Hello, I'm the one who messaged you early this morning. My CIU started what appeared to be literally out of nowhere 17+ years ago. I started to itch, and within minutes my entire body and limbs from my neck down inclusive was covered. Within another few minutes, I was coughing, felt like my lungs were filling up with fluid, feeling nauseous, had a headache. I was very scared, but live five minutes away from a major teaching hospital, so phoned a taxi and went along (in retrospect, it should have been an ambulance, as I was told later).
To cut a very long story short, I was in/out of A&E every day for the next four days with exactly the same problems, plus more including actual vomiting, diarrhoea and fainting. The hives appeared on my face (plus everywhere else) on the third day, my eyes and lips swelling so much I couldn't see or speak properly. I was given steroids, plus anti-histamines and each time was told "that should be it", but was kept in overnight on the fourth occasion ( but only after my daughter basically threw a strop I didn't know about that until days later, was mortified).The next morning, I was seen by a consultant Dermatologist. She took a full history, going back several months. She basically scoffed (very politely) at the treatment I'd had over the weekend, and said that I should have been seen by Dermatology after the first day.
She prescribed big, slowly decreasing doses of steroids plus antihistamines, plus Epi-pens. She also recommended that for the next few weeks I try to eat only "white" food, e.g. rice, steamed chicken, bread, all organic if possible (by this time, I wasn't eating at all, only drinking water). Her tentative diagnosis was that I'd possibly developed an allergy to colourings and preservatives, plus possibly because of my age all the fruit and veg I'd eaten as a child and young adult would have been sprayed with goodness knows what. She described it as a pseudo allergy, linked it to my immune system, said it appeared that some people, although allergic to nothing specific, reacted when certain foodstuffs were eaten together. She also said it would take weeks for the reactions to stop, but hopefully they would get less severe within a short time, which they did.
I can't remember how long it was before I had a day totally free of any problems, but it was at least five months. I was by then, a Dermatology out-patient, and was seen every three months for several years, eventually being discharged after having had no severe attacks for over a year, and was discontinued from having to carry Epi-pens.
I've been on various different anti-histamines, eventually settling on Fexofenadine plus Ranitidine, but due to Ranitidine recall/shortage earlier this year, was changed to Cetirizine. I'm also on Montelukast although that was prescribed for my asthma, and Levothyroxine for an under active thyroid (all ties in with the immune system theory). I also have a form of alopecia, again immune system related. I still watch what I eat, avoiding obvious colouring, etc. I still have the occasional mild attack, but the hives now (usually) only appear on my chest, I get itchy around my eyes and mouth and I always cough for a while. I find taking a couple of Piriton (as agreed by Dermatology) helps the reaction to settle more quickly).
I would agree that probably a lot of GPs are not particularily clued up on this sort of thing, the first one I saw (for somehing different) later that year admitted they'd all been "fascinated" by the report from Dermatology, as none of them had seen anything similar (up to then). I've resigned myself to accepting that I'll be on anti-histamines for the rest of my life (I'm 66). I genuinely don't think mine are stress related as such but attacks are bloody stressful to say the least. However, I was peri-menopausal when I had my first attack.
Sorry for the length of the post, but felt it was all relevant. Hopefully, Op, your attacks will start to settle soon, but meanwhile you have my complete sympathy, as does everyone else who's contributed to this thread.