Urticaria misdiagnosis – a cautionary tale

Hi everybody,

I’ve never actually posted on this forum but in light of recent, shockingly infuriating developments in my condition, I was hoping my experiences might be used as a cautionary tale for any future members of this form, grappling with this nightmare.

To cut a long, frustrating story short, I have spent the past seven months pumping my body full of antihistamines and enough steroids to disqualify an entire track team from Rio 2016, thinking I was suffering from Chronic Urticaria…I had seen two allergy specialist, two dermatology professors and of course my GP, none of whom had even entertained the notion it might be something else.

It was.

To my horror, when a house guest who had stayed with me flew home and began presenting with identical symptoms to mine, it became obvious what I had was contagious and therefore, could not possibly be CU. It was Scabies. F*cking scabies, which five so called professionals failed to diagnose. And to add insult to injury, the steroids I had been on only further allowed them to spread.

I am now week three into a horrible regime of daily boil washing everything I wear, bedding and all, rubbing Lyclear and Eurax all over my body. The improvement has been immediate. I feel almost human again but the damage has been done. I am angry. I am frustrated, and under no circumstances, do I ever want anyone to go through the same misdiagnosis and the ordeal that went along with it, if I can help it.

Be well, everyone, and before you submit to an unlimited course of antihistmines and steroids that may very well wreak havoc on your immune system, get a second or third opinion. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed or shamed into exploring an STI as the culprit. I have no idea how I even got it. I am single and sexually active but also spent a whole summer travelling and sleeping in all sorts of hotels, so who knows?

At any rate, make sure your doctors take better care of you than mine did me.

Godspeed and good health to all.

Eran