My Story

My name is Samantha- I am 25 years old an have had chronic hives for over 9 years now...

On my 16th birthday, instead of heading to the DMV to get my drivers license, I was busy rubbing calamine lotion all over my body and taking benadryl every few hours.  I woke up covered (I mean covered) in hives. I have had hives almost every day since, excluding my pregnancy from week 8 to 6 months post partum which all signs of hives completely vanished- a miracle that thing called pregnancy. I didn't even have to take my medication during that time. After thinking I was cured, my daughter turned 6 months old and that morning I woke up with a few random hives, a few on my belly, arm and leg. It gradually got worse from that day. I wasn't cured after all, but after many years struggling, that year break was very much needed.

 So after that very itchy day when I was 16, my mother took me to doctor after doctor in need of answers. A handful of family practitioners, multiple Allergists, one or two Rheumatologists, several Dermatologists, and for good measure a few homeopaths later and with no answers. I was on so many different medications including prednisone (a very addictive steroid that has scary and long term side effects).  All had varied opinions, but with the same underlining answer which was "I'm not sure." Here are a few of my favorite opinons:

-Some people just get hives, even for years on end. You could have hives for 20 years.

-food allergies.

-allergic to SOMETHING, but who knows what.

-that I needed divine intervention (No joke. A doctor told me that.)

Stress related.

I went on extreme dietary restrictions. No caffeine, no dairy, no wheat/gluten, no sugar, no potatoes, I went a week where I had to eat foods that I didn't normally eat, to see if the change in diet showed any relief. Nothing. My mom also striped my room, they ripped out the carpet, took down the drapes and used baby detergent on any fabric that my skin came in contact with. I carried around steroids every where I went because my hives could become out of control in a matter or an hour, and I also carried an epi-pen because a handful of times my face became so swollen it made it hard to breathe.

I was in high school and pumped so full of medication including 4+ antihistamines that I was a walking zombie (antihistamines make me extremely drowsy). I was exhausted and even had a pass to leave class so I could take naps pretty much anytime I needed to (I guess that was a perk to having hives haha).

For obvious reasons my family and I were less than thrilled. We still had no answers until a blood test  came back with some answers- my SED rate was highly elevated. And after a couple more blood tests I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder, but how to treat it was a big fat question mark. What's an auto-immune disease? It's an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words my body is attacking itself. To make a long story shorter, we still don't know what is causing this kooky chain of events. It could be a hormone, an organ, gland, lymph. It seriously could be ANYTHING in my body.

It wasn't until my sister called me a couple years ago and told me about a documentary called Fat, Sick and nearly Dead that changed how I have dealt with my hives. I have found by doing regular "reboots" or detoxes I can control my hives much better than with medication, let alone the other tremendous health benefits to juicing fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. If it has helped me than I am confident it will help you too!

On this blog I hope to share juicing tips and recipes that I have seen results from and possibly start a public 30 day juice fast challenge that would be open to anyone who would like!