Really hope your case will resolve in the next few days or weeks,
@Jaybee00. Most do. It's incredibly itchy, isn't it? I remember it feeling like I was covered in mosquito bites. I wouldn’t worry about them becoming chronic unless it happens.
With no previous history of hives, I had chronic urticaria for 2 weeks before and 15-18 months after the viral meningitis that triggered my ME/CFS. They started on my upper arms and then moved to whole torso, front and back. They would flare when I ate, showered or exercised. Huge numbers, often forming and disappearing within a few minutes. Insanely itchy.
I had to just suck it up as cetirizine makes me very drowsy so I could not take anything. The hives gradually reduced over 15-18 months to just one or two every now and then.
They did not get worse when my ME/CFS relapsed at 19 months. (I improved gradually in the first year; had 5 months when I seemed almost completely recovered, then relapsed.)
My understanding is that hives/urticaria are associated with lots of things, including viral infections, but that they do not have an independent association with ME/CFS. Happy to be corrected on that.
The only time I have had urticaria since then was a drug reaction about 18 years later – to an NSAID which I had previously tolerated, but was taking more often because of an increase in pain. They only came up on my palms and disappeared when I stopped the drug.
You can download the British Association of Dermatologists’ patient leaflet on urticaria
here.
Some excerpts:
Urticaria is a common illness affecting up to 20% of people (one in 5 people) at some point in their lives.
Urticaria is caused by the release of histamine and other chemicals from cells in the skin called mast cells. Urticaria is often thought of as an allergy but, in fact, it usually results from histamine release from mast cells due to other reasons. [bolding is original]
The aim of treatment is to suppress the symptoms of the condition until it becomes better naturally rather than cure it. In about half of the people affected by chronic spontaneous urticaria, the rash lasts for 6-12 months, and then gradually disappears. It can however last considerably longer. In any one individual the course of urticaria is unpredictable.
• Do not take aspirin, ibuprofen (and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) or opiates, such as codeine unless it is essential, since these medicines may aggravate urticaria.
I imagine you'd need to give the drugs more than a few days to work. But if they're really not working, maybe ask the doctor if you could increase the dose, if you can tolerate it?
It has become common practice to increase the daily dose of non-sedating H1 antihistamines up to fourfold if necessary to control symptoms. They can be taken for as long as the urticaria persists. Even the non-sedating types can occasionally make people sleepy, especially with higher doses. As with all medications there can be side effects; the balance of risk and benefit needs to be considered when taking these and all treatments. [bolding added]
Echoed on
Dermnetnz's urticaria page:
The main treatment of all forms of urticaria in adults and children is with an oral second-generation H1-
antihistamine such as cetirizine or loratidine.
If the standard dose (eg, 10 mg for cetirizine) is not effective, the dose can be increased up to fourfold (eg, 40 mg cetirizine daily). They are stopped when the acute urticaria has settled down. The addition of a second antihistamine is not thought to be helpful. [bolding added]
