What caused this reaction?

[Mookie86]

I've made it long enough without any rash or hives, so I'm comfortable saying that it is completely gone!  It took about 10-12 days for it to leave my system completely.  After about a week, there were dramatic improvements both in terms of severity and frequency.  In other words, it was longer and longer between the rash and hives reappearing, it was more minor when it reappeared, and it took less Benadryl to resolve it.  The big shift occurred after it being bad for about a week.

[CMdeux]

Wow-- that really says "viral," don't you think?

But you said that it did respond to antihistamine, yes?  Sometimes viral hives can be really tough that way and only respond to really high doses of benadryl.

[Mookie86]

Wow-- that really says "viral," don't you think?

But you said that it did respond to antihistamine, yes?  Sometimes viral hives can be really tough that way and only respond to really high doses of benadryl.

Yes!  It seems the doctor's diagnosis of viral hives was correct. 

I had to take 50 mg of Benadryl every four hours for the first 5 days.  After that, I was able to go a little longer between doses, but still needed 50 mg.  Eventually it dropped down more and more, and of course finally I was able to discontinue all Benadryl and not have anything reappear.

It took awhile for me to be confident it was fully gone, for it had gotten to the point that I could go about 20 hours or so, have it reappear, and then it'd resolve with 1 Benadryl and not come back for another day and a half.

I am glad I was able to avoid taking any steroids to stop it.  I know some would have resorted to prednisone instead of taking all that Benadryl, but I preferred to sleep for a few days lol.