If so, were you ever able to pinpoint what caused it?
My daughter, 16, got a serious case of the hives back in May. They lasted almost a whole week and were all over her body. The doctor said it’d be unlikely that he’d figure out the trigger unless it happened repeatedly, at which point he’d consider doing an allergy test.
Fast forward 6 weeks (mid-July) and my daughter called me at work complaining about a “fat lip” and “itchiness” on her scalp and neck. The doctor told me to contact an ambulance if she was having difficulty breathing, but to otherwise wait it out. That episode lasted around 3 hours. Kind of odd but not particulary worrisome. Maybe she got bit by a spider…
And this morning, it happened again! She woke up with a fat lip and itchiness. Lasted 3 hours again, after which she she’s fine except a bump on the inside of her mouth. I’m planning to call the doctor tomorrow to make an appointment and to ask for an EpiPen, just in case the symptoms ever present again and escalate. I’ll probably due testing if he recommends it.
But until then, I’m wondering if anyone else has ever run into such a thing? If so, were you ever able to determine the trigger? I know that what one person is allergic to has no bearing on what my daughter is allergic to, but I’m trying to figure out what I should log while it’s still fresh in our memory so we can help avoid it.
For instance, she’s already logged everything she ate and drank yesterday. I’ve logged the temperature, the pollen count, and where she was. I haven’t changed my laundry habits lately, though I did switch to dryer sheets several months ago. One of my friends said that this triggered hives in him.
It happened to me, maybe 10 times total between the ages of 12 and 18. Some episodes were worse than others. (Only once scared my mom bad enough to take me to the ER, where my eyes also swelled shut).
No idea to this day what caused it.
Ever so occasionally, maybe once a year, I get a…tingle? Maybe a slight swelling? Anyway, the barest of indications it might be happening again, but nothing else. Lip swellings the size of a pea that last maybe an hour.
No anaphylaxis ever, no trouble breathing, nothing like that.
Yes, I’ve had this on and off for almost 40 years, with no solution is sight. My last attack happened this weekend after probably 9 months of no problems. It seems to go in waves.
The signals that I’m about to get a hive attack is itching on the back of my neck, my forehead, and upper lip, but it will then spread to my torso and sometimes my legs. But we (me and my Drs) have never been able to isolate it to any single cause. I carry Benadryl with me most of the time. My allergist said that they don’t find the cause in around 40% of these cases, and just treat the symptoms.
Yup, I’ve had this happen to me, on several occasions. I eventually traced it to bread sticks being sold by our local Taco Bell. There was something in the seasoning that was causing it for me, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what. It threw me for awhile what was causing it, as my lip didn’t swell until hours after I had ate.
I have a long history of severe skin reactions and I’ve been able to identify a trigger only a handful of times. There was one memorable summer where I had hives every goddamn day, and two episodes of severe facial swelling (lips and eye area). I never had anaphylaxis thankfully.
Doctors can’t do much except prescribe medication, although it might be worth it to get an allergy panel done. My sister found out from her panel that consuming dairy products was the sole cause of the severe and painful eczema she had for 15 years.
The only thing that has ever really helped me is recent strict diet changes that seem to have reduced my body’s inflammatory reactions to almost everything. Besides my rashes and hives I’ve also cured my menstrual pain, my acne, and my migraines. ‘Cheating’ gives me symptoms, but not usually immediately. I don’t test as ‘allergic’ to any of the foods I avoid.
I had a recurrent yeast infection in my early twenties, and took Diflucan so many times that I developed an allergy to it. My upper lip would swell, and I’d get one hive just above it.
I had this happening to my lips or one lip in less than a minute over a span of a two years when I was having this happen to spots all over my body. Nobody figured out the cause and we suppressed the reaction and my immune response as best as possible. I had become super sensitive to where even some pressure on a spot would cause the area to swell. In two incidents I had an area about 6 inches across on my leg blister from the swelling and peel off. For a lot of years after that with heavy doses of antihistamines I’ve gotten the immune response settled down. This year I haven’t taken them except a couple times.
I’ve had the same thing happen to my fingers (hives under the skin). Last year, it happened shortly after I went to the dentist. I found out that hives are often triggered by visits to the dentists (which I didn’t know at all). The swelling, which was limited to just one hand for some reason, only lasted a couple of weeks, when it finally dawned on me to take some Benedryl.
But this year, around the same time (January), the same thing happened except a million times worse. And no dentist visit could be blamed. The fingers on both hands were swollen up like sausages, and my toes once even ballooned so much that my shoes were too tight to wear comfortably (and I had to walk home!). They were all bright red and would get so itchy that I thought I was going to die. Benedryl didn’t work. No other OTC allergy meds worked. I was starting to become a tormented soul when I discovered that the medication I was on (Wellbutrin) can trigger hives in some people. And sure enough, a couple of weeks before the hives had appeared, that’s when my dose was “upped”. So I cut back down on it after informing my nurse practioner and immediately everything went back to normal.
I don’t know why my fingers are the “target” for my allergic reactions. I’d hate to have it on my face. I hope your daughter can get some relief soon because I know bad it feels.
I never knew how common this was! She hasn’t consumed anything lately on the high probability list, such as tree nuts or even dairy. We’ve journaled everything, including shampoos, etc and I’ll discuss with the doctor whether to go forward with allergy tests.
Thanks for all your input. It helps to know that she’s not a complete freak of nature.
An allergy can be to any food, not just the “prime suspects” like nuts or dairy.
I’ve occasionally had lip swelling, but I have always been able to pinpoint it to something I ate recently. This is not the case for everyone.
I’d strongly recommend seeing an allergist and getting tested. As noted by other posters, they don’t always find the cause but at least you’d be getting sound advice on treating symptoms.
I’ve had this happen. Hives, fat lip, even swollen fingers. Turns out I was allergic to cats, and had been sleeping in bed (in a rental house) previously shared with cat.
