Hey, I’m in no way trying to endorse nor advertise any medicine here. I’m simply writing my awful experience with urticaria. I still remember the first time I experienced urticaria: it was when I moved to Canada from Jordan specifically in Spring of 2012. I didn’t know what it was or why it was happening, but I thought maybe it’s just an allergy.
I only got it when I went for walks or was exposed to the sun, and it was NOT frequent. At the time I was in a very bad place in my life (family issues), and it was on one call with my brother when I got the worst and most painful outbreak (or should I say a 3-5 mins of unendurable pain). He was telling me about how my dad is in the hospital (basically bad news). From then on I tried to watch myself to why it was happening. Then I realized it was heat, emotions and exercise (heat again!)
I used to be a gym freak, and I have an unbelievably high metabolism. In other words, I sweat even if I walk or do the easiest of tasks (basically my body runs on burning fats, and I’m lucky to have high metabolism, which makes me think having high metabolism have something to do with my urticaria).
I stopped working out for 3 months due to a shoulder injury, and when I decided to go back to working out, I couldn’t; I started to experience urticaria EVERY TIME I worked out, and as you know, the pain is just unbearable. So I quit the gym.
The problem is that it’s not the just the gym that triggers it. Carrying grocery bags to the house, taking a warm shower, cleaning the house, walking to my car on a hot summer day. Long story short, I couldn’t do anything about it and just accepted the fact that I have to live with it.
A few days ago I was reading about Cetirizine and how it helped some people with urticaria, so I had to try it. Unfortunately, in Canada it’s not sold under the brand name Zyrtec–it’s sold under Reactine. I got a 10 mg pack and tried to do some testing.
I toke one pill, and after about 45 minutes, I took the hottest shower my skin could handle–it was hot! and I made sure to stay in the shower for 20 mins to see if I was going to get an outbreak, but it didn’t! I was amazed, to be honest. As I got out of the shower though my arms were red (like an allergic reaction red).
It was alarming but there’s no pain. I almost could feel my skin sting, but I didn’t even have to itch it was as if every time a my back, arm or forehead start to itch or sting (because it is painful). The medicine was fighting it. I still get the hives (Red spots) but it is not painful at all. I think I can finally go back to working out regularly.
I apologize for any grammatical error or if my story was hard to follow (English is my second language), but I have suffered for years from this awful condition that no one in the medical community seems to care about and wanted to help people. PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE TAKING ANY MEDICATION . Thank you for reading, and I hope my story helps 🙂
Good luck,
Ahmed
Peter Foord Brown says
Ahmed great to hear you have cleared this, wonderful news for any sufferer.
megcolors says
It is good to hear, when I am unable to donate, I take cetirizine and it really helps the itch. 🙂 So glad you found relief