Tell me about urticaria

[MaudantWit]

For a fortnight now I have been covered in a pervasive rash which the GP told me is urticaria, brought on by an allergic reaction to something I've eaten. The GP didn't offer allergy testing or anything apart from antihistamines, but the consultant I'm seeing about something else is going to refer me to a dermatologist.

Does anyone have any tips or advice? I'm using Virasoothe to control the itching, but is there anything better?

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I too have been told it's idiopathic (medical code for can't find any other explanation). When I ended up in A&E (long story) I was a bit dermographic, but haven't been since. It does get worse if I wear tight clothing; the steroids made me put on weight and now my jeans waistband is tight enough to give me a continuous weal around the body. I'm living in yoga trousers. Very glam.

I can't say I'm not a bit despondent to hear how long this could hang around, but perhaps we can give each other some moral support.

I had chronic urticaria for about two years. Waist down, always in the morning. Bloods and a dermatology review revealed no obvious cause and gradually it burnt itself out. Very occasionally now do I get a relapse, still my legs though nowhere else. Most weird.

"Since I last posted, I've seen the GP again and seen the dermatologist at the hospital. I'm on a different antihistamine at a different dosage and was on steroids for a while. Consensus is that this is not an allergic reaction."

But you've not actually seen a consultant whose specialist is in allergies???

dermatologist at hospital was useless with my DD - we ended up seeing an an allergies consultant privately who then wrote to our GP and got him to refer us back to him on the NHS.

No, I haven't, because nobody (including me) thinks this is an allergy. But, frankly, I am now sufficiently fed up that I may press to see an allergy specilaist anyway.

Allergies are complex, for example urticaria can be related to the levels of histimine in your skin - it might not be any one specific thing triggering the reaction and still be allergy related - there's also delayed allergies.

So what does the immunologist do in testing that is different to the allergy tests a dermatologist does I wonder?

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Yes MaryShelley I was thinking they overlap.I too see a Dermatologist privately but she wants me to see an Immunologist as lips started to swell slightly a few times .Not sure now if I want to take the appointment and fork out more money :(

I've always been sensitive to various skin rashes, but over the past week have been suffering from dermographic urticaria.

I'm also coeliac and take thyroxine so it seems like it's probably an auto immune thing going on. I'm due at the doctor's on Friday. I've read about the link with thyroid issues but is it hypo or hyper. I've been halving thyroxine doses recently as I felt that I was getting hyper again (I've been having to reduce my thyroxine dosage after going gf with diagnosis of coeliac) but not sure how it's all related.