An ITCHY Situation

So back in December, actually Christmas day, I started having a very itchy issue (try to say that three times, LOL). We had traveled to FL for the holiday and while we were driving down I noticed my ears were itching. I first thought is was the earring I was wearing because I've always been really sensitive to "fake" jewelry (nickel). Anyways so I took them out. Well that didn't seem to help. So my next instinct was to figure out what I had changed. Well I had gotten my hair done and had started wearing it straight again so I went and bought some TRESemme' Waterless Foaming Shampoo. I had used it a couple times and thought that was the culprit. And well my ears stopped itching and swelling so I thought I had solved the problem. Well a few days past and it happened again! My ears were an itching and swollen mess. I had not been wearing earrings or using the waterless shampoo. What the heck could it be?! Well it eventually cleared up and I thought whatever the heck it was had past. So a week went by and I seemed to have no problems. SC had their little snow storm that kept us in for 4 days straight!!! And that in itself is a whole other story. Anyways well about two weeks into January I went with Barry on the youth ski trip to Gatlinburg, TN. We got there on Friday and I was fine. We skied Friday night and of course it was a blast. Saturday came and I was fine. Other than I had a spot above my left eye that was sore. I honestly thought I had a pimple coming. We spent the day at the cabin and then in downtown Gatlinburg where I bought a super cute snow hat. And I immediately put it on. We went home and chilled. Well on Sunday morning I woke up with swollen left eye lid. I was like what the heck? It itched super bad too. I was for sure it was something in the hat I had bought. And at the point I also noticed I had red welts on me. Strange! I went to the Wal-mart and bought benadryl and hoped it would go away. It did, sort of. Well I woke up Monday morning and we were heading home. I woke up with a FAT bottom lip!!! And I was itching ALL OVER!!!! I had decided it must have been the soap from the cabin or the detergent they washed the bedding in. By Tuesday I had hives on my arms and the back of my neck and head. I had an already scheduled dermatology appointment and so I decided to tell her about it. She put me on some anti-histamines and sent me on my way. I started taking the Zyrtec, but she had also prescribed Allegra, but it a week for my insurance to approve it. Everything seemed to have cleared up. I finally got the Allegra filled and started taking it. Well my skin went hive crazy!!! I my chin, forehead, legs, and arms had hives ALL over them. I called decided maybe I should go see my regular family doctor to see if they had anymore answers. Well they didn't!!! They told me to start taking Tagement (an anti-acid, also a H2 anti-histamine) so I did. I also called my derm and they changed it from Allegra to Claritin, which did NOTHING!! I was on four medicines a day (I know you only see I listed three, but I take another one that I've been on for 2 years). Both docs told me to continue use for 8 weeks. I did as I was told and the hives kept getting worse, and I mean worse. Finally I got tired of being tired and still itching and stopped. I really don't want to be on all that medicine if it isn't working. It sounded right to me, but by me doing that I sent my body into a severe itchy hive mess!!! I broke out every where and it literally felt and looked like my skin had ants underneath it moving stuff to their houses. I finally broke down and called an allergist. This is after waking up with my bottom lip swollen and looking like an Angelina Jolie wanna be. And my left eye swelling shut. The allergist saw me and changed some meds around and then had me go have an allergy blood test done. They tried to do a skin test, but I immediately started breaking out in hives so they stopped. She said my skin was too "over-reactive", uh no duh!!!! I immediately started her medicine regimen and went and got a TON of blood drawn, and by ton I mean 19 tubes!!!!! So after all this the medicine she put me on seems to be working. I'm super-duper tired all the time for the anti-histamines, but I have no severe hives. I have an occasional break thru of some, but nothing unbearable. I went in for my follow-up appointment to see the results of the allergy test. And a verdict was reached...I'm allergic to milk! It all makes sense now. For the past year or longer I have sworn up and down that I was lactose intolerant. I would eat ice cream, alfredo, cheese cake, drink milk, etc. and get a severe upset stomach. Not to gross you out, but if I hadn't gone to the "bathroom" in a good way I would eat something like that to upset my stomach, like clean me out I guess. Well I now know that that is a number one sign of an allergy that is "possibly" forming. After you experience that so long your body goes crazy with histamines trying to attach whatever is causing the histamine's to come out. And so now I'm on a strict no milk diet for 4 weeks and then she said we would gradually bring in small amounts of milk to my diet to see what happens. She said sometimes you can be allergic in a type 1 way which means you can have some on occasion, but an overload will set off the hive thing. So we will see. I'm content now. I'm just happy to know what it was and to not be wanting to dig my skin off with a fork. I might post pictures later so you can see the hives, they are pretty interesting. LOL

Peace Out,

Nikki