Chronic urticaria everyday for nearly two years

Try and get your MD to prescribe you a low dose of Doxepin it a life saver for uticaria. Saved my entire life.

Hi Sabrina, just been reading your story and I can fully sympathise with you as urticaria is so horrible and is only really understood by people who have it or have had it.

Out the blue one morning last August I developed a rash on my legs and side and thought it was due to the banana and toast I was eating for breakfast, (I have never been allergic to anything up to this point in my life]  and didnt really think much of it, my partner offered me one of his allergy tablets he uses for hayfever and my rash cleared up within half an hour.  This continued about once a week throughout that month then it increased to two to three days a week in September. I started a food diary and thought i had identified a few random foods but it seemed to becoming more and more outbreaks, then all hell let loose!!

From the 1st October my rash turned into hives and would start in the evening before bed and would get worse and worse as the night went on, my whole body covered in big hives including lip swelling and slight swelling to my eyes, I would get sore throats and really felt so unwell almost similar to flu like symptoms  probably due to my body being so hot with the itchy hives. This continued every night for the whole month, calmed down during the day when it faded but would flare up usually after my dinner every night.  I honestly felt as if my body was being invaded by a monster!  I visited my GP who was quite frankly uninterested and offered me different antihistamines (thats all they do), I did go to other GPs but found them to be exactly the same. I decided to go to a private GP and a private Dermatologist but again they only offered me more antihistamines and told me that I would probably never get to the bottom of it. I asked for blood tests which came back clear then I requested allergy tests but was told they couldn't do that.  Feeling totally lost and depressed I visited a nutritionist, she was the first person who was interested and asked me questions about my diet, she explained to me that my gut sounded like it needed repaired along with my digestive and immune system [I had been suffering bad indigestion in my shoulder blade which seemed to get bad before an attack of hives would come on} so this made sense that my body was not able to digest certain foods. My nutritionist set out a programme of various supplements to help repair these issues and did assure me that it would take 3-6 months to repair but to keep with it. At the same time it was identified that my diet was very high in histamine type foods ( you can get a list of this online), although I was still hiving I did get some light relief in between then at the end of February this year my nutritionist set me a strict diet of as many low histamines foods as possible and told me to cut out Tea, chocolate, fresh tomatos and to drink 2 litres of water every single day without fail, this along with a plain diet and continued supplements have cleared my urticaria at last!! My skin has been totally cleared now since the end of February and I am feeling fantastic.  I was still taking one antihistamine tablet (Atarax, 25mg) before bed until last night when I for the first time in 9 months did without to see if anything would happen, and so far (touch wood) been fine. My diet is still fairly limited but with the help from my nutritionist I am re-introducing foods slowly.  I did have a couple of allergy tests which I had done privately, one was a food print test and the other was a Bio Resonance test, there are mixed views about theses tests but I think they helped me identify some intolerances that I was having.

I honestly think that urticaria is due to a build up of histamine in the body over a course of time (which is different for everyone), I think everyones level is different but eventually it overflows and the result comes out in your skin as hives and it causes the gut to breakdown along with your immune and digestive system.  I also think that by drinking the two litres of water a day helps to wash out any build ups in our bodies that we cannot tolerate, but this must go with the supplements and a low histamine diet aswell.

I hope I have offered you any advice and I keep my fingers crossed that you get rid of these horrid hives for good.

Please contact me if there is anything else you want to know that I could help you with.

Hi! As an update, I finally got a decent appointment with an immunologist (that I waited months for...) and I’ve been prescribed fexofenadine (360mg on max dose or 180mg on half) alongside up to 40mg of loratadine or similar still. Partly frustrating because I’ve tried fexofenadine on short courses and had no luck, and was hoping to get rid of counter antihistamines as taking them every day for nearly two years has made me permanently tired. The tablets seemed to work for a few days but have given me bad headaches and guess what...made me even more exhausted! On top of that they’ve stopped working and my hives are worse than ever I’m afraid. 

However. I do now know that my angiodema won’t ever go to my throat at least... 

I have to be on max dose and fill out a quality of life form before I qualify for the injection every 6 weeks... don’t think it’s the one that you’ve all recommended though. 

Fingers crossed for the end of chronic spontaneous urticaria and angiodema and permanent exhaustion for not only me, but all of you.