severe chronic urticaria

[ttddttdd]

rogold: Thank you for the information. One of the med combos I tried included an asthma drug (Singulair) and Zantac, along with antihistimines (Allegra, Claritin and others). No luck. Recently I have also found that I cannot take any anti-inflammitory drugs. They bring on full blown hives.

[Lumpylou]

I haven't tried anything extra to anti-histamine + H1-receptor antagonist. I've only just been put on zantac, and that's because I printed a page off the web, listing the different combinations of drugs used to bring CIU under control. Accolate is listed, but suggested as alternative to H1-receptor, not as well as. So - I'm feeling a little excited!! I'm due to go to my GP in a coupla weeks, so I shall ask if he would be willing to give it a try. I did think when I was reading the list off the web, that Accolate sounded interesting cos it sounds a bit like chocolate!! I forgot to take my drugs last night, as was v v tired - and this morning the hives are HUGE!!!
Rogold - your story is so similar to mine - apart from the eyes swelling shut - mine are swollen and puffy now every morning, but they do go back to normal in an hour or so. I've been suffering with the hives since Oct 03, and angioedema since this time last year. My forehead, lips, chin and knees have swollen, then I was seeing double for a couple of weeks which was scary - docs put down to a virus, or possibly angioedema affecting a particular eye muscle. Later last year my feet would swell and go black, then I had a break from the hives in Nov/Dec whilst I had a rotten chest infection and had anti-biotics 3 times - but well - now they're back with a vengeance!! I did a bit of light weeding in the garden a couple of weeks ago - but in the evening both my hands swelled up to huge proportions and now my hubby won't let me do any gardening until my hives go - now that makes me miserable as I love a good potter in the garden! Sorry to whinge!! It's so good to find I'm not alone - I don't know anyone else like me with this - there's no way I'd go out in a bikini this summer - I look like I've got some awful infectious disease! I hate these flippin spots! Not spots - more like insect bites gone wrong! I get facinated by how they grow! I see one appear - say, on my wrist - and then it gets bigger and another one will start and another - sometimes they make a big circle and join up - sometimes a big line. Anyone else get this? Wierd city !!

[genster]

Just thought I would check in and see how everyone is doing. I am still itchy & blotchy, but arent' we all? I am now on 35 mg prednisone a day, going down by 5 mg/wk. The doc is sending me for a bone scan b/c of the amount of prednisone I've been on for the last 5 months. Weird - but I have noticed the side effects from it this time, which before I never really did. Oh well.
I have been on singulair also - haven't noticed any difference, but it seems to me that the hives just do as they please no matter what I do. I am not looking foreward to the heat of summer - last year was aweful.

[rogold]

ttddttdd and anyone else who has tried singulair.... accolate is a different drug so you never know. it might be worth trying but obviously we all know that there is no universal drug that will help all of us. and antiinflamatories are definitely hive causing...they make your veins "leakier." i know that they make my angioedema act up a lot.

lumpylou, definitely try a combination of drugs. as a doctor's daughter i learned early that the more the better! i hope you find something to help you out.

i've been working out really hard lately and have a few hives here and there but if i had done this a couple months ago i would have been miserable so i guess i've made some progress. i'm really considering going to medical school to be a dermatologist/allergist once i'm done law school. don't you all wonder why there aren't any dermatologists/allergists? although my allergist did a pretty good job in comparison to the 85 y/o dermatologist who told me to just take benedryl!

[rogold]

well, seems that either my hives just went on vacation for a while and i thought it was the accolate OR i'm exercising so much right now that my histamine is overloading all the medication i'm on. i actually think it's the second option because even now they are still better than before the accolate.

so i'm in a fix. since all this hive stuff started i gained over 15lbs from being on steroids for a while and then stopping my exercise routine. i'm getting married in october (if my fiance can put up with my hives for that long) so i already wanted to lose 15-20lbs. so...that is why i have increased my exercise and managed to lose 8 or so lbs. but, my allergist wants me to take doxepin and i just can't bear to gain any more weight. i also don't want to stop exercising.

so this week my random hives here and there have turned into regular chronic urticaria, exercise urticaria, pressure urticaria as far as where my clothes pinch or my ring sits, AND since it's finals time for me i am constantly stressed out which i'm sure can't be helping.

i did a ton of urticaria research this weekend and i'm calling my doc tomorrow to see what he says about what i found. i'm also going to see a dermatologist in a couple of weeks to see if he has any different remedies. i hate this.