r/urticaria

For the past almost two years, every day I have had these red dots appear on my legs and sometimes on my forearms. I even wake up with them and then they will fade eventually, and new ones appear. They are not raised and do not itch, but last for hours once appearing.

I have an anaphylactic allergy to nuts and am very well aware of itching welts hives, which these are not.

I take Allegra and Pepcid AC each day for my allergies, but these spots seem to not respond to any type of antihistamine orally or cream.

Again, they don't bother me, as they are not itchy. But people will point them out, and as mentioned, I do have food allergies, which always makes my brain revert to am I having an allergic reaction. Curious if anyone has had anything similar?

I have very sensitive skin. I was diagnosed with chronic hives when I was 9, but this is different. I get very, very itchy when I get hives, and they swell up my entire body with red, bumpy, painful, and itchy patches. I get them daily, usually multiple times. When I scratch them, they’ve been leaving noticeable marks. The marks started a few months ago, but no one seems to be able to tell me what it is. People keep pointing it out and I don’t like them, but nothing makes them go away. I have them in so many places, including across my back. I barely even scratch my back, I use a backscratcher, and my nails are very short so it’s not from my nails. Lotion doesn’t help, and the marks don’t typically hurt, but they do burn in the shower like my usual hives. It’s a lot worse on my chest, stomach, back, and thighs. It looks like I clawed at myself, but I truly didn’t. Any gentle poke leaves a red mark or a bruise. I bruise very easily and I don’t know why. How do I fix this? Why is this happening?

It looks much worse irl. It covers my body, but I’m worried to post too many photos of my body. I added an example of my hives, a really tame example because I don’t want to add a trigger warning. I also added photos of bruises i’ve had from minor bumps.

