i woke up with hives last week. it was gone after i took allergy medicine. first, i thought there were bug/flea in my room so i cleaned sheet/room. I woke up with hives again on the second day so i went to see the doctor. he said it was the reaction (maybe food/weed pollen).i didn't eat anything new. he gave me another type of allergy medicine. i keep taking it for three days. i still woke up with hives if i didn't take medicine before going to bed. i even changed the place to sleep. so i m sure it isn't from my bed. also, i think food allergy shouldn't take this long. the good thing is that hives are faded after taking medicine. the bad thing is that i don't know what caused hives. any thoughts/suggestions? Thank you

8/26/2008 11:13:28 AM

i used to wake up with hives when i was a kid (so bad that my eyes were swollen shut), and they never really figured out what the allergy was. they thought it might be strawberries or azaleas but nothing ever seemed to trigger it twice. one day it just stopped. it didn't happen again until last year. same thing, woke up w/ hives, eyes swollen (although not shut). i took claritin and went on to work.

so yeah, that wasn't much help, but i've been there.

8/26/2008 11:17:16 AM

I have had hives once. Summer '06, I broke out in them one evening (didn't know they were hives, I just itched everywhere, and a friend asked if I was ok because I was apparently covered in 'em). I went to the doctor at student health- they were f'ing useless and told me it might be an unusual to reaction to mono. Seriously, she tried to tell me I had hives from mono.

Went to a different doctor (off campus) and they eventually found out it was triggered by peanuts. I had been eating a lot of pb&j sandwiches because of my recent move, summer school, work, and a general lack of time to make anything more substantial. I haven't had problems with peanuts or peanut butter since, but I haven't eaten a whole lot of it. I can have peanuts on my dishes (ie: thai food) or make vegan brownies that have peanut butter in them, and be perfectly fine.

It still seems weird to me that a large amount of it can give me hives, but other than that I'm completely fine.

8/26/2008 12:36:16 PM

Quote :

"strawberries"

this is what gave me hives. Haven't had a fresh strawberry in about 5 years.

8/26/2008 12:42:30 PM

i now have a slight allergy to all fruits with lots of small seeds (proportional to the fruit size, for example: strawberries, bananas, kiwi, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc). i only have a skin reaction (not a respiratory one thankfully) so i keep eating these foods anyway. except for watermelon. i hate watermelon.

actually, the fruits i eat less often are the ones i have the worst reaction to. i really don't have much of any reaction anymore to tomatoes or strawberries (unless they're super ripe on the plant, not ripened afterwards). bananas and kiwi still get me, but not enough to make me not want to eat them. i really like cantaloupe but it makes me itch a lot so i eat very little. i don't eat watermelon and the last time i tried it my lips swelled up and turned bright bright red. no thanks.

oh i have the same skin reaction to latex too

yay for allergies!

8/26/2008 1:28:56 PM

when i was younger i used to get hives. there were certian colors of dye in new clothes that would get me as well as rolling aroung in the grass. that wasnt much of a problem. then in high school i started getting them all the time for no apparent reason at all. when i got a hive in my mouth i got worried and went to the doctor. Apparently stress can cause hives. i was put on one 30 day prescription(for the hives not the stress) and have not had them since then, that was about 11 years ago.

long story short is that maybe they are stress induced

8/26/2008 10:17:57 PM

my daughter has a helluva time with hives. she gets them regularly. apparently, they generally don't bother her, but i still wish we could figure out the problem and solve it. she's been to the pediatrician and allergist multiple times about it, and they think that it's virus related and therefore unable to be "fixed". they put her on a steroid, which i'm a little wary of, too, but we'll see if it helps.

8/26/2008 11:06:00 PM

Don't just think about the new food: think about ANYTHING new.

Twice in the past year, I tried a new product (#1 was irish spring soap, and #2 was a new fabric softener).

I was going batty trying to figure out why the hell I was having such terrible generalized itching.

Go hour by hour through your days, and identify anything new. Even shit you won't think about. I took my cat to the vet for some serious skin irritation (it was so bad she was making herself bleed all over from scratching), and the vet gave her a steroid shot, and helped me brainstorm to figure out what was causing it. Turns out it was my new shampoo

(The point there being the most innocuous shit is suspect, especially with all the crap they put in stuff these days)

8/26/2008 11:31:42 PM

Quote :

"It still seems weird to me that a large amount of it can give me hives, but other than that I'm completely fine."

could be that particular batch of peanuts had too much pesticide in it, yellow#5, etc...

it could be anything. there are too many variables.

Quote :

"they put her on a steroid, which i'm a little wary of, too, but we'll see if it helps."

josh, topical corticosteroids OR oral prednisone? they typically try not to prescribe prednisone b/c the hives don't last long enough to treat effectively.

i had hives all the time as a kid. it was scary AND weird. they tried to prescribe prednisone, but i refused.

your daughter COULD have a food allergy, but you would have to keep her in a bubble to find out. that's what i had to do when my kid started breaking out. it sucks, but allergy testing is shitty and unreliable.

8/26/2008 11:43:18 PM

oral prednisone. i can't remember how long she's supposed to be on it, though.

8/26/2008 11:57:34 PM

in kids, prednisone sometimes hurts more than it helps. unless hers is the kind that goes away pretty slowly.

mine just went away on it's own. i still get little patches of eczema every now and again, but it's A LOT better than it used to be. stress induced or food allergy, can't tell which/can't stop eating.

lemme know if it helps get her hives under control.

[Edited on August 27, 2008 at 12:25 AM. Reason : x]

8/27/2008 12:25:04 AM

when i had an allergic reaction to some antibiotics i had the rash/hives on my arms stomach and feet for easily 5 days after i figured out it was the meds and quit taking them despite being on new shit that was supposed to solve all my issues

8/27/2008 12:43:40 AM

Hives

Cause I said so

8/27/2008 1:12:31 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn6kGzRSjhU

8/27/2008 1:17:31 AM

bees : effect

8/27/2008 8:10:25 AM

I used to break out in hives if I was around cats too much. But now that aea and I have been dating (and she has a cat), and the fact that my roommate has two cats, I can pick them up and hold them and pet them just fine without sneezing or itching or hives breaking out.

8/27/2008 8:54:46 AM

yes but can you touch them and then rub your eyes.

8/27/2008 8:56:31 AM

^ thats what messes me up with cats

and i have two

8/27/2008 10:42:42 AM

Detergents do that to me. try some without dye or fragrance Tide & All both have "dye-free" types or the brands made for babies (Dreft). if you are sleeping on sheets that are washed in the same thing, it might be your problem. You can even buy dye/fragrance free dryer sheets/fabric softener.

8/27/2008 11:23:24 AM

Bad genes.

9/1/2008 7:22:04 PM

Guinea pigs.
Srrsly.
I showed up in Latin class in college and Dr. Packman was all like "Woah" and I looked down and BAM! Covered in them everywhere my pigs had touched.

9/1/2008 9:14:24 PM