I Have Cholinergic Urticaria-My Hives Story
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I live in northeast Tennessee (USA), and I have been suffering with cholinergic urticaria (hives) for several years now. It first happened when I was 18 years old. Here are some additional stats about me before I get into my story:
- Age when hives appeared: 18
- Years of having hives: Hives have been on & off for about 7 years
- Ethnicity: Caucasian American (white)
- Sex: Male
- Any other known allergies: NO
- Hair-Dark Brown; Eyes- Dark Brown
- Height: 6″0
- Weight: About 155-160 (good shape/fairly muscular/fit)
- Exercise: Yes, on & off
- Drugs: I do not take any prescription drugs or non-prescription drugs. This means no alcohol, pills, smoking, or anything else. 100% Drug free & Always will be!
My First Hives/Cholinergic Attack?
I was 18 years old. I had actually just turned 18 about 3 months or so before my first hives attack. I had just gotten out of the shower. It was winter time outside (cold). I went into my room to get dressed. I put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, an a sweater.
I am an energetic type of guy. I like to jump around a lot, throw punches in mid-air, etc. My wife laughs at me and says I “hop.” I just get excited & rushed with adrenaline sometimes & just have to do something. Anyways, I got dressed & was excited because I was about to leave to go to the store (I know it doesn’t take much to excite me huh?).
Suddenly during my rush of excitement, I became hot & I started feeling this strange tingling sensation over my upper body. It was something I had never felt before. It itched (really badly), but at the same time is was prickly & kind of hurt as well.
I was like what in the world is going on here. I started scratching, yet it didn’t relieve the itch. You have to scratch, but yet it provides no relief. It got worse. The feeling spread through my entire upper body (chest, face, scalp, back, etc.). I was in complete torture.
I didn’t know what was going on. My face & chest became red (flushed) I was freaking out. I tried to cool myself off, and finally the sensation quit. “What was that,” I thought to myself.
Little did I know it was just a taste of what would come to be a major change in my life. It was cholinergic urticaria rearing its ugly head at me.
More Cholinergic Urticaria (Hives) Breakouts
After that day, it seems any time I got hot, excited, nervous, etc. I would start breaking out in the same type of hives. I would be the exact same experience as the first breakout. This condition literally came out of nowhere.
It was mostly on my upper body, and my skin would usually become flushed (red) where I scratched & you could see the marks on my body. In a strong break out, small red pin points would breakout on my arms and chest for a few minutes, and then they would disappear within 15-30 minutes after I cooled off. The pinpoint red dots (hives) did not always come out during an outbreak. They only appeared during severe breakouts that lasted a few minutes & were extremely intense.
Also, when I started to breakout, if I could somehow cool myself off really fast (by rubbing an ice cube, or going outside in the colder air, or jumping in a cool shower), then it would stop the breakout immediately. Weird.
The breakouts seemed to get worse over the next month. Until the point I would basically break out in a hives rash if I did anything that caused my body to heat up (laughing hard, exercise, getting embarrassed, doing physical work, jumping around too much, etc.)
I thought I was going crazy! Finally I broke down & told my mother (I was still living at home at the time) that I had to go to the doctor. I prayed there was something simple wrong with me that I could cure by taking a pill. BOY WAS I WRONG!
