Hives and Exercising

In the spring of 2003 i started to exercise more consistently than i had in the previous few years. I had just moved to Milwaukee, WI. I wanted to get in shape and enjoy the city. At that time I was 22, I had become accustom to large amounts of beer consumption and general unhealthy eating habits in rural Wisconsin. So I started to exercise mostly at night, because of work. Every so often I would have a slight rash on my lower stomach. I didn't think much of it, figured it was sweat related. after a couple months the reactions got worse. A year passed and I was doing fine any hives I had were small and easily managed with benedryl. Well in the spring of 2004 i went for a jog during my lunch hour, a mile and a half. when I cam back to work I was fine for about 3 minutes. Then i developed a full blown Anaphalaxic Attack. My co-workers reacted fast and called EMS. I went through hives to swelling of the tongue and brief loss of conciseness. By the time I got to the emergency room, the swelling had subsided and I was fine.

So to any one that has slight hives during or after exercising this is a fair warning. You maybe fine for a while but if you do not know the cause then be careful and have an epi-pen ready.

So I was young and naive, the next day i figured that I could run again, no worries right? same thing ate lunch and ran a mile and half. with the same reaction. we this time was not as bad but I was then told by my boss to not exercise at all.

I started to research and found out that exercise can cause anaphalxis, but then went to my doctor and then an allergist and went through all the tests. Here is a surprise I was not able to reproduce the attacks.

My Allergist came up with a list of allergies
1. dust
2. mold
3. ragweed
4. cockroaches
5. silk
6. Penicillin (knew i was allergic due to hives on arm after wisdom teeth were pulled)

But none of those were causing the attacks.
so he tested me for hot and cold allergies, nothing
a stress test, nothing.
mean while the attacks were getting more common. Grocery store, walking, outdoor events these attacks were all mild but caused my fiance to be concerned. I was frustrated but i had no idea what i could do to prevent it.

While I was on my honeymoon in 2005 I had an attack after eating lunch and walking a couple miles. We were in Paris and I could only speak enough french to get by not get medical help. I had hives from head to toe I walked into a pharmacy and pointed to my arms the woman gave me a package for 5 euros. Hives were gone in 30 minutes and i felt great.

When we got home I took that to my allergist, he looked at it and said yeah that's Zyrtec. So i said why not prescribe that because it works. He wanted the cause and i was more concerned with the cure. Well eventually i was able to get my primary doctor to prescribe Zyrtec.

It worked but was not the answer.