Is A Contact Dh Reaction Ever Extremely Short

[domesticactivist]

Last night I was playing cards with my son and he kept leaning his face on his hand. All of a sudden he said, "I have hives on my face." I looked and he had a rash where his hand had touched. It did not look like the hives he's had in the past. They were tiny pointed blisters, all right next to each other.

Then I realized the cards were old and dirty... They were a deck he's never played with, that my partner and I used to play with all the time while eating gluteny snacks! I felt so stupid!

I had him wash up. The rash disappeared and stopped itching in less than an hour.

His hands showed no sign of a rash, and he's never had a rash from gluten before that I know of, he used to get hives frequently and used to get eczema, too.

What does this sound like to you?

[Takala]

Mystery contact dermatitis rash. Allergy.

It happens.

I had one last night start up on my wrist, I went into the bathroom and washed it off. Half an hour later, it was gone. I thought I has scrubbed down enough and thrown my clothes into the washer yesterday after being outside, but I must have missed something. All it takes is my leaning my belly up to the desk, touching the exposed shirt to the desk edge, and then resting my wrists on the same edge when I type, just like I'm doing right now. The only difference was that I had worn my husband's jacket outside instead of mine. He must have some sort of stuff on the inside of the jacket, I should wash it.

I have to wipe down the desk edge periodically, especially when the dog comes over and I pet him. Very large, hairy dog. And like all dogs, likes to roll in stuff.

I can do this too, with some kinds of hay. I'm really not OCD, but I play one at home every time the frigging house dog sneaks into the barn !

[pricklypear1971]

DH can come on fast. Unfortunately, it doesn't leave that quickly in my experience.

Sounds like dermatitis or hives (thank goodness!).

[domesticactivist]

Yeah, I started wondering if DH is ever something that celiac people who never showed it before could develop when I saw his rash. I was really glad it disappeared quickly. It sucks to be itchy

[itchy]

There appears to be little research about the range of responses that people have.

Therefore it is hard to distinguish between direct responses to gluten, and coincidences.

From my limited knowledge of the process, I am skeptical that a response would develop so quickly from a very limited contact like playing cards, and then disappear within minutes. But who knows?

We need research to tell us the range of responses we can expect, so that we are not led astray by incorrect associations. If we incorrectly misattribute a response then we miss the real cause of a flare.

(In September I worked a whole month in direct contact with wheat and wheat dust and my DH improved slowly the whole time. Recently I've had flares, and can't associate them with any wheat contact. Am I suffering from long delayed response to my work in September, or is something else at play?)

[pricklypear1971]

There appears to be little research about the range of responses that people have.

Therefore it is hard to distinguish between direct responses to gluten, and coincidences.

From my limited knowledge of the process, I am skeptical that a response would develop so quickly from a very limited contact like playing cards, and then disappear within minutes. But who knows?

We need research to tell us the range of responses we can expect, so that we are not led astray by incorrect associations. If we incorrectly misattribute a response then we miss the real cause of a flare.

(In September I worked a whole month in direct contact with wheat and wheat dust and my DH improved slowly the whole time. Recently I've had flares, and can't associate them with any wheat contact. Am I suffering from long delayed response to my work in September, or is something else at play?)

I would assume (and you know what they say about assumptions) that since iga stays in your skin a long time (you hear about people suffering from DH for years on a gluten-free diet) that the exposure to wheat COULD be showing up now as DH. Do you have other gluten symptoms that showed up then, or now?

DH is a weird thing. Can go into spontaneous remission while still on a gluten-free diet. It also is reported to flare with salicylate and bromine exposure.

[domesticactivist]

Great point itchy!

My son has gotten hives from numbers of things. As a baby he'd get them mildly from time to time. When he was about 3 he got them while playing in the back yard so badly that they covered his entire body in seconds and were huge and bright red. He's gotten them since then but usually it seems to be correlated with high pollen counts and an all over body thing, an not as severe. He doesn't have asthma any more, either.

I'm thinking this was from something he touched since it was on his face only where his hand had been. His hand didn't get any hives, though. Maybe the skin on his face is more sensitive.

[itchy]

Don't get me wrong, I think one can get hives or other similar reactions in seemingly a split second, and have them go away almost as quickly. I've had it happen. Once I found myself covered in hives in the middle of the night and scratched (clawed) myself silly. They were gone in the morning without a trace.

My point was that I get the impression that DH doesn't come and go quite that quickly. I think it is different process.

[domesticactivist]

Thanks for your input, it does sound like something other than DH.

[lovegrov]

Yep, not DH.

richard