Life-long urticaria suddenly disappeared, then came back after getting covid
Hi, sorry if this kind of post gets made a lot here, and sorry if I explained things poorly or used the wrong terms anywhere, english is not my main language. I don’t have access to my full medical history, so I’m mostly going off memory and personal experience. I’m mainly posting to see if anyone has experienced something similar, especially after COVID. For some background: I’m a woman and I’ve had urticaria and other health issues for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was diagnosed with allergies to heat, oranges, chocolate, dust, bed bugs, dogs, cats, smoke, caramel, milk, and many many other things. Some of those would trigger both my asthma and urticaria.
What always confused me is that even when I followed my diet strictly, I would still get urticaria randomly. Sometimes I would even sneak a piece of chocolate or an orange as a kid, fully expecting to end up in the ER, but that never happened. I might get hives, but they never seemed directly tied to the allergies I had been diagnosed with. This lead to more allergist visits and always the same answers.
Over time, many of those allergies seemed to fade, and for about 2–3 years I lived completely without urticaria. Around that time I also moved from Latin America to the Caribbean. Then during the pandemic, I got COVID. Ever since that fever, my urticaria came back and has not gone away.
Now it feels completely random. I can eat oranges and get hives, but I can also avoid oranges entirely and still get them. I’ve tried changing everything: bedsheets daily, spraying them with alcohol, changing soaps, shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, and multiple diets. I’ve tried cutting out flour, milk, sugar, and even going vegan, but nothing seems to help.
At this point, after years of dealing with this, I honestly feel exhausted and defeated. I don't want to continue taking cetirizine every day or two but it genuinely feels impossible.
I did see an allergist recently, and they confirmed I’m allergic to dust and dogs, but the actual cause of my urticaria is still unknown. The only thing that consistently works is cetirizine/Zyrtec. If I stop taking it for more than 2 days, the hives always come back.
What honestly makes the most sense to me at this point is heat. The fever from COVID is what seemed to trigger everything again, and I notice I often get hives around my waistline where my pants sit, or on my arms while I’m sleeping under blankets. It seems to be that warmth, pressure, or trapped heat might be connected.
Has anyone else experienced urticaria disappearing for years and then suddenly returning after COVID or another illness? Can anyone that has found the answer relate to this?