Hello, and Happy Easter! We had a busy weekend and I am so happy to settle into a (hopefully) relaxed first week of this Easter season. Seth, Keats, and I attended Easter Vigil Saturday night and got home after midnight. The rest of the family went to the early Mass on Sunday morning. Larkspur and Beatrix were singing in the choir, so they had to be there extra early. I feel like I did a better job of planning than I usually do. Breakfast was made the night before (by Larkspur) and all clothing was planned and laid out. I spent Sunday morning playing with Mabel and making homemade peanut butter cups for one of the stops on our traditional Easter scavenger hunt. This year the last stop was a little egg hunt for Mabel. I filled each egg with a single jelly bean, which was just right. (We re-used affiliate link these eggs that I bought last year at our local grocery store.)
Over the past month, I have ironically been going through all of our beehives while simultaneously suffering through a bad case of hives myself. We lost all of our bees this winter and I spent a couple of weeks going through every single frame to salvage what I could for the new bees that will arrive later this month. I cut out all the unusable comb to melt down and filter, and it’s been a big, messy job. I have a lovely stash of beeswax now, and I think I’m going to try making some candles sometime soon.
We can’t be certain why we lost our bees, but we have a few ideas. After Jonny’s panic attack last summer, he let beekeeping fall to the back burner. As far as the hives I’ve had on my face for the past month, I’m also uncertain of what caused them. I’ve seen my doctor, but of course she can only make guesses and suggestions. The funny thing is that when I had Jonny take the picture of me above, I didn’t know that the red spots starting to cover my face were hives. I thought I was having some sort of bizarre breakout, and I assumed that things were as bad as they would get. I was quite wrong. Things got much worse and I hate to say that I have been almost consumed (mentally) by these stupid hives for the past couple of weeks. When your face is burning and itching and you don’t know for sure what is causing it, it’s difficult not to think, or more accurately, obsess about it! I’ve been working hard to accept that this might be my reality for awhile. But thankfully, I do believe that things are starting to heal and I have a couple of theories as to what caused the hives to begin with. All I can do is make changes accordingly and pray for the best. I have an appointment with a highly recommended naturopath in a couple of weeks and I hope she might be able to help me figure this out. Of course, I am also hoping that my face will be healed by the time I see her!
At any rate, spending the last month of Lent with a face covered in hives felt somewhat fitting. I must say having them go away now that it’s Easter would also seem appropriate. Right?
I hope that you are all having a wonderful early spring (or fall depending on your hemisphere!)
…and may all your hives be the kind that house honeybees!!!
Valerie says
Have you heard of the GAPS healing diet? The idea is to start with just food that is easily digestible to start to heal the gut lining. With time, the gut will be able to strengthen and then inflammatory, all autoimmune issues like hives will go away as immunity is recovered through healthy gut flora overcoming the bad bacteria present. I HIGHLY recommend you look into the GAPS progressive eating plan and listen to or read stuff from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. She is a strong supporter of the importance of homemade, natural, non-industrial food for healing.
Paige says
Hi Genny. I am so sorry about your hives but glad you are getting better. We lost some of our bees too this year;(. I was wonderring where you got your beeswax molds? They are beautiful. Thank yourl for all of your beautiful inspiration. Paige
Jeannie Gray says
You’re probably sick of everyone telling you what to do for the hives but… here’s one more idea. Your hives look and sound an awful lot like my rosacea. I have a rare form that gives me red hive-looking bumps all over my face and my face swells – sometimes to the point my eyes start to swell shut. I even get it on my eyelids sometimes. It itches, burns and stings and when it’s bad, I can’t even sleep at night because it feels like ground glass in my skin. When it gets that bad, antibiotics are called for but most of the time I can control it with lifestyle behavior such as not eating more than 2 servings a week of spinach or yogurt (surprisingly, both are on the rosacea warning list,) staying out of the sun and using face friendly lotions, hair products and makeup. It took me a long time to discover what products work for me & which don’t. Most don’t – even the ones made for sensitive skin. For the most part, Neutrogena items work well for me and pretty much nothing else. Even all natural, organic products upset my face.
For your sake, I hope it’s not rosacea, but it sure does look & sound like the type I have.
