In recent weeks I have particularly noticed a worsening of my hives. I'm living the controlling symptoms through treatment four years ago. It was even strange to see myself with hives again. My question was: Why is this happening? – After all, I was medicating in the same way, I hadn't delayed my applications and things were going very well.
As you know, in treatment across immunobiologicals, we can find an improvement so effective that after some time of treatment, we space out the applications more in weeks. And that's exactly what was happening to me: I had started my treatment every four weeks and, over time, I was taking it every eight weeks.
It is very frustrating to find yourself experiencing symptoms again and, consequently, imagining a problem with your treatment or a return in the evolution of your improvement process. During this time, observing my own worsening, I turned to the community of 3000days to ask how they were feeling. To my surprise, many people also had uncontrolled symptoms during this period.
At 3000dias I always made a point of demystify various clichés about skin diseases: it's an allergy to chocolate, it's due to food, it's because of pets and it also has to do with emotions. All this is not true! And here we always try to make this very clear, especially in the case of UCE - The spontaneous urticaria – which definitely doesn't concern anything about what you do/feel/eat.
It is important to emphasize that the worsening of many patients (including me) during this pandemic does not make urticaria a emotional hives / or nervous – as we see on the internet. This type of hives doesn't exist, to be honest.. But we understand that emotional factors are always making everything worse, including chronic illnesses.
The moment we are currently living in is completely new and with it new challenges and many concerns. Anxiety on the surface, even for those who have their disease under control. This time has shown us several out of control in everything. Be it emotional, financial, career – and also health. It's good that it's just a temporary period and soon the season of the journey is renewed, everything passes.
We called the doctor Dr. Roberta Criado to answer some questions and clarify more about these points with us. Recently she was on 3000dias in a special live talking about this topic, the worsening of urticaria during the pandemic.
3000days: Hello Doctor, good to welcome you here to help us talk more about hives and possible worsening during this time of pandemic. It's a difficult time and we're documenting history by analyzing it all, right? Speaking of which, is this the first time that the Doctor has realized that a tense moment (which we experience as a society) causes the destabilization of chronic diseases?
Dr. Roberta: In this way, yes. But I don't think we've been in such a tense situation of emotional stress for many years.
3000days: Here at 3000dias, we carried out an informal survey to find out more about the patients who noticed a worsening of their symptoms during this time and more than half of the people responded. We are curious: what explains this worsening of chronic skin diseases such as urticaria?
Dr. Roberta: Stress causes the disease to worsen by producing substances that act directly on mast cells (which are the cells that cause hives). This generates changes in other mechanisms that interfere with inflammation and immunity, worsening allergic and inflammatory conditions in general. Still, it is important to always reinforce that there is no such thing as emotional hives.
3000days: What measures can we take to prevent this worsening? Can we review treatment in periods like this?
Dr. Roberta: Your doctor must be informed immediately about worsening symptoms to adjust medications. Remember: your doctor is your best friend at this time. Do not use any medication on your own or stop treatment without medical advice.
3000days: In these challenges of symptoms worsened during the pandemic, many patients found themselves frustrated – just like me – because they had control of the disease, were in a good perspective of spacing treatment and suddenly needed support measures, such as including corticosteroids, in some cases. . How to deal with this? Are there risks and “a delay” in treatment because of these changes and medication regulations during this period?
Dr. Roberta: There are no “delays”. In fact, a momentary aggravation occurred. In the same way that Covid-19 will pass, the symptoms will “pass” and everything will return to normal.
3000days: My chronic hives got worse during this pandemic. Does that make it an emotional illness?
Dr. Roberta: No. There is no such thing as emotional hives. However, like any chronic disease, it can worsen in times of intense stress like what we are experiencing during this pandemic.
3000days: What coping tips does the Dr. suggest for us in such a unique moment as the one we are experiencing?
Dr. Roberta: Reading a good book, listening to good music and getting away from the news for a while can help. I believe there was an excess of information! Physical exercise that does not worsen your illness may be helpful. Notify your doctor and take your medications appropriately. Also inform your doctor of any symptoms associated with Covid-19. Stay safe! It's already on! We will beat covid19.
Finally, we would like to remind you of the importance of keeping a skin diary during these periods. Not only the UAS7, noting the symptom index, but also notes that allow you to write how you are feeling and what you notice happening to you, during your day and week. Without a doubt, this will help you look more at yourself and what is happening.
Let's go together?
*Post sponsored by Novartis BR-10623 | July / 2020
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