Allergic Reaction/Hives

[suedonim]

I wonder if anyone has any experience of this problem? My son's girlfriend developed an allergy about 18mths ago, after they moved house, and now has to take antihistamine tablets every day. She gets a skin reaction, with hives or wheals breaking out all over her body. They last about 10 minutes and are itchy.

This can happen several times a day, at home, at work or wherever she is. She says when she's on the antihistamines she doesn't get the marks on her skin but can still feel an itchiness beneath the skin. She has no clue as to what is causing it, there seems to be no common factor to the outbreaks at all re food, washing products etc. Any ideas?

I would say she needs to go in and have allergy testing. I hate to be an alarmist but getting hives like that would make me concerned that it could escalate into a more serious reaction like anaphylaxis.

My brother had a similar problem about a year or two ago. He started coming out in hives for no apparent reason. A few times it was so bad he had to go to the hospital and carry an epi pen and he was on antihistamines and steroids for a while.He saw a number of specialists and never really figurede out what caused it in the first place. I think the closest they got was possibly a reaction to ibuprofen or bananas that had built up over time even though he'd never been allergic to these things before and kept having reactions even when avoiding these things! Bascially they had no idea. I think it did eventually subside but I'll check with him and see what happened.

Ok, here's my brother's story if you are interested. He had two attacks, each time lasting 4-5 months where he was constantly on antihistamines. Eventually it went away. The allergist thinks he is allergic to aspirin, NSAIDS and certain food dyes (for some reason these allergies are often linked) and if he avoids these things he is fine. They could do a controlled test in hospital but from past experience even a controlled test could take months to recover from. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to become allergic things later in life quite suddenly.

Another theory he had from doing a bit of research on his own, although it is just a theory, is that the reason he suddenly developed these allergies may have been linked to overuse of heartburn medicine. Some research has suggested this can happen but it's not proven.

Anyway, I hope she is seeing a specialist to help her sort it out.

Thank you for your help - sorry not have got back to you earlier, have been soooo busy! I am quite concerned now, from what you both say, and reckon her Dr needs to be a bit more proactive. But I know from last week's paper's that the allergy clinic here has a 5 year waiting list. Anyway, got to go out again now so will return to this later tonight!

Yes, sn it can also happen from an overuse of meds like NSAIDS. It's called "leaky gut syndrome".

dd1 gets this. she reatcs to food colurings, main one bring tartrazine E102, which sends her IgE haywire and leads her to react to safe foods and products. since cutting tartrazine out we have seen a rapid decline in her hives and reactions. she still has some reactions, but nothing like what she did. she has daily dose of anti histime as well.

Back now, though shattered after doing the Christmas shop (no online shopping here )....

FairyT, from your post it's okay to take antihistamines routinely, then? I've always assumed they were taken on an as-and-when basis. Ds2 used to be very allergic, tartrazine was one of his baddies, too. But he was never given antihistamines - I guess treatments have changed since then.

I'm fairly sure ds2's gf doesn't routinely take NSAIDs but I will ask. She also said that if someone runs a fingernail over her skin it immediately forms a wheal(sp) - is that an allergic reaction? Also, I don't know if it has any relevance to allergies, but she has Thallasaemia, the mild type.

It seems so odd that it all started when they moved, esp as they only moved literally across the road into a very similar flat! But outbreaks aren't confined to their home, she gets them anywhere. She has BUPA cover from work, maybe she should utilise that to find out what's going on.

yes, dd1 was put on daily anti histimines by allergy specialist. atm hs ehas a nightitme dose of piriton but she is due to start a new one. she was on loratradine, but they have problems getting it right now.

Hope the new antih suits your dd, FairyT. It's a pain getting the right drug, sometimes, isn't it?

A bit more news. Ds's gf recently saw a dietician because she has anaemia (it's linked with the thalassaemia) and the dietician was horrified that the allergies haven't been followed up. She wrote a strongly-worded letter to gf's GP and the Practice Nurse has now called her to arrange blood tests! So she is now making a wee bit of progress re diagnosis. Ds says their surgery is awful anyway so they are thinking of changing GP's.

I'm going to link this to a new thread in Allergies as I'd like more info about the blood tests.