I have had a lifelong struggle with hives begining with a couple of incidents while a small child...then at age 17, a prolonged, severe onset began. I was finally treated with steriod injections which caused a remission of over 5 years... they reappeared, however ... I would have acute onset .. without any warning at various times ... obviously, this makes life difficult as acute onsets would occur while at business meetings or other random, very inconvenient times. These attacks ranged from fairly mild to very severe...again, treatment with prednisone would seem to reset my system and I would be ok for varios periods of time... I really hated taking the steroids and found that the acute attacke could be mitigated with benadryl .. but the benadryl would make me extremely sleepy, in fact, requiring me to sleep ...
Around Christmastime this year, I began experiencing hive onset that was a of a completely different character from the acute attacks. This event has been ongoing and hives were present in my head, neck and face upon awakening. This was markedly different from the acute attacks. This onset did not respond to benadryl, or prednisone and I was really distressed ... I stumbled on this blog and was fascinated by your entries ... It occured to me that, despite my daughter telling me about this repeatedly, I NEVER drank water... the only water I ever drank was at the gym or on the golf course and then only to slake my thirst. The fluids I ingested were only tea, coffee, alcohol, soda and occasional juices. Obviously, I have been chronically dehydrated...
Two days ago, on the advice of your blog, I began to ingest 64 oz. of water daily. Today, when I awoke, the hives were gone from my head and along with them with it the sensitivity of the skin. I still have a couple of hives on my neck but I have only been doing this for 2 days and feel like I may be on my way here... I am going to religiously hydrate myself daily and also seriously reduce my alcohol intake ...
I don't know if this will help the acute onsets...I can only hope. I also have hypothroidism, a very common condition, for which I take medication. I have read that hives have a relationship with this condition.
I have a lot of sympathy for like sufferers on this site...it's a misreable and maddening experience ... the itching is unreacvhable no matter how hard you scratch ... often I have torn my own skin doing this ... it disfigures your appearance when welts appear on the face and can have a dire impact onyour self-esteem. In addition, with the acute attacks, you have absolutely no warning of when onset will occur....a very helpless feeling...View Thread
Posted bydadis(FromAllergies: Support Group)
