Chronic Hives

[Ness8004]

About six months ago since I moved across country and suddenly started to experience hives. I have never experienced this ever in my life, the only allergy I have had was to Shellfish and I stayed away from that. The hives seem to be very prominent in the morning and evening. They just don't seem to be going away. I am drinkning hot lemon water to cleanse my system and I was taking reacton but i really don't want to continully take pills like that. Is stress a big factor for these hives? Is six months a long time for them to last? I have seen an allergist but I was allergic to dust mites and still shellfish so should I go back to them and get tested again? What else can I do to get rid of these annoying hives? It's driving me crazy!

Thanks

[Quitcherfussin]

Am I glad I found this link! I have had chronic hives for months. I switched to laundry det. and fabric softener that were hypo-allergenic and have been taking antihistimines almost daily. I thought I might be allergic to green tea so I stopped drinking it. I never even thought about the splenda I was using to sweeten it! I am going to detox from all artificial sweeteners and see if that solves things for me. Thanks for the info!
Quitcherfussin

[Ezem08]

I have had hives for about 6 years now. We have never figured out what I was allergic to, through many years of experimentation, we have found meds that work GREAT. Typical meds like benadryl, zyrtec, claritin, etc. never worked for long. I take albuterol pills (2 4mg pills every 6 hours), cimetidine (1 25mg in the AM and one in the PM), and 1 doxepin (75 mg) at night. I guarentee you this WILL work for some of you. Stay AWAY from predinisone, I was put on it when I was 13 and have been on it for 6 years. It works great, but it tears your body apart. It's detrimental......I hope this helps all of you.

[Annette01]

For me, I have other hormonal symptoms with the hives, but since blood tests don't reliably detect hormone irregularities,  I always check out fine too. Like yourself, I tried prednisone but for longterm relief natural progestrone cream taken once a day has given me my life back.

[Ezem08]

I have had hives for 6 years now. I've done every blood test in the world and nothing has come up. The only medicines that work for me are albuterol, benadryl and doxepin. I also have been taking prednisone for about 5 years and they always get rid of my hives. But, the prednisone is affecting my body in strange ways. About 6 hours or so after I take it I get HORRIBLE pains in my legs. I have also developed an stomach disorder, where my stomach rejects ALL food. This has been going on for 2 years and no doctor has been able to figure it out. Has anyone experienced these problems? Or found an odd reason for why the have hives?

[Troubles01]

I feel your pain!! Although i have only had them for a week they are driving me crazy!! I am on three different types of Steroids for the hives and persription Benedryl. The emergency room doc gave me the benedryl and told me to take two every 6 hours... I am up to 4 every three hours!!! i have them everywhere on my body, even in my scalp. i went to the er to get some help because my face was swelling up and i looked like i was perminatly disfigured. they gave me an iv drip with the benedryl in it, a cortizon shot and another Steroid. the hives went away while they were observing me for two hours.... as i was walking out the er door what do you know i broke out worse than before. the er didn't even take a second look at me and told me i would be fine. these stupid things are taking over my life.. (after reading some of the stories above i feel lucky that i have not had them that long, but at the same time i feel hopeless because the stories are sounding more and more like my problem!!!)

[Annette01]

I just take one tablet (10mg?) a night. But it does not help me unless I take 150mg of ranitidine with it.