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I have just broken out with hives again, and they are the huge ones that are about orange to grapefruit-sized. My pcp is putting me on Medrol-Dose pak. I still haven't gotten in about the Lyme as my mom just passed away last week. I have heard steroids are bad for Lyme? I have been on them several times due to these huge hives.

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I'm so sorry about your Mom. I lost my mom last fall just after finding out about lyme for my son. It can be an awful time trying to handle so much stress from all directions.

 

Prednisone is not good for lyme. But...my son did two month-long tapers in our Pandas days and it helped immensely. So you have to weigh pros and cons, benefits vs. risks. Given all you're dealing with, I'd do what you need to to make things manageable. I assume you'd only be on a short course (10 days?) for the hives and every doctor I've ever seen, including our LLMD, has said short courses don't really suppress the immune system (not that he Rx's steroids, but his take was not to beat myself up about it). I know some will disagree with me. I understand why. But possible lyme isn't the only thing you're dealing with and I think you need to support yourself and your family. I'd make a decision knowing steroids aren't the best thing in the world if you have lyme, but also weighing the other factors.

 

I hope you can get the hives under control and find comfort (physical and emotional) during this difficult time.

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I agree with LLM about the steroids. I not only have Lyme and co-infections, but I also have osteoporosis, and definitely should not be taking steroids. BUT, as my doctor said: when my asthma is bad enough, I can either choose to breathe or take a short term risk with my bones and Lyme.

 

BTW, do you have any idea what is triggering the hives? I assume you've had allergy testing?. Could it be the stress from losing your mother? I know what it's like...my Dad passed away at the end of March, and my MIL passed away 4 days later (had to race out after my dad's funeral, because my MIL was dying.) The stress was unbelievable, and DS15 developed Parkinson's-like tremors (they have since gone away, so I think they were related.)

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LLM--thank you for your insight! After weighting the risks, etc, I decided to do the short course of pred. It is just a Medrol-dosepak with just 6 or 7 days, and the first day is only 24 mg which tapers from there, so not too bad. I am sorry about your loss as well!

 

tpotter--I have had hives like this since I was pregnant with my son (about 4.5 years ago). They were there fairly constant until a shot of prednisone this winter for a bad flu where I couldn't breathe well. They pretty much stayed away until about a week before mom passed. Then, just when I got home they flared bigtime! I know stress causes some of them, not all though. I haven't been to allergy tewsting yet. Still juststarting down this whole road of pandas, lyme, immune deficiency stuff.

As a side note, mom's neck swelled shut and shut off total oxygen to her brain....She had COPD, but I am wsondering if she had an allergic reaction to something...never will know for sure, as we didn't do an autopsy as that was against her wishes.

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Was just in the vitamin store and mentioned your hives to one of the salespeople and she said it could be your liver is not able to handle all the toxins in it. She had a similar problem at one point and my older son has been having the same problem.

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JuliaFaith--Really? That is interesting, because I have been told that my liver enzy,es were elevated once during a pregnancyt and I think even once before that with no reason why it would be. What can you do for that?

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My son would get hives for two different reasons. If he rubbed his eyes or skin at certain times it would cause hives. Also, if he went from extreme temperatures, i.e., hot to cold, he would break out in hives. I believe the allergist called it "uticaria" (for the rubbing hives) and "cold uticaria" (for the extreme temperature hives). The allergist told me it is not an "allergy" but an autoimmune condition. I later found out that he was having inflamatory immune issues from his chronic toxic exposure to mold. Since removing him from the toxic environment he no longer has these hives.

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JuliaFaith--Really? That is interesting, because I have been told that my liver enzy,es were elevated once during a pregnancyt and I think even once before that with no reason why it would be. What can you do for that?

'Detoxing' of which there are several threads that you may want to search on this forum. Chlorella is a great detoxer as is lots of water with lemon.

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My son would get hives for two different reasons. If he rubbed his eyes or skin at certain times it would cause hives. Also, if he went from extreme temperatures, i.e., hot to cold, he would break out in hives. I believe the allergist called it "uticaria" (for the rubbing hives) and "cold uticaria" (for the extreme temperature hives). The allergist told me it is not an "allergy" but an autoimmune condition. I later found out that he was having inflamatory immune issues from his chronic toxic exposure to mold. Since removing him from the toxic environment he no longer has these hives.

Hi Familyof5:

 

Wow! This is really interesting. He said that he thought something was in his eye and started rubbing it and the other eye immediately started breaking out in hives. If he does not take Benadryl immediately he breaks out over his entire body. This son is not being treated for anything right now but works in many different places and cannot seems to tie the hives to anything specifically. He also said he has no other allergy symptoms normally! Thank you for the info.

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My son would get hives for two different reasons. If he rubbed his eyes or skin at certain times it would cause hives. Also, if he went from extreme temperatures, i.e., hot to cold, he would break out in hives. I believe the allergist called it "uticaria" (for the rubbing hives) and "cold uticaria" (for the extreme temperature hives). The allergist told me it is not an "allergy" but an autoimmune condition. I later found out that he was having inflamatory immune issues from his chronic toxic exposure to mold. Since removing him from the toxic environment he no longer has these hives.

Hi Familyof5:

 

Wow! This is really interesting. He said that he thought something was in his eye and started rubbing it and the other eye immediately started breaking out in hives. If he does not take Benadryl immediately he breaks out over his entire body. This son is not being treated for anything right now but works in many different places and cannot seems to tie the hives to anything specifically. He also said he has no other allergy symptoms normally! Thank you for the info.

 

When he was in the thick of this, I would give him a daily dose of allergy medicine to help prevent it, as rubbing your eyes/skin couldn't be avoided. It helped, but he did still have reactions although not as severe. Like I said, he doesn't have them anymore---thank God. Keep cleaning Julia! So happy to hear of your son's improvement.

Edited by Familyof5
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Wow, that is also strange about the rubbing of eyes causing breakouts! When I was pretty young, around 5 or so I would get dermographism whenever i would lie down to go to sleep. Itchy everywhere and wherever I scratched or evern slightly rubbed it would puff up. My sister and I would play tic-tac-toe on my skin!

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My son would get hives for two different reasons. If he rubbed his eyes or skin at certain times it would cause hives. Also, if he went from extreme temperatures, i.e., hot to cold, he would break out in hives. I believe the allergist called it "uticaria" (for the rubbing hives) and "cold uticaria" (for the extreme temperature hives). The allergist told me it is not an "allergy" but an autoimmune condition. I later found out that he was having inflamatory immune issues from his chronic toxic exposure to mold. Since removing him from the toxic environment he no longer has these hives.

 

Interesting!! When I was a kid I would break out in hives if my internal temperature was very hot (like running around) and the outside temperature was colder, like when the sun goes down and it starts to get chilly. I would get hives every time the kids were playing hide and seek at dusk at certain times of the year and it would be very bad on my face/eyes.

 

I wonder if this was a response to lyme back then.

 

I also had a hive type reaction to wheat. If I was itchy from eating wheat, I could not scratch it or I would develop a hive type reaction, but only where I itched. I didn't know it was from wheat until I went wheat free for a while. Then it became obvious.

 

Susan

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When he was in the thick of this, I would give him a daily dose of allergy medicine to help prevent it, as rubbing your eyes/skin couldn't be avoided. It helped, but he did still have reactions although not as severe. Like I said, he doesn't have them anymore---thank God. Keep cleaning Julia! So happy to hear of your son's improvement.

Son's MD gave told him to take Zantac 2xday. Said it was related to excess histamine release.? Weird huh?

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