Chronic Hives

Hives.
Urticaria.
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"Urticaria" is the medical term for hives. Hives are raised areas of the skin that itch intensely and are red with a pale center (picture 1). Hives are a very common condition. About 20 percent of people have hives at some time during their lives.
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What does this mean in layman terms? Let me explain.
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For the past 5 weeks now I've been suffering from chronic hives. Every time I think they're getting better, something triggers them to come back full force, and usually worse than before. Today, a full 5 weeks after a rather alien looking caterpillar from another region of the country landed on me and dug toxic spore hairs into my neck and collar bone, I'm dealing with the absolute worst rash of hives I've ever experienced in my life. How do I explain what that's like?
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I woke up around midnight with my body itching while being simultaneously in pain with every welt that swells on my body. When this whole thing first started, the welts were small, about the size of a pencil eraser in diameter. While that doesn't sound exceptionally small, by comparison it certainly is. Now, five weeks into this living, breathing nightmare, the hives are the size of a silver dollar. They started out being focused mainly on my legs, and now they're from my ankles to my scalp, including in my hair. They cover every square inch of my skin, including my thighs, back, stomach, neck, and even my face. They itch terribly, like thousands of mosquito bites or chiggers digging under my skin looking for a place to lay their young. If I scratch, the pain is intense, as though someone is snuffing out a cigarette butt in my open flesh. No matter what, I constantly feel one of the two sensations - either as though insects are burrowing and biting, or as though putrid flesh is being burned away when I touch it.
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Last night around midnight I woke up from what had been a peaceful sleep to both sensations. I'd been laying on my back. My stomach, knees, legs and arms felt as though a million mosquitos tried to carry me off in the night. My back felt the burning of a billion embers as I laid on the swollen, hideous, ugly, violent red patches everywhere.
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This has been my life for 5 weeks as of today.
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I cried. First I got up and went to the bathroom where I put hydrocortisone anti-itch cream on every massive red lump emerging from my body like vulgar human pepperoni, and then I took a standing slap-bath in Calamine lotion. This resulted in my bathroom looking like a Calamine bomb went off all over the mirror, counter, floor, and rug.
Then I waddled my way painfully back into my room and attempted to lay down without getting the pink liquid chalk all over my bed sheets or cats. I failed on both accounts. Pink kitten paw prints can be seen lining my bedroom carpet and living room walkway. Oddly they match the pink 'crazy cat lady' magnet on the back of my car. Fat tears streamed from the corners of my eyes as I sobbed from frustration, pain, anger, confusion and fear. For five weeks I'd been dealing with all of this. For a few days it was not as bad... but then it came back with a vengeance. My daily life had to be put on hold yet again. I deal with chronic pain anyway since I have Crohn's Disease, but this is a new level of pain. What in the world had I done to deserve this? Why couldn't I figure it out and make it go away? Could it be some new food allergy, like tomatoes? Should I avoid eating tomatoes ever again? My lord, what if I was allergic to tomatoes?
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I finally stopped crying when JackJack jumped up to nuzzle me. I focused my efforts on petting his little head, just between his eyes and over the top of his head to his neck. He closed his eyes and purred at me, laying down on my chest and calming me down. I woke up again around 2am and took another slap-bath, another at 5am, another at 7am, and finally stopped fighting for sleep. I got ready for work and left home with a mostly empty bottle of Calamine lotion and a paint brush.
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The Calamine doesn't help very much. It takes down the swelling significantly, but the itch remains, and if I scratch the burn takes over. I'm covered in spots. A coworker tells me that I look like a 'reverse dalmatian' and I laugh so hard I snort. I feel and look like a human science experiment. And out of all this, as many people have come forward with advice on what to do, medical professionals are baffled. What's more, it's not just me.
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Over the past several months, chronic hives has been on the rise.
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I have friends who have been to see specialists but with no more of a solution than my own of a paint brush dipped in calamine lotion. Friends of friends have reached out. People who know me from my public speaking or from the books I've written have reached out, as they experience the same. It seems there's something very, VERY wrong going on in the world, and nobody is talking about it. You can find plenty of articles online about what hives are, and what *might* cause them, but good luck finding even a single news article on the massive upswing in the issue. When I was put on steroids to attempt battling my hives over a week ago, the pharmacy had completely RUN OUT of the steroid, prednisone!
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I'm not one to really buy into conspiracy theories at all. I avoid them like the plague. But there's something bigger going on, and we're all being kept in the dark... including the medical professionals. Nobody knows what to do, and I think it's causing me to lose my mind.
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Share this if you or someone you know is suffering with Chronic Hives and nobody can tell you why.
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#hives #urticaria #prednisone #chronichives #helpme