Jenny says
Ok one more hive cause… my husband , who is Chinese, had them terribly for about 2 years… allergists here just wanted to treat it medically with steroids and antihistamines… I do believe antihistamines especially helped him get his immune system to calm down… but when he was visiting family in China they took him to a clinic where he was tested for a bacteria—-h.pylori… that is common among Asians and causes stomach ulcers and hives. He was positive for h. Pylori… was treated with a strong dose of antibiotics… and antihistamines … and hasn’t had Hives for the last 8 years. Just one more avenue to look into…though I know you aren’t Asian… 😉
Judy says
Unfortunately we lost all of our bees this past winter. Guess we also get to start all over again. 🙁
My husband suffers with hives. He will go for several months and not have them at all then for a month or so have them almost daily, HIs only last a few hours and then go away until the next round of them. He gets them on the soles of his feet which is very painful. We have been told that 99% of people who have them never find their trigger. Hope you are one of the 1%, my husband is part of the 99%.
Jessa says
I went through a period where I was getting huge swollen hives on my whole body every single day. Are these hives that go away if you take an antihistamine or they just stay?
My doctor prescribed me a short but strong bout of steroids (which I avoided taking for far too long) and they went away for an entire year. Yesterday they showed up again, which is super annoying, but… I feel you. It’s hard to live and even think with hives – but especially on your face.
Aileen O says
Prayers for a quick hives healing. Mine was stress, lack of sleep, and poor diet induced, but it eventually goes away 1x you get to the main source. I did a lot of soaking in baking soda to relieve the itchiness back then. Ask naturopath about enemas … I did a raw diet for a few weeks, then fasted for a week, and the enemas helped draw out what was irritating the gut lining. Eating more sprouts, spirulina, & chlorophyll intake helped me too.
Jan says
My dad had terrible hives. Whenever he went out in the sun his forehead would break out. Only place he got them. I started to get them a couple of years ago, the doctor thinks it’s a reaction of my meds to the sun. Yet I don’t get them all the time and usually it’s my forehead and a bit under my eyes and over my cheekbones. I think stress plays a big part as well. I did think it was something in the garden, so I stopped gardening for a while and I still got them. Next pay day I am booking myself an appointment with the natureopath as I have other health issues as well that I want to get to the bottom of and conventional medicines don’t seem to be working.
I love your blog. It’s a gentle start to my week. Thank you for sharing your wonderful life and family with us all. I wish I could afford to buy your yarns, they are so pretty, the colours are amazing.
MotherOwl (Charlotte) says
I’d not give you any advice on your facsial hives, I hope thy’ll go away now Easter has arrived. But for your bee hives. If your bees died of causes unknown, please use all new wax and frames (newly washed not brand new) It could be a disease, lurking in the frames waiting for new bees to infect. Your wax cakes are very pretty. Do you use them for soaping?
Happy Easter
Marion says
Ginny I hope you will be able to find out the cause of the hives. I love the photo of the children. Have a Happy,Blessed Holy Week.
Marion
Joan says
I know what it is to have hives. I had them a few years ago,due to stress at my job. They are quite annoying. Glad you and your family had a nice Easter.
Joan
Marilyn says
Sorry about the hives. Hope they clear up soon. The children look so nice dressed for Easter.
Marilyn
Donna says
Poor Ginny! Could it be linked to your nervous system? Have you ever looked into CBD oil? It has a long list of good benefits. There are more and more article about this. A friend’s daughter has suffered with autoimmune disorders and pain from childhood arthritis. She is 20 now. But her mom researched this CBD oil. Her daughter tried it and had excellent results. She has said many positive things about it. She says nothing helped her like this has. Just a thought.
Penelope says
Ah, hives, they can be so hard to deal with! Lately I’ve been waking up every morning with a bad spread of them, primarily on my face. I have allergy meds I take for them … for me, it comes and goes (lots of allergies, asthma, and autoimmunie issues here). I hope you are able to find a definitive answer soon! And, I’m so sorry to hear of the bee hive die off! That’s so sad. I’d love to have a couple of hives but with my physical disabilities I wouldn’t be able to care for them myself and my teens are leary of the notion.
Beverly says
Could it be shingles instead of hives? The shingles seem to be stress reponse in the body.
Richard (in Charlotte, NC) says
I too thought “oh no, what has given you hives?” I didn’t even think about your bee hives when I was reading your subject line. So sorry to hear of this. Such nice Easter photos of you and your family. I hope your case of hives clears up completely and soon too!
