I'm not sure I remember exactly how long it took to stop getting the hives completely after eliminating Tartrazine, but I think it was several weeks.

I went to my doctor two days ago, and he prescribed Atarax and Ranitadine, so now I have to wait and see if this helps.

So far, I only have the hives on the palms of my hands and I really don't want it to flare up into a full blown, full body giant hive - that really is not pretty! It may be 20 years since this happened last, but I still remember how awful it was. My face was so bad that my husband, who was a wonderful sweet man, did not want to be seen in daylight with me! Sometimes my face and eyes were so swollen that I had to wear dark glasses when I went to work; I'm sure some of my colleagues thought I had been beaten up, it was so bad. It was hard to explain that it was hives - everybody thinks of hives as a temporary, minor inconvenience, but we all know it's not.

Quote from snowbarbie:

I'm not sure I remember exactly how long it took to stop getting the hives completely after eliminating Tartrazine, but I think it was several weeks.

I went to my doctor two days ago, and he prescribed Atarax and Ranitadine, so now I have to wait and see if this helps.

So far, I only have the hives on the palms of my hands and I really don't want it to flare up into a full blown, full body giant hive - that really is not pretty! It may be 20 years since this happened last, but I still remember how awful it was. My face was so bad that my husband, who was a wonderful sweet man, did not want to be seen in daylight with me! Sometimes my face and eyes were so swollen that I had to wear dark glasses when I went to work; I'm sure some of my colleagues thought I had been beaten up, it was so bad. It was hard to explain that it was hives - everybody thinks of hives as a temporary, minor inconvenience, but we all know it's not.

Hello there,
I have taken the medication from my doctor for just three days now and I have had tremendous relief. :)

I took Atarax and Ranitadine together and the red blotches on my palms are still there, but they are only about 10% as itchy as they were last week. I have taken cool showers and have really tried not to scratch. Wish me luck folks!