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It Took Me Years to Discover What Was Causing My Hives
I blamed everything from dogs to stress before discovering the real culprit was something I touched every time I did laundry.
For years, I couldn’t figure out why I kept breaking out in hives.
Not a few itchy spots.
I mean full-body hives. Wherever my skin came in contact with clothes, there were hives.
Some were no bigger than a dime. Others grew into angry welts the size of a child’s fist. Wherever my clothes touched my skin, the hives seemed to follow.
At the time, I was serving in the U.S. Army as a Specialist (E-4) stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Living in the barracks meant sharing just about everything, including the laundry room. If someone forgot a fabric softener sheet in the dryer, I didn’t think twice about using it.
Free fabric softener.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
At first, I assumed it was stress. Then I wondered if it was something I was eating, the detergent, or even the Kentucky pollen. Eventually, I began to wonder whether it was simply one of those mysteries I would never solve.
