Hi there - I'm new to this, but not so new to hives. It's been about a year and a half now although had been suffering from lumps on my head for about 5 years (which I thought was an allergy to lager! :confused: ) and itchy underarms. Anyway - I started getting little hives on my wrists, ankles, near my elbows and around the tops of my arms and legs - so was prescribed an anti-histamine, then another and another (does this sound familiar?!) Well - as the weather got warmer - my hives got bigger! There's no way I'd venture out in a bikini! I started getting swollen lips and forehead - then double vision for a couple of weeks. My feet swelled and went black - then as the weather cooled down - my hives died down - hooray I thought!! Then what I've noticed is I've been soooo much colder than the rest of the family this winter. As it got really cold, I noticed the hives got worse again - and then bang - as winter turned into spring - and a lovely one so far, down south here in the UK - my hives went bananas! (Me too!) My face has been swollen and lumpy - my head, neck and ears look as if I've been bitten - then I did a spot of light gardening, and in the evening my hands swelled up beyond all proportions! It was excrutiatingly painful - you could see the hives had kind of joined together and went right round my wrists. What I've also noticed is that as my hives have broken out badly again, my bones are very achy, and I've been getting a pain from the top of my rib-cage, going up to my neck - this pain radiates around my neck and out my ears. I got this last year too about the same time, and started taking ranitidine. Funnily enough, my GP has just presribed this as part of treating the hives - but hey - it's not working!! I'm taking cetirizine twice a day, plus a hefty dose of ranitidine twice a day - and I'm still lumpy, itchy and am in pain in various parts of my bod. Saw an allergy specialist last year who diagnosed CIU, and was tested for thyroid last year, which was ok. GP scratching his head about all this, and I'm thinking - at least that's all he's got to scratch!! Lucky man!! No - seriously - if anyone can relate to the achy bones and indigestion - I'd be interested. I feel quite miserable that it's lovely and warm outside, but I'd rather stay in and keep my hives under control! :wave:

Hi there - I wonder if you've considered looking at the Lupus board on this site....it talks about rashes and achy joints and so on and it has a few stickies that tell you about the diagnostic criteria for the diseases. Perhaps you should check that out? I must stress I'm no expert but I'm just struck by what you say in comparison to what I've read on that board.

I can sympathise with the hives - I've had problems with my skin all my life. I 've grown allergic to all sun screens (pity as I'm a pale redhead!), oranges give me hives, my scalp is always itchy and dry, I've had psoriasis and eczema, I have persistent thrush, solar urticaria, urticaria, dermographia and poly morphic light eruption. Basically - I itch - a lot! I get hives all the time and I can't pin them down to anything! They do seem worse in the heat, they're also worse at night and first thing in the morning. Who knows - it's a mystery! But hopefully you can solve yours!

Good luck!

Hi there - thanks for reply. I don't think it's Lupus as my friend has that, and she's got different symptoms to me - blackouts - swollen joints. The similarities are the pain and tiredness. She doesn't get hives at all. Ah well! I'm on 20mg of cetirizine a day and 300mg ranitidine and today I could cry as my legs look as if I have some disgusting lergy! My underarms are itching like crazy and my feet are covered in hives. I don't want to take my evening dose too early as I'll wake up around 4am itching and hivey. I'm feeling quite miserable but I guess it could be worse!! I might ask my doc about Lupus - but when I told him about the pain I was in he just looked at me blankly - not really interested! Ho hum! How does one get them interested? :yawn: