Hi everyone, I don't know if I'm allergic to anything but something weird has definitely been happening to my health within these last few days. On Friday, I had a physical exam and they took an allergy test for me, by taking blood out. On Saturday, I moved to my new house and the next morning, my body was itching. There were some marks on my body, as if something had bitten me overnight. later that day, the itching got worse and by nighttime, hives covered my whole body. I took some expired Benadryl (by accident lol) and the hives went away the next morning. Then Monday night, it got worse. I thought it was due to eating oranges because after eating them, within 20 minutes, my itching began to start intensely. And I remembered I ate some on Sunday as well. This time the hives were much worse, covering my face and parts of my throat area and around my genitals. I definitely got worried but luckily I had some benadryl to relieve me. Now its Tuesday and the whole day was fine and I only began itching around 5 pm. Now its around midnight and around my throat it is itchy and red. Not as bad as the other night only because I ahve been taking benadryl as soon as i notice itching was going on. I remembered that I ate some apples/pears so i assume fruits are giving me hives but I am not sure. Is it normal for a person who never had an allergic reaction to anything suddenly get hives? Or is it because of this new house. Everything started after I moved in and I always ate fruits before moving here so I dunno. Any answers would be appreciated! ~Anh
Most fruits, apart from strawberries are not especially allergenic. These hives could be several things such as stress over the move, dust in the house (dust is made up of more than 50% dead skin cells... or so I heard) so although you may not have been allergic to dust in your old house you might be to this 'new' dust. Have you had to move schools with moving house? Have you extra stresses in your life? Whatever, you definately need to get this checked by your doctor. You body can have a certain tolerance to certain allergenic substances but if you over expose your body to it you will become allergic. I would like to make the difference here between intolerence where you can be a bit itchy, you nose may run or have a sore throat, a full allergic reaction can spark off asthma attacks or in worse cases an anaphalactic shock where medical intervention is required within minutes!! I am not trying to scare you but this could be more serious than you think and your body seems to be reacting quite violently in a very short period of time. There is an anti-hystamine in the benalyn that you are taking which is calming the itching and other symptoms. One of the dangers of a full allergic shock is swelling of the throat stopping you breathing so although I may be being alarmist... GO TO THE DOCTORS! Don't hang around, if it is nothing you can tell me off later but I do think this is important.
You can develop an allergy to anything at any time, even if you have eating or use a particular substance over your life time, you can suddenly develop an allergy to it. I would be inclined to think there is something in the new house that is causing you the problem and not the fruit. Yes it can happen with oranges and the citric acid, but all the other, doubtful. Keep a supply of benadryl near and enough. You may have to take it on a regular basis for a while. What you describe as a worsening onset of hives and such means what you are reacting to is causing the body to mount a more vigorous counterattack against it and that can spell extreme danger to you. The next time around the block if the reaction gets going could rapidly lead to anaphylactic shock and death can ensure within minutes. This sort of reaction needs further and more intensive study, not just a blood test. Seems he/she is looking to see if you have high levels of eosinophiles or basophiles certain types of white blood cells that would indicate allergy or parasitic infection. Get things checked out.
