Cholinergic Urticaria

Someone please help me with my hives

by

Hello everyone,

I am a 20 year old female who has grown up in the sun and have played sports my entire life. I have been a runner for a few years, and one day in late April, I was doing my normal 6 mile run and noticed red dots appearing. Eventually they got much worse, and kept coming back every time I ran but would go away shortly after with a cold shower.

However, recently they also come when I’m in the sun, when I’m in a hot room, or even when I’m just walking a short distance. I live an active lifestyle and love going to the beach, and I’m absolutely MISERABLE with these. Today, for example, I was driving and my car got a little hot and next thing I knew I had the hives everywhere.

What’s weird also is that the hives I get seem to come in different shapes. Recently, my hive attacks result in flat, red pinpoint dots all over my shoulders, arms, chest, thighs, and legs. I don’t know why these attacks started happening to me so randomly, but I just want them to stop. I’m afraid to go outside and to the beach because I don’t want people to see me covered in these dots.

I’ve tried Zyrtec, Hydroxyzine, and just about everything…it doesn’t seem that anything works. Does anyone have any advice? I am trying to figure out what these flat little pinpoint red dots are because the weird thing is that they don’t itch, they just come. If I didn’t see them everywhere I would have no idea they were there (not itchy).

The other thing that has been happening recently is that I notice big red flushed skin happening both randomly and when a cold object is pressed to my skin. For example, yesterday I was holding a cold water bottle against my arm and the skin it was touching turned bright red for about 30 minutes. Does anyone have any similar experiences/advice/anything that will help me at all?

I pray everyday that this will all just go away but it seems that it’s not doing anything but getting worse and honestly it’s ruining my life.

-PleaseHelpMeWithHives

Comments

  1. My sis cannot hold cold bottles against her skin or have cold air blow without breaking out in hives for 40 yrs now! No heat problems, unlike me who has both now.

  2. You may have cold urticaria (too). My immuno told me that it’s not uncommon to get one or both as they are related. I had cold to begin with, and then it morphed into cholinergic (I might actually have both but I’m too pansy to experiment).

    I don’t ALWAYS have itching, but I do 99% of the time. Sometimes I just get really hot flushing and my face feels like it’s on fire, but it doesn’t itch.

    For me, the things that are working are: Claritin/Zyrtec/Pepcid AC. I was on Allegra and Hydroxyzine and neither did anything at all to help. You may need a combination of medicine under the supervision of a doctor. My first immuno sucked, and my second one was the one with the magic.

  3. Sounds like CU to me. The only thing that worked for me is the sauna so make sure to try that out if your doctor approves.
    I know exactly how you feel. If I may ask did anything unusual happen in your life when you first got the hives? Or you just got them randomly?
    Because there was something that happened in my personal life and I just became so angry and I wasn’t able to calm down for months, and during that time that I was angry my CU developed. I just wanna know if there is someone like me.

    • I developed mine after breaking up with a long-term boyfriend. Lots of crying and heartbreak for months.

  4. Sorry to hear about your hives. I am 23 and have been dealing with something similar for the last 7 months. Always been extremely active and in shape for the most part. It certainly does impact quality of life. We are essentially in the same boat. Mine have improved from what they used to be through more exercise and less sugar intake. Avoid overly hot showers and keep your skin moisturized as best you can. I developed mine upon being extremely stressed about graduating college and not having a job lined up. Weird how an event so miniscule can trigger something like this.

  5. Hi,

    I was a runner too. I had your same thing, no itchy, only red spots. What worked for me was desloratadine 5 mg and now fexofenadine 180 mg. Hope this can help you. I took them dayly for months.