Allergic Reaction: Itching And Hives

I went to the doctor again this week. This is the fourth doctor I’ve seen about my itching. She was lovely and also thinks it’s an allergic reaction after examining the bumps with a magnifying tool. She initially thought folliculitis, but changed her mind upon inspection. The constant itching and hives are really becoming a problem. They don’t go away anymore. They used to just last about an hour then go away, but this week it has been non-stop. So I’m taking Fexofenadine and Ranitidine daily now.

Constant Itching And Hives

Hives, rashes and insane itching and burning. It’s now all over my body. It calms down at times and then flares up after meals and with heat and stress. So if I’m in bed it flares, but also if I’m dressed too warmly, sit in the sun, argue with somebody or eat certain foods. At this point it’s almost permanent.

Doctors seem to be certain it’s allergies, but haven’t sent me for any tests yet. So still unsure what’s causing it, though the low histamine diet did provide some relief for a few weeks.

The current flare started after reintroducing a couple of things last week. Going to have to stop them again and see if it subsides.

The Itching Is Making It Hard To Sleep

This morning the hives and itching woke me at 4.20 and I was scratching non-stop for about 2 hours before I fell back asleep. The sun was already rising.

I then woke again with another flare around 9. It’s past noon now and it’s still quite itchy and the hives are not subsiding yet.

Allergic Reactions Are Debilitating

It’s super debilitating. Being so itchy that you can’t think straight or do anything but rub or scratch your skin all over because you need relief, even if it causes pain, the pain is a distraction from the itching. I now have bruises all over too from scratching so hard.

This of course means I’m exhausted because scratching requires physical exertion which causes payback for anybody with ME/CFS. So as you can imagine, I’ve not been very productive for the past week. Spending most of my energy on scratching, digesting a meal and then scratching again…

Distraction is my best weapon at this point as the pills aren’t really taking it away yet. So I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix and TV this week. It does help to keep my mind off it.

I also added apples and sweet potato to my diet in small quantities this past week, although they’re not Keto friendly, they contain quercetin which is a natural anti-histamine. I’ve also added fresh thyme to my meals which apparently helps prevent anaphylaxis.