As the title says, I think I have hives, but I’m not sure. This is sort of embarrassing (not sure why) but… All these little red welts have started springing up on me everywhere… Legs, back of legs, chest, stomach, and I noticed a ton on the back of my hands just about 10 minutes ago. Not only are they ugly, but they itch like hell too… Been feeling dizzy for the last day or so as well.
I’ve been in the sun recently (although not longer then an hr or two, and I always wear an SPF 45 sunscreen), so I’m wondering if it could possibly be sunburn… Has anyone here ever had sunburn that itched a ton? Never had it happen to me before, so this is really strange.
As a side note… I don’t have any known allergies, and haven’t started using any new detergents/soaps.
Anyways… Does anyone know what to do about them? Hope for them to go away? And in the meantime, any suggestions for getting rid of the horrible itching would be very much appreciated. Thanks guys… Again, I would be thankful for any advice/experiences with urm… Hives/sunburn/skil ailments.
Ditto on the Aveeno. Sunburns don’t usually itch unless they’re on the mend. It may be a heat rash. Also, this time of year alot of people spray their yards with chemicals for various reasons, so it could be something you came in contact with while outside.
Thanks for the suggestions, both of you… I’ll definitely try the Aveeno stuff. Probably going to get the hives looked at tomorrow at the doctor’s if they don’t go away - slightly worried. Thanks again!
Benadryl should help with the itching. Hives are an allergic reaction, though, so you need to pay attention if it starts getting worse.
If your tounge starts feeling big in your mouth, or your throat starts feeling swollen, you need to go to the Emergency Room RIGHT AWAY. Don’t mess around. Otherwise, call your doc tomorrow and get a nice non-drowsy antihistamine.
I have seen hives happen because someone’s emotional situation changed. This one very level headed lady that I know got hives when she got married and never before or since.
Feeling dizzy is not a good sign either. I had a reaction before where my whole body became extremely itchy. After a few hours of trying to ignore it, and figure out what to do, I finally went to emergency in the middle of the night. The doctor did an IV for me and said I should have come in sooner. (In my case I was allergic to medication I was taking at the time.)
On another note, how do you actually identify hives? My two year old daughter turned up a couple of months ago with bumps on her legs, and a few on her arm, and stomach. When we took her to the doctor, he said it was bites, and told us there was no need to treat them. Same thing happened again this week. Is it possible for a dozen bites to show up like this overnight, or would these be hives, and could it be a reaction from strawberries she’d had 48 hours earlier?
About 2 years ago I was sitting at work and suddenly started feeling hot. I went to the bathroom and saw (much to my surprise) that I had large, purple blotches all over my legs and torso. The blotches were hot to the touch, and slightly raised. They also itched like mad.
I went to the walk-in and patiently waited for a doctor to see me. The nurse came in to check my BP and such, and when she saw my legs she ran for a doctor. It looked like I had been beaten with a baseball bat.
The doctor came in, took one look and went for another doctor. The second doctor came in, took one look and left the room. He came back with a great big book, and started flipping pages. Apparently, they’d never seen anything like it. One of them decided it was Lyme Disease and gave my antibiotics and a blood test. The blood test came back negative, so it wasn’t Lyme.
The hives went away ina few days and that was that.
A few weeks later it happened again. The weird part was that the hives were in the same exact locations and the same exact shapes and sizes as before. This time, they gave me all kinds of blood tests and still didn’t find anything.
I went to a dermatologist and he chopped off a slice of my leg to biopsy it. He gave me a prescription for prednisone pills and a cream. The results of the biopsy? Hives. (Gee, thanks!)
I hadn’t eaten anything strange, I hadn’t been anywhere new, I hadn’t done anything outside of my normal routine. My GP finally came up with a diagnosis… I can’t remember the scientific name of the problem, but essentially it was “hives for no apparent reason.”
Guava, I get similar reactions to strawberries. I’m just sayin’…
That said, sometimes hives can pop up for no discernable reason whatsoever. One time, I was just sitting around watching TV and these huge red welts popped up all over my body. A few hours later, they were gone completely.
If the whelps are hives, oatmeal baths and such aren’t going to help. The hives are actually massed histamine under the skin, where nothing can get to them. The only topical cream I’ve found that helps at all is Benadryl Cream (it’s new) and it wears off pretty fast.
Remember the more you scratch, the more you spread the histamine under the skin - which mean you ITCH more. The only thing that actually helped me is cold water (temporarily numbing my skin). But some people get hives on exposure to heat or cold so be careful.
The doctor will first try you on steriods (such as a medidose pack or prednisone), an antihistamine (such as zyrtec or clariten) and possibly an epinephrine shot (to help the steriods work faster. If the hives come back after you come off the steriods, he may up your antihistamines or put you pack on steriods.
The good news is that most people who get hives either find out what triggered them, so they can avoid that, or the hive go away within 6 weeks.
I have chronic ideopathic hives and have had them (without relief) for over 3 years. Nope - don’t know why. Yes, I’ve been allergy tested. No - it’s not from stress or cats or detergent (I spent 2 weeks in a different climate under controlled conditions with no change in the hives). Yes I am heavily dosed with antihistamines so that I can have a life.
Don’t hesitate to email me if you need to talk to someone about this. I know just what you’re going through.
I got it several years ago. I became allergic to dairy (if it came from a cows udder, it was poison to me). Two years later, it disappeared as mysteriously as it arrived. I can eat cheese again!
I got a case of hives (apparently) a couple of days before I first took the ACT in high school. Just once, never again. Itched like craaaaaaazy. Aaaaallllll over. It nearly drove me insane for the 10 hours or so that it lasted. It sucked. I don’t remember feeling dizzy.
That said, the only other time I became covered with red welts was a very bizarre and surreal experience. I was staying up late writing C code or something, and noticed the back of my neck was feeling hot. I went to bed. I woke up in the morning to find my feet very itchy and covered in red splotches. The splotches moved up my legs and torso very symetrically (in a perfectly straight horizontal line) until they covered my whole body and head. The itching, again, was unbearable. My red face felt puffy. I had my mother drive me to the hospital because I felt a little bit dizzy. When I got there, they measure my temperature at 105 degrees and freaked out. After checking the temperature again and asking me some questions in astonishment that I was still conscious and coherent, they ran to get me some cold towels to put on my head, and gave me some other stuff I don’t really remember. They were about a heartbeat away from dumping me in a tub of ice. I began to realize that a 105 degree temperature is “Not Good.” Once they got my temperature down they figured out that I was having an allergic reaction to antibiotics I was taking for a sinus infection (either amoxicillin or Biaxin, the amox didn’t work so I had just started the Biaxin).
In short, go to the doctor. It could be hives, but it could be the start of a very unpleasant and dangerous allergic reaction.
I went searching for something to encourage me to hold off going to see the doc about a rash I’ve had for the past nine days, but I think y’all have just convinced me to make an appointment tomorrow. I know WHY I have a rash…I’m taking some medicince that makes me extremely photoallergic and spent too much time in the sun…but I don’t know what to do to make this go away. I’ve been putting cortisone and benadryl creams on but they’re not helping much. The rash will start to fade away in one area then suddenly flare up at a new one, and then wind up flaring up at the old one all over again as well. It’s driving me bonkers!