Ryan says
My first thought when I saw your title for this post was that you had hives (the allergic kind). Then I thought, “no, she’s probably talking about bee hives”. I’m sad that the post was about both and hope you can find the source or your hives. They are the worst!
Katharine Whitmore says
I know that everyone has lots of good advice, but I’ll add this: Our beautiful woods in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina harbor the Lone Star Tick (such a pretty name! – they have a single white spot on their back). Unfortunately, these ticks can transmit an allergy to mammal meat called the alpha-gal allergy — it’s an allergy to the carbohydrates in mammal meat. My daughter has a classic strain. She is mostly vegetarian, and the few times in the past she consumed a hamburger, she would break out in hives about 3 hours later. My husband had mysterious hives for about 10 months, finally was tested by an allergist, and he too has an allergy to mammal meat — but it goes further than eating red meat — he also cannot consume cheeses or other milk products. The allergy can be quite severe, and actually for a while, my daughter carried an epipen. So — another worry, but knowledge is good, I think!
Melissa says
I’m so glad you seem to be on the mend! Take good care of yourself <3
Eileen says
Oh my, hives! I had them once about 35 years ago, find out I was pregnant, they were miserable, (hives, not the pregnancy). Never did find out the cause of the hives, I feel for ya! Lovely spring/Easter pictures. Looks as if you and your family had a wonderful Easter. Spring, I’m not sure is really here yet, woke up Easter morning to some snow and biting cold. But our day was pleasant, knitting, painting inside of house, then a big family dinner.. Love your blog Ginny.
Nicole Spring says
Ginny, oh my goodness. I have this mysterious patch of red itchy skin on my neck and it has been there since November. It itches like crazy and nothing I use on it works. It keeps getting bigger and bigger and is driving me bonkers. I was told it might be due to the black mold or stress so I pray it goes away once we move. I am sorry you are dealing with something like this too!!!
Rosemary Haaker says
When I had hives I had to take Zyrtec for about a month, until the histamine reaction in my body stopped.praying for you!!!
Jenny Foringer says
Oh wow, I’m sorry!
Sue T says
Any skin condition…look to your gut and diet!
Nancy says
If you dont mind my asking, what are your hive theories? I’ve battled with some for 4 weeks so far and about 10 years ago same also in the spring.
Ginny says
I started taking some new supplements about the time these started and think they could be linked to that. Looking back, I realize I have had hives for awhile, just so minor that I didn’t recognize them for what they were. I think they might have been caused by the aloe vera in my moisturizer. Then I started taking a vitamin that has aloe vera in it, and they got terrible. I might have an aloe vera or latex allergy. So that’s one theory–not much help to you, though! A friend suggested that mine could also be linked to a probiotic I was taking that might have caused candida die off which releases toxins and can cause hives. I’m hoping the naturopath can shed some light on that…Who knows really? I’ve also been really stressed the past month, so think that could be connected. It’s really baffling. I’m so sorry you are dealing with this too!
Lisa G. says
How horrible for you, Ginny! Would aloe vera gel on the face help with itching? (your doctor prob. suggested that). Your girls look nice in their Easter finery.
Ginny says
The ironic thing is that I think mine actually might be linked to an aloe vera allergy!!
Elizabeth says
oh hives on the face would be hard! 🙁 I hope you find an answer soon! Sorry about your bees! God’s blessings to you all this Eastertide!
Melissa says
Oh, I feel your pain when it comes to hives. I had them in October so bad that I had to go to urgent care. I also had a bad virus at the time and the Dr (and later allergist) said that viruses can cause hives so that’s what they blamed it on. I think it was thyroid personally. Benedryl helped and then it just went away. I hope it clears up very soon and that you figure out the cause. Beautiful pictures as always 🙂
Megan says
I too had hives that were caused by a virus. Strangely they showed up when I started coughing at the swimming pool and covered everywhere that was not covered by the swim suit. My doctor said it is not uncommon. Also had a friend who was allergic to pregnancy. She broke out in hives at night and finally went to th hospital in the middle of the night for diagnosis. In the end, she ended up taking a mild sleeping pill that was permitted during pregnancy didn’t stop the itching but let her sleep. It was her second pregnancy and they said it would get worse with future pregnancies.
Lovely spring pictures!