HeatHives.com-Cholinergic Urticaria and Hives

My Cholinergic Urticaria Hives Finally Gone? Could I be Cured?

By summer, I was still breaking out. But I had not given up complete hope. I would walk outside & immediately breakout when the hot summer sun hit my skin & caused my body to heat up.
I was still 18 years old. It started about late November or December, and by now I had tried doctors, medicine, & other things & I still had hives. I was approximately June. In that time, I had become an absolute hermit. Rarely leaving the house due to my weird reactions in my body.

One day I decided I was going to go outside on a hot day & wash my car & really clean it out. So I did just that. At first, complete torture. Hives were breaking out. I was itchy. It was intense. Then, something happened that didn’t happen for months before. A drop of sweat!

That’s right. Sweat! In the months before, I simply couldn’t sweat. If I tried, I would break out in hives before I would even sweat. The cholinergic urticaria just wouldn’t let me get hot enough to sweat. Instead, I would itch instead of sweat.

Yet, finally a drop of sweat. It felt great. I could actually do something & sweat. The hives quit, and I was outside on a hot day working & sweating. WOW. I worked most of the daylight hours working on my car & detailing it. The next day I did the same thing. At first, I got itchy & had a hive attack. But then it quit, and the “green house” effect in my car made it so hot I began to sweat again. I worked all day again.

Finally, my hives quit coming out over the course of the next week. Plus it was summer & the air conditioning was running in my house. It felt very comfortable. I had no hives outbreaks for a long time.
In fact, a lot changed in my life. I met my future wife & we started dating that summer. I turned 19, then 20, 21, 22. No hives. I had even forgot about it for the most part. I was back in school. Everything seemed A-okay. Life was looking great. But then…

My Cholinergic Urticaria Hives Come Back with a Vengeance

Just as things were looking great for a few years, my hives came back. This time, with a vengeance. How did it come back? Well, very similar to the way before. It was winter, I was now 23. My wife & I had moved out into our own 1 bedroom apartment.

I was working part-time at a major retail store (I hated it), and I was also back in college working on my business degree (majoring in accounting-also hated it). I wasn’t too happy with my situation. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I really didn’t like this accounting stuff anymore. On top of that my hives started attacking while I was at work, and school. Very uncomfortable, and very painful.
Not only did my hives come back, but something even worse was happening.  I was having a rash come out on the back of my neck. It was a small rash (about the size of a penny). But it was itchy.

Then it got even worse again. Now, the back of my legs, neck, and parts of my arm was breaking out in this rash. It wasn’t contagious (my wife never has gotten anything I had).

It looked kind of like ringworm in some areas. In fact, I thought it was ringworm, but after a few unsuccessful attempts at treating it, I realized it was just eczema (dermatitis) rash.
It responded well to some steroid cream. But the hives did not change. In fact, they worsened over the next year. Fast forward to today when I am writing this.

I am now 25. I dropped out of college 1 semester shy of graduation (not only because of the hives but I just simply didn’t want to do accounting or work for anyone for the rest of my life).
I also quit my terrible job at the retail store (to this day I can’t even shop there I hated that experience so badly).

I have since started my own business. I still break out in hives. The eczema rashes are gone (thankfully). But I still have this cholinergic urticaria thing. It drives me nuts. It is such torture. I mean it can literally bring me to my knees in pain & intense itching.

That is my motivation to create this website. To share my story with you. To help you in your struggle against this mysterious & yet annoying condition. To help us to come together & talk about our feelings, treatments, ideas, and more. Also, to maybe find a common link, successful treatment, cure, or something that can help us put this behind us for good.

I will write as many new articles as possible, and I hope to have a forum & some other neat features up soon (but it will take some time). I hope you will keep coming back to this site! Thanks for visiting. If you have this condition…don’t give up hope. My prayers are with you. We will overcome this thing together. I promise! It is important to never give up hope.