My body over-reacts to exertion, not just to scratching
Hannah gets swollen, bruised-feeling hands from ordinary use, on top of welts from any skin irritation. Naming the pattern was the turning point.
Hannah ·
- Living with it
- More than 5 years
- Main trigger
- Any skin irritation, pressure or exertion
- What helped
- Antihistamines and finally having a name for it
I'm pretty sure I have dermatographia. My skin and body over-react to the tiniest stuff and I end up with huge swollen welts everywhere.
Besides skin irritation, my body also over-reacts to the slightest exertion. If I'm using my hands a lot, I'll often end up with hard swollen bruised-feeling fingertips and hands that I can barely use. Same with my feet, or any part of my body really. Is that dermatographia too? I still don't know.
I've been dealing with this for quite a while but never really knew how to explain it. I'm at the beginning of researching it as much as I can, and I'm especially interested in figuring out the underlying cause so I can hopefully treat the root of the problem rather than just the welts. It makes sense that it's linked to histamine going into overdrive and attacking — that's exactly what it feels like. Being attacked by a million little itchy histamines from the inside.
Right now I'm miserable, if I'm honest. I had to be put on an antibiotic and then realised I'm allergic to it, so the allergic reaction mixed with the dermatographia is a horrible combination. Itchy hives that make you scratch, which turns everything into a swollen painful mess. Not fun.
But I'm glad I was desperate enough to go looking and find other people with this. Hoping to learn a lot.