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My wife, dxd for 4 years, has come down with a nasty case of hives per her gp (our neuro doesn't work on Friday's, what a gig). She's taking methotrexate, adderall, prozac and folic acid. The gp say's anything could have triggered it; the weather change, what she ate, any number of things. I'm suspicious (paranoid?). Comments anyone?

My husband breaks out into hives when he injests shrimp. I break into hives when I take codein. These are allergic reactions to food and meds.

Why would you be paranoid about hives?

gwa

I believe stress can be responsible as well. I broke out in hives during a very emotionally stressful move. Started 2 weeks before the move and ended a few weeks after settling into my new place.

carolsue

I had a bout of hives a year into starting Copaxone. I called my neurologist, GP and the Copaxone rep people, they all recommended I stop taking it immediately. Well, it didn't make a lot of sense as to why after a year I would start to get hives, so I decided to sweat it out. It was at a very stressful time for me and the hives weren't that bad. I took an anti-histamine and that worked well. They disappeared a few days later, still on Copaxone and haven't had them again. If you do any research on hives, you'll see that just about anything can cause them. Nevertheless, if they are bad you should follow-up with your doc.

Dunmann.

I had hives when I was 12 for 6 weeks...extremely bad...for no apparent reason. Also, when I was 28 I had them for a year and a half. Cause also unknown.

To answer gma's question...you would be concerned about hives because if they are bad enough they can be an indicator of a severe anaphylactic reaction. If they get into your throat they can close off your airway. I had them all over my body and in my mouth but fortunately not my throat. There was nowhere on my body that you could lay a pinky and not touch any hives. It was unbelievable.

Hives can be caused by allergic reactions to foods, things in the environment and stress. What I've been told (and it'll drive you crazy) is that you will more likely than not, never know the cause.

Dunmann wrote:I had a bout of hives a year into starting Copaxone... Well, it didn't make a lot of sense as to why after a year I would start to get hives... Dunmann.

Interesting how many of us have had hives. Hives, also known as urticaria, are, as folks have said, a systemic reaction to... something. Histamine pours out of the cell wall and into the blood stream. I learned all about it when I was hospitalized at age 11 for a severe case of hives which was a reaction to penicillin. I had had penicillin many times before, with no reaction at all. But this time, bam! The doctors told us it takes time for the body to decide to reject something (be allergic), which means you actually have to be exposed to it more than once, typically, to have the reaction.

My hives proved out again in my 20s when I was accidentally given an antibiotic with a "1% chance of inducing an allergic reaction in those allergic to penicillin." I was that one percent--but didn't get hives until the very last day of taking the pills, so already seven days in.

To make matters more confusing, I have also inadvertently proved that you can react to two things that have been mixed together, when you've reacted to neither separately. My brother mixed leftovers of two shampoos into one bottle without mentioning it (why would he?) and boom, I got hives!

So, sadly, it is difficult to tell what caused your wife's reaction. Trusty Benadryl helps if they're mild, but as others have said, take them seriously if she starts to look like a topographical map of the Andes.