First Post In 19 Months!
I hadn't viewed or thought about this little blog of mine for quite awhile, but today it crossed my mind that I should probably give an update for any curious eyes.
In a nutshell - I'm much better! I would say 95% better. So much better that it's really not even an issue for me anymore. As long as I can keep my body sweating on a daily basis (preferably for at least 20 minutes), everything is A-Okay. The sweating helps to deplete the histamine stores. In the winter months I use a one-man sauna in my basement 4-5 times per week. In the summer I'm usually active enough that the sweating comes naturally. It's possible that if I stopped going in the sauna that things could escalate again, but I really feel like it wouldn't ever get nearly as bad as it was a year and a half ago. Something in my body has CHANGED for the better. I may always have to live with this very mild case of cholinergic urticaria, but it's heaven compared to the pain I felt at the beginning. So those of you that have it bad: don't give up hope!
For those that haven't read the whole blog, when the hives first started my body would not sweat. Even If I ran for 30 minutes I simply could not sweat, and the pain from the hives was excrutiating. It developed in the months before my marriage, so people joked that they thought it was nerves, but I really felt like something was chemically wrong inside my body...something was out of whack. For my wedding I was allowed a 2-week pack of prednisone to get me through the ceremony and honeymoon in toasty Cancun. So the wedding day arrived, and low and behold, I finally broke through and started sweating at the reception party! It was the first time I had sweat in months, and it felt awesome! I continued the steroids for another week after that (so total of 2 weeks prednisone) just to be sure, and ever since then my skin and the hives situation has been miraculously better. So was it the emotional release of the wedding or the steroids that finally knocked it out or both? I have no idea. I just know that now that I can sweat again I take every opportuniyt to do so because I don't ever want to feel that way again. I still get very mild flares every once in awhile if I haven't been sweating enough, but it's nothing like it was at the beginning.
So if you're reading this because you have severe cholinergic urticaria and just don't know what to do, ask your allergist about trying 2 weeks of prednisone. I can't promise you anything but it's worth a shot. It worked for me. And during those 2 weeks sweat as much as you possibly can if your body will allow. You've got to get the sweat going every single day to keep the histamine stores depleted. Good luck!
In a nutshell - I'm much better! I would say 95% better. So much better that it's really not even an issue for me anymore. As long as I can keep my body sweating on a daily basis (preferably for at least 20 minutes), everything is A-Okay. The sweating helps to deplete the histamine stores. In the winter months I use a one-man sauna in my basement 4-5 times per week. In the summer I'm usually active enough that the sweating comes naturally. It's possible that if I stopped going in the sauna that things could escalate again, but I really feel like it wouldn't ever get nearly as bad as it was a year and a half ago. Something in my body has CHANGED for the better. I may always have to live with this very mild case of cholinergic urticaria, but it's heaven compared to the pain I felt at the beginning. So those of you that have it bad: don't give up hope!
For those that haven't read the whole blog, when the hives first started my body would not sweat. Even If I ran for 30 minutes I simply could not sweat, and the pain from the hives was excrutiating. It developed in the months before my marriage, so people joked that they thought it was nerves, but I really felt like something was chemically wrong inside my body...something was out of whack. For my wedding I was allowed a 2-week pack of prednisone to get me through the ceremony and honeymoon in toasty Cancun. So the wedding day arrived, and low and behold, I finally broke through and started sweating at the reception party! It was the first time I had sweat in months, and it felt awesome! I continued the steroids for another week after that (so total of 2 weeks prednisone) just to be sure, and ever since then my skin and the hives situation has been miraculously better. So was it the emotional release of the wedding or the steroids that finally knocked it out or both? I have no idea. I just know that now that I can sweat again I take every opportuniyt to do so because I don't ever want to feel that way again. I still get very mild flares every once in awhile if I haven't been sweating enough, but it's nothing like it was at the beginning.
So if you're reading this because you have severe cholinergic urticaria and just don't know what to do, ask your allergist about trying 2 weeks of prednisone. I can't promise you anything but it's worth a shot. It worked for me. And during those 2 weeks sweat as much as you possibly can if your body will allow. You've got to get the sweat going every single day to keep the histamine stores depleted. Good luck!
posted by Jeff at 11:51 PM
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