I can't deal with it anymore. I am going to try Cellcept an immunosuppressant. The side effects of taking it are many including development of lymphoma and also bronchitis and pneumonia, to which I am already susceptible.

No antihistamine helps. Creams are a total waste of time unless I scratch the skin to the point of scarring and then apply the cream to "burn" away the itch. Cream of tartar and water paste helps somewhat, but I can only use it at night due to unwieldiness and powder it leaves behind all over house.

Help!

Mary - December 30, 2006

My battle with this unsettling disorder seemed to have come out of nowhere in September of 2006. I have had allergies in the past and have even dealt with some very MILD cases of hives every once in a while, but this - this is nothing of the sort. People who do not have to deal with this on a daily basis would not understand it. Simply stated because it is not "life-threatening" it seems to be understated. Well this disease has left me with days of physical and emotional stress that are beyond my spectrum of comfort. I am not by nature a depressed person (have always been the person that has the optimistic out look) but on what I call my "bad episode" days, this can drive me to tears. I believe that it may be because there are little answers for it out there, that is... for the cause and the relief. I have tried many many H1 and H2 treatments and there has only been minimal relief. Like I said, there are good days and then the "bad episode days" but there is no longer any day that goes by that this doesn't somehow affect me. I am glad I found this web site if only to write it out as there is so little out there where I have found to even talk about it. Thank you for some input and the juice option. Like many of us - you begin to try anything - if only to see if it will bring some relief and less embarrassment.

Debra - December 18, 2006

I have been suffering from urticaria or hives on and offnow for 9 years. It disappeared once for about two years. I then had surgery and then it returned and has not left me. I have told my doctor many times about it and he just kept saying that if the antihistamines were working I could keep taking them. I started taking 25 mg/day of Benadryl and that workedfor a couple of years. Eventually, that quit working so I had to increase it to 50 mg/day of Benadryl. Needless to say that quit working so I started to take 5 mg/day of Reactine, eventually increasing the dose to 10 mg/day. Eventaking the 10 mg/day of Reactine my hives and itching make a break through. I am very tired of the hives or welts/swelling and itching absolutely everywhere on my body.

So I changed doctors, I now have a younger female doctor who is very determined to get to the bottom of this hives problem for me. She sent me to a dermatologist and I have been diagnosed with dermographism as of yesterday, April 21/06.

The dermatologist knew exactly what my problem was, I couldn't believe it. He is starting me on 40 mg/day of Reactine for a two months, if that doesn't work I will then take Dioxepin (I am not sure of the dose as I have already taken my prescription to my pharmacist to keep on hold for me) for a couple of monthswhich is 100 - 150 times stronger than Reactine. My pharmacist told me that one of her patients is on Dioxepin for a rash and it's working for them. I was very glad to hear that.

I asked the dermatologist to please explain to me what was going on in my body. He said that I have an excess of a protein in my blood that my body is not getting rid of fast enough. And the side effect of having lots of this protein in my blood is dermographism. Taking a high dose of Reactine or Dioxepin willslow the making of this protein down so my liver and spleen can clean out the excess amount of protein. So, eventually the dermographism should disappear.

Anna

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