forgot to share...a diagnosis

While we may not have answers for the ongoing, underlying issues with the children, we did receive one diagnosis last week. Some of you know, Rocklin has had ongoing hives for nearly a year.

All of the children have had them at times, usually traced to a specific food. However, most reactions have not included hives, so it wasn't something we were accustomed to dealing with much.

Seemingly out of nowhere last summer, Rocklin started having several episodes a day of hives. No amount of observing, journaling, brainwracking could figure it out. When the weather began to get colder, he had fewer episodes. They weren't gone completely, but there was a definate decrease. Now that the weather is warmer again, he's beginning to have them more regularly.
(in fact, he just came in complaining about them now...it's the second time today, which is what prompted me to post)

It appears that at least some of the hives can be attributed to a type of hives called cholinergic urticaria. You can do a google search if you'd like, there are numerous sites that will come up and give you all the info and then some that you'd ever want to know.

Basically, anytime his core body temperature heats up, he gets hives. In the shower...hives. Outside in the heat playing...hives. Sweating...hives. Nervous/anxious/shy and thrust into a social situation where he's expected to speak to others...hives. Obviously, this is not a fun thing to deal with when you are an active, shy 9 year old boy. He gets nervous/anxious frequently, showers at least daily (0ften twice daily) and plays outside/gets sweaty a lot. All of that means he has hives much of the time.

Apparently, when you are susceptible to hives, it's very common to get more than one type of them. We think this is the case with Rocklin, which explains one of the reasons it's been so hard to figure out. He's got more than one type, which means more than one cause...trying to observe and track that has at times been very frustrating.

We do think the cholinergic urticaria is an accurate diagnosis though. It's not significant in light of all the other issues, but it's nice to have an answer on something for a change. It's also helpful because now we can remind him to keep the shower water a bit cooler, come in for cold drinks/to cool off more frequently and work on ways to avoid becoming so anxious/nervous at times.

Of course, due to the cause, these hives are unavoidable at times. So, we've discovered that benedryl cream does a pretty good job at getting them under control quickly.

What's very interesting to me is cholinergic hives=a reaction caused when the core body temperature rises. Another tentative diagnosis (related to his toes swelling) he received last week relates to a reaction caused when his body is cold and damp and then gets warm/dry too quickly.

I'm wondering now, if and/or how this body temp stuff ties together with everything else???

Stay tuned for the next episode of the contuing saga of Unsolved Mysteries: The little rebel version...I promise no UFO's or other weird paranormal stuff...just lots of joy, love and learning amidst the struggles, frustrations and pain.