Hi everyone! Since May of this year, I have been having a problem with spots/rashes all over my skin. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I only have a usual pollen allergy, and before this started, I would take one Xyzal in the morning and one in the evening.
Everything started suddenly. One evening, I noticed two small spots on my arm. My mom thought it was just a normal allergic reaction and told me to take two Xyzal tablets. However, it did not go away, and over the next three days, the rash spread all over my body.
I went to the doctor, who told me that many people had come in that morning with the exact same problem. I received two injections. The rash disappeared, but a few days later it came back, so I received two more injections on two separate occasions.
I was then sent to a dermatologist, who told me to improve my diet. Honestly, I only tried it for one day because I was convinced it would not help me — and it didn’t.
I then saw an allergist, who told me to take four Xyzal tablets a day — two in the morning and two in the evening — Nolpaza before breakfast and dinner, 20 mg of Pronison after eating, reducing the dose by 5 mg every week, Famotidine before lunch, Alvocast at 10 PM, and two teaspoons of Galitifen syrup in the evening.
This treatment did not help me at all.
I had blood tests done, and my CRP was elevated at 10.8 (the normal range is 0.0–5.0), while my iron was low at 6.8 (the normal range is 9.0–30.4). My doctor prescribed iron sachets for me to take.
I also went to a dermatology clinic, where they told me to continue taking my medication and reduce stress. I saw a pulmonologist as well, who told me to continue with the treatment and diet.
Since the medication still wasn’t helping, I went to another allergist. She recommended a diet without additives and preservatives.
She prescribed the following treatment:
Pronison 20 + 10 + 0 mg, on a full stomach, followed by 20 mg for 5 days, then 10 mg for 5 days and then stop;
Famotidine 20 mg, 30 minutes before breakfast;
Nixar — two tablets in the morning and two in the evening while the skin changes were intense, and then gradually reducing the dose;
Galitifen, two teaspoons in the evening;
Alvocast 10 mg in the evening.
This treatment actually helped me, and I could clearly see an improvement. However, after taking so much Pronison, my face was constantly swollen, my mouth was extremely dry, and I had constant hunger.
Along with this treatment, I was also given a list of tests that I needed to have done.
Here are the results:
Salivary flow
Saliva volume: 0.1 mL
Unstimulated salivary flow rate: 0.02 mL/min
Throat swab — bacteriological examination
Saprophytic flora was isolated.
Nasal swab — bacteriological examination
Saprophytic flora was isolated.
Viral tests
HIV Ag/Ab — negative
HBsAg — negative
Anti-HCV — negative
Toxoplasma / Toxocara
Toxoplasma IgG — negative
Toxoplasma IgM — negative
Detection of IgG antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii by ELISA — negative
Detection of IgG antibodies to Toxocara canis by ELISA — negative
Parasitological tests
Protozoa — negative
Helminths — negative
Urine — bacteriological examination
A small number of bacteria were found. Since I had no burning or other symptoms when urinating, the doctor said it was nothing concerning.
Antibiogram:
Ampicillin — S
Amoxicillin — S
Cephalexin — S
Ciprofloxacin — R
Nitrofurantoin — S
Urine sediment
Bacteria: rare
Mucus: abundant
Stool culture
Negative
Sputum — mycological examination
Candida fungi were not detected.
Stool examination / mycological examination
No molds of the genus Aspergillus were isolated.
Candida species was isolated.
Helicobacter pylori
Negative
Echinococcus
ELISA test for antibodies against Echinococcus — negative
Indirect hemagglutination test for antibodies against Echinococcus — negative
Abdominal ultrasound
The liver is of normal size, with normal echogenicity and homogeneous structure, with no pathological changes.
The bile ducts are not dilated.
The gallbladder is of normal size, with normal wall thickness and no abnormal contents in the lumen.
The pancreas is homogeneous, with no focal changes.
The spleen is of normal size and homogeneous, with no focal changes.
Both kidneys are of normal size and normal parenchymal thickness, with no pathological changes.
The adrenal gland areas show no pathological changes.
The urinary bladder is empty.
The abdominal aorta has a normal lumen width.
No enlarged para-aortic lymph nodes are visible.
There is no free fluid in the abdomen.
Chest X-ray
No infiltration or consolidation.
Sinuses are clear.
Cardiac silhouette is within physiological limits.
That is basically everything from all the tests I have had done.
Every time I reduced the Pronison, I would start feeling worse. When I reduced it to 5 mg, I became so covered in spots that I went to the hospital. I received two injections and waited for about three hours for the allergic reaction to subside. It did not completely disappear, but they discharged me and told me to return to my previous treatment and see an allergist.
While I was taking 20 mg of Pronison, everything was great in terms of the rash, except for the swelling, dry mouth, constant hunger, and the other side effects.
In the meantime, I noticed a black spot inside my cheek. I thought it was food, so I tried to remove it, and it started bleeding. I went to the dentist, and they told me it could be related to Pronison because my salivary glands were not producing enough saliva. They told me that because of this, I could develop salivary gland stones and advised me to constantly have a sugar-free, spicy candy in my mouth to stimulate saliva production.
At that point, I decided to try stopping all my medication and taking quercetin, based on advice I had seen on TikTok.
I actually felt pretty good while taking quercetin. I still had some of the rash, but nowhere near as much as before. When I tried going without medication, I would sometimes take one Xyzal, but I noticed that the rash seemed to appear even more afterward and that I did not feel good combining Xyzal with quercetin.
However, today I woke up with spots all over my face, arms, legs, stomach, back, and chest. I skipped quercetin today but took two Xyzal tablets. The redness and itching are going away very slowly, but I really hope it will eventually disappear.
In a few days, I am going to see yet another new allergist, and I really hope they will finally be able to help me.
I have also noticed that chips seem to make my allergy worse. I tried eliminating them for several days, but I still had the rash. I have noticed something similar with dairy products and bread.
If anyone has experienced something similar or has any advice that might help, I would really appreciate hearing your experiences and suggestions. ❤️
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read all of this. ❤️