I’ve had skin allergy issues for years now and finally got into an allergist to try and figure out what’s wrong. They tried the skin prick tests but it appeared that I was reacting to every allergen. So the allergist realized that what I actually have is Dermographism. Essentially my body produces a histamine reaction to even light pressure, so it thinks there’s an allergen even if there isn’t one. They went ahead and drew blood to test for allergies that way, but he said he really doesn’t expect to find anything.
It’s looking like I’m gonna be stuck doped up on anti-histamines for the foreseeable future which kind of sucks. On the plus side, I can take notes on my body without a pen!
(mods, I’m not looking for any medical advice here)
Hey, me too! Mine goes along with my chronic hives. I’m on heavy doses of prescription antihistamine (hydroxyzine) which finally got the hives under control but I still have dermagraphism off and on.
I initially was wiped out by the antihistamines but after a while I developed a tolerance.
Oh man, I had this happen a couple summers ago–so annoying! Never did figure out what caused it and it thankfully went away. I’d have to shower at least an hour or two before leaving the house because I’d look like I’d been clawed. If you touched me it’d leave a welt, making sex… challenging. Fun times.
Reminds me of this young lady, who suffers from the same ailment, but uses it to express her artistic side (click “next” to cycle through the photographs).
Best wishes Antinor01. Doesn’t sound like much fun :(.
ETA: Broke link. Some images on that site may be marginally NSFW.
Just got an email from the allergist confirming no food allergies and normal IGe levels. I really was kind of hoping they’d find something. Ah well, time to setup a visit to dermatology.
I just found out that aspirin gives me hives. I hadn’t taken it in years, as I preferred the more effective ibuprofen. A trip to the ER for ibuprofen overuse back in July made me switch to the occasional aspirin for pain, and I couldn’t figure out why I was getting bad hives occasionally. I finally made the connection between aspirin use and hives. Dr. Google says it’s the most common hive-causing medication.
Pressure causes them, too. If I sleep on a wrinkle in the sheet or wear a tight waistband, I’ll get hives in that spot.
The pressure is what gets me because of the dermographism. What’s really annoying is I get it really bad around the waist, posterior and thighs. Probably from working an office job, so I’m sitting a lot.
I got some itchy raised welts on my waistband last year - I have never had hives, and I didn’t know what these things were. We had just come back from a trip, too, so we suspected bedbugs. I think it was just pressure hives, like you’re talking about. Stupid things.
I recently tried cutting back my rx dosage but I’m getting more dermagraphia and now hives again so I have to up the dose again.
Initially he had me take my hydroxyzine with ranitidine (Zantac, an H2 blocker) but strangely it gave me heartburn. The H2 stands for histamine, supposedly it was to help cover all the forms of histamine that could make you react. I don’t know why something you use to treat heartburn gave me heartburn but I’d take the hives over heartburn so I cut the Zantac from my regimen.
Prior to switching to the hydroxyzine I was on Zyrtec (cetirizine) with loratidine taken if I had breakthrough hives, but the breakthrough hives got so bad that that combination didn’t help.
Delayed Pressure Urticaria (DPU) sufferer here. The doctor diagnosed it as dermographia, but it really only occurs with significant pressure, and it is usually delayed from the pressure stimulus by a few hours. I don’t take anything regularly, only if I have a particularly bad outbreak and then I choose between cetirizine, loratidine or diphenhydramine though I don’t think any of them really do all that much. For the most part, time is the only thing that works. The hives on the soles of my feet are the absolute worst.