Purpose of this blog

Hello Everyone,
I have such a response to my post on my other blog. I have heard from so many women who have had similar experiences-to a greater or lesser extent. With every women I come in contact with I am amazed at how many of us are out there.
Starting this blog was suggested to me and after thinking about it, I think it is needed. A single place where we can all share our stories. Share our problems. Let each other know what is working for us, and then one day help the medical community find the answer to why and hopefully help.
As I receive stories, updates, and info that I find or are given I will post them here. If you have anything to share you can email me at judeebeeforme@yahoo.com
Please become a follow if you have had, are having, or know someone who has had this problem.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Done with Round Two of Hives and Nursing

I am about 4 months hive free. My girls are 16 months today. I nursed them for 1 year. Yeah us!!! I didn't think it was going to be possible to nurse twins for a year. 
As for my hives, they are gone. Near the end there they weren't bad. In fact I could miss taking a Zyrtec and wouldn't have any bumps appear, but my skin would itch like crazy until I took the next dose. As sure as it happened the first time with nursing my son. As soon as my milk dried up, my hive went away completely.
I don't know if it is that my body was adjusting to everything this time around, but my hives were never as severe as they were the first round. I would get hives while nursing my twins, but never full body break-outs like I had while nursing my son.
We are expecting right now. And I will let you know when round three happens. But right now I'm just enjoying a Zyrtec and hive free life. Not to mention wearing a normal bra. I know TMI but so true.

Thank-you to all of you who have commented and shared your stories. I pray each of you can find peace from your hives.

Things to remember about hives:
1- the reason the medical community knows SO LITTLE about hives is hives are caused so MANY different things. Many of which we don't hardly understand at all. 
2- Hives are actually really really new to research and most doctors weren't trained in medical school to understand hives only to treat hives. Be proactive and patient with doctors. 
3- Since there are no ways to know what are causing your hives besides for you to proactively take EVERY LITTLE thing out of your live and reintroduce it, doctors can only try to treat and relieve your hives. This is never going to make them go away.
4- Hives are an immunological response to something you are encountering. You body could be responding to multiple things at once or just one thing. 
5- Why you're responding with hives over an anaphylactic reaction is a mystery. I find gratitude in knowing that it totally be a life threatening reaction but its not its just hives and I can live with hives. Think about that the next time you have a reaction.
6- Each person is DIFFERENT!!!!!! My hives have a strong correlation to breastfeeding. It may have very little to do with actual milk production. But your hives may be caused by something very different. Even within a breastfeeding there are hundreds of things related that could be the cause of hives while nursing and each of us could have a different one of those things.
7- Don't get discouraged. Take hope. This will be but a small moment in our lives and at least for me every hive is worth the blessing of being able to breastfeed my children.
8- Although we are not alone, we are an extreme minority. There are 5 different types of allergic reactions. Hives (urticaria) is just one of those five. It is also the least common of those five. As I said in number five, your allergic reaction could be anyone one of those 5 reactions but for unknown reasons to Immunologists your immune system has chosen to respond with hives.  Our bodies went through a traumatic life event (giving birth to a baby). Any time your body goes through a traumatic life event your immune system is put into shock and can change. This is documented. Giving birth is a traumatic life event and your body is never going to be the same. Our condition is only ignored by the medical community because it has been so rare that not enough cases have been documented in order to bring it to the attention of the one researcher who might know what to do with the information. It is so rare that my Allergist, a well respected Immunologist, is baffled by my situation. He plans on writing a paper on my case at some point. Talk with your doctors and be patient with them.