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Tips For Working With Your Dermatologist To Treat Your Chronic Hives

3 October 2014

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Chronic hives can be a difficult condition to manage. They can make you feel as though your skin is itchy or burning, possibly interfering with your ability to relax or sleep. To add to the frustration, they're often hard to diagnose and treat, because pinpointing their cause can be difficult. As a result, people can suffer with them for months or even years.

These tips can help you work with your dermatologist to try to find the cause of your hives as well as a treatment that can give you some much-needed relief.

Keep a diary of your symptoms

Since hives come and go, it can be difficult to figure out what's causing them. Keep a log that details when you have an outbreak of hives, including how severe they are and if you're aware of anything that triggered them.

For example, had you just eaten a particular food? Was there pressure on the part of your body where the hives developed? Had you exercised or taken a hot shower?

Also include information about the hives themselves. Did they itch or burn? Include whether or not they left marks on your skin after they went away. How large were they? Were they raised or flat? Did they have any identifying characteristics, such as a white color in the middle? Did they go away and come back in another place? Anything you can list may help you and your doctor detect some sort of pattern over time.

Take photos of your hives

You know what it's like when your car makes a strange noise that temporarily stops when you take it to the mechanic? You may have a similar experience with hives. You may actually want an outbreak before an appointment with your dermatologist, so he or she can see exactly what your hives look like. But what if your skin is clear the day of your appointment?

It can help to take pictures when you have an outbreak, and take your phone or camera into the doctor's office with you. This will help your doctor to be able to see what they look like and how widespread they are. Any visual information you can give the doctor can help with a diagnosis.

Eliminate possible triggers

Stop using products that may irritate your skin, such as scented laundry detergent, soaps or lotions. Many times people can have hives as a reaction to the perfumes and dyes in these products. Over time, you'll be able to rule these products in or out as a possible trigger.

It can help to eliminate just one product at a time to see if there's any result. But if your hives are severe, just switch to scent-free products. It won't do any harm, and it may help.

Be willing to experiment with treatments

Your doctor may suggest a medication to try to relieve your hives. Sometimes antihistamines can help, and steroids are also often prescribed, especially for short periods of time. A wide variety of medicines and treatments, from antibiotics to ultraviolet radiation, may be considered.

New treatments can develop over time. For example, Vitamin D supplements have recently been found to produce good results when combined with medication. If the first treatment doesn't work, don't be discouraged. Your doctor probably has several different therapies you can try.

Get blood work and a biopsy done

Occasionally, hives can be caused by some sort of autoimmune disorder. This can be detected through blood tests and point to a new direction of treatment.

A dermatologist, such as one from Advanced Dermatology Care, may also want to do a biopsy on one of your hives. This can indicate whether there's evidence of vasculitis, a condition in which blood vessels become inflamed. This inflammation can cause hives. Armed with this new information, your dermatologist can suggest medication that will be likely to help with your condition.

It's important to not give up on trying to find the cause of your hives. It's an ongoing process of elimination that can lead to a diagnosis, effective treatment and improved quality of life.

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