Hi Warrior Gal, I sympathise with your chronic condition. I too am a long time sufferer of this debilitating annoyance. I have been suffering for nearly 20 years. Like you, I had many bouts of insects bites that causes lumps and bumps in my childhood. I am so badly scared by ants bites in my ankles and mossie bites all over. We used to live in rural village before I was 6 years old.

Now I manage to take control of my symptoms through very strict diets. I did a IgG blood test and found 16 items, mostly proteins that I am sensitive to. I break out into urticaria hives, very itchy, I take zyrtec immediately to quench the symptoms. I bulk buy my zyrtec by the bottles 365 tablets. My worse enemy is raw eggs. Eggs booby traps are found in mayo ceasar salads, batters, contaminated fried foods, all cakes and all gluten free foods with egg white hidden as Albumin. Every now and then, I got contaminated foods when eating out in restaurants. I am also sensitive to wheat and gluten. As soon as I take gluten off my diet, my RA dissappear... best thing ever, who need to eat gluten? that poison!Now I can run. If you have RA, check out your gluten sensitivity. It is very easy to find out, takes only 2 weeks . Stay off all gluten, wheat, oats, rye and barley for 2 weeks to see results, If your RA clears, and you start to run like me, up and down my stair, starts lifting heavy shopping bags, you know gluten is the culprit.

To fine tune my diet, I am booked into a Allergy Unit at a local Hospital. Damn! the waiting list is one year. Every now and then, I get a breakout due to contaminated foods. My Nutritionist tells me it could be salicylates, amines, glutamates,preservatives..etc that I am sensitive to as well... I am booked into the Allergy unit to test my thresholds. Meanwhile, I am careful with what I eat.

My blood tests came back all normal on all proteins! I WISH I could know and control my diet to control this. My Rheumatologist confirmed that it is from my autoimmune disease and nothing i can do about it.

I am currently on FOUR OTC allergy meds: Zyrtec, Zantac, Benadryl and Allegra and still breaking out!

My blood test for IgG food test shows 16 types of allergens. I have abstained from all these food types. There are also other allergens produced by other foods not shown in the blood test eg. Armines, salicylates, Glutamates, and preservatives..etc. recently I found out that I am highly sensitive to Amines from frozen fish. As fish breaks down, even if it is frozen, it produces a chemical amines. My body cannot break it down and produce chronic urticaria hives, itch whippy sores, harden the skin and turns flaky. Horrible itch takes 3 weeks to clear and skin rash and sores takes 6 weeks to clear. In the mean time take zyrtec to stop itch, steriod creams and lots of mosturisers to over come the rash. It is a terrible, terrible infliction, the skin cracks and bleed..ouch!!! But this time I know how to conquer it. Eat Fresh, stop eating aged foods, preserved foods or frozen foods. Give your body a break.

Hi, I have had autoimmune chronic urticaria for over 22 years. I have tried many things but what helps me is prednisone, Zyzal (over the counter now) lots of hot baths, stress reduction and essential oils. Tea Tree oil blend on the bottom of your feet at night helps. Other than that I am still looking for an answer. Mine are called idiopathic as well so it is not exactly known what the cause could be.

Yes, severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis can cause skin rash (Hives). Decreasing the severity of rheumatoid arthritis can clear the symptoms. Taking rheumatoid arthritis drugs can help.

Thank you. I have been on biologics for many years.