Classic TV Star Opens Up About ‘Miserable’ Health Diagnosis

Carol Burnett Show star Vicki Lawrence has been living with chronic hives. The actress spoke about her first experience with a flare up when she woke up one morning in August 2012 with an itchy sensation in the palms of her hands. 

Feeding into a superstition, she recalled having a conversation with her husband. “I told my husband [Al Schultz], ‘We need to buy a lottery ticket because my palms are itching — and we’re obviously coming into a lot of money,’” she remembered joking in an exclusive with PEOPLE.

She added: “We sort of laughed about it — but then it got worse.” She remembers putting her hands into a bowl of ice water “until they froze and the hives went away. And I remember thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’ ”

They went away, but quickly returned. “They had crawled up my wrists, and now I was starting to get worried,” she remembered, and before long, they were all over her body. “I was going crazy,” she says. “I had itched the heck out of it, and when I pulled up my shirt, there were giant red claw marks all over my stomach, back and hips.”

She went to see an allergist and she underwent two rounds of high-dose steroids and antihistamines but nothing worked. It wasn’t until she received an official diagnosis that anything could really be done about it.

Her allergist diagnosed her with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) — an incurable condition when hives last six weeks or longer. He prescribed medication (an injectable every two weeks for the next six months), and she received some relief. “It worked really quickly,” she says. “I was just amazed and grateful. I had been miserable. It was a magic answer for me.”

The condition can impact anyone, as the Emmy-nominated actress notes. “The chances of there being an identifiable, specific trigger are low. That’s what makes people so frustrated and anxious because they don’t know why it comes out,” she explained.

Since her 2012 outbreak, she’s only dealt with one other outbreak, which she’s thankful for.  “You can control it, and there is an answer. Keep digging, and don’t give up; you’re not the only one going through this,” she tells anyone dealing with the condition.”