a week of each other?
Hivesguy says
Wow, that’s definitely a lot of stress-causing stuff. I’m very sorry to hear all of your recent troubles. That’s a lot for anyone to handle. Whenever stuff like that happens to me, I try to focus on the positives and assume it will all get better soon. It usually does.
Stress can certainly send a person’s body into chaos mode, and hives and abnormal things can begin to happen. I’m not sure what would cause you to have two different types of hives. However, it’s not unusual. If a person has one type of hives (or other allergic disorder), they are more likely to have others. Many on this forum suffer with two or more types of physical hives or other allergies. Hives or a new allergic disorder can randomly appear out of nowhere.
I just hope you feel better soon and that you can catch up on sleep. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a disorder like that. My one year old son still doesn’t sleep totally through the night, and I’ve lost sleep for the past year. It’s almost killed me. It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life.
God bless,
Hivesguy
Anya says
I also have an “overactive immune system”. My immune system response sometimes is what actually causes me to be sick. I NEVER get sick, but when I do, cancel the entire universe, because I’m going to need a lazarus pit!
They’ve gotten worse since my first post. I’m currently drinking some rooibus tea. Do you know if it’s safe to drink that and take Benadryl? I couldn’t find and answer to that question on Google either.
Hivesguy says
Yes, an overactive immune system can be very frustrating! I used to never get sick, either. I still rarely get sick, but it does happen here and there (usually just a cold).
Hmm, I’m not sure about the rooibos tea and Benadryl. I’ve actually never heard of that tea.
Anya says
I’ve seen posts about it all over the hives community, although I have to admit this is all new to me. I’ve been to hundreds of sites already. It’s a natural antihystamine.
Hivesguy says
Oh, that’s interesting. I do know that Benadryl is a pretty powerful antihistamine that has a tendency to make people extremely groggy, but I’m not sure how you’d react to it, especially considering your sleep cycle disorder. It used to make me extremely sleepy. Allegra tends not to cause as much drowsiness for most people.
douglas says
My cholinergic urticaria seems to be getting worse,Plsss any help from somewhere? Douglas