posted
I often break out into hives around my period. They are usually just tiny bumps, don't iche and talking Valrex seems to make them disapear. Hives has always been an underlying symptoms that my LLMD thinks is from a mono/shingles virus that was never treated.
I broke out into hives last Tuesday. Just tiny dots on my legs. But I was 2 weeks from my period. On Wednesday they turned into larger flat welts, but Thursday I had full on hives covering my legs. I started taking benadryl but afte 9 I called my doctor to tell her what was up.
On Friday I noticed that my skin was really hot to the touch. My face was bright red and swelling. I went and saw her and she just couldn't believe it. No rhyme or reason. No new products/food of any kind. She put me on hydrocortizone and some enzymes and bumped up my Vit C to 20,000mgs. My hives were much better on Saturday but back again strong on Sunday.
I still have them today and they have spread to my hands and feet.
Posts: 19 | From Northern California | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
opps I acciently hit enter which posted this.
Ne ways aside from it going to my hands and feet, I also developed cold sores in my mouth which seems to pop up and disapear in different places. I now also have tiny blisters the size of a needle point on the palms of my hands.
I am just at a loss. Hives, cold sores inside my mouth, and now blisters on the palms of my hands. I feel like a walking time bomb.
Has anyone delt with this? Does anyone know what I should do?
I am taking 3,000mg of Valtrex, 5mg of hydrocortizone, sinequan, allerga, benadryl, diflucan, and omincef.
when I first got so sick before I was diagnoised with lyme I had hives and threw up everything ate for 8 months. I am so scared I am back to saquare one, four years later!
Please help me! Lindsay
Posts: 19 | From Northern California | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Wow, so sorry you're going through this. One of the first things that crossed my mind when reading your story is possibly this could be allergy related.
There is no rhyme or reason to how or when allergies crop up. I used to be plagued by hives and throwing up when I was little, then poof, it all went away.
A couple of years ago it came back once when I ate some pineapple, sores in my mouth and on my lips and hives everywhere. I just chanced it again not long ago and nothing happened.
Probably it would be good to look at what you were doing and eating at the time this started. Who knows maybe the laundry soap or fabric softener had a change in ingredients.
Our immune systems are sensitive creatures and who knows what effect that may have on allergies.
I would probably also see an allergist just to run some of the basic tests and see what he/she may recommend.
Soaking in a bath (lukewarm) with baking soda may help and if you don't mind being Pink, Caladryl is great stuff too.
Hopefully this helps you, proudmom
-------------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"--Carl Sagan Posts: 317 | From Kansas and New Jersey | Registered: May 2008
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posted
What a nightmare! My gut instinct is allergy-related as well. Or autoimmune?
I read an amazing article on allergies in the US last year in National Geographic Mag. It talked a lot about people with your symptoms...I'll see if I can find what issue is was.
posted
Thanks for your thoughts. I was not having an allergic reaction. I have changed nothing in my life. And sad to say that things definately got worse. My hands and feet turns orange/red.
After a ton of advice and some serious thought-I decided to stop everything except meds like birth control and thyriod. Turns out the vitamin c powder I was taking in smoothies was making the hives even worse.
I stopped the smoothie and the hives are not gone, but they are defiantely A LOT better. I imagine since I've been taking 20,000mg since last Friday it will take a several days to completely detox, because I know I detox slowly.
I do not know what brought on the hives-I think my immune system is very suppressed and my body was telling me to slow down. But who really knows. I am just so happy that they can be maintained with benedryl!!!
Posts: 19 | From Northern California | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Are you on abx? I have to take a break from them about every 6 months because I build up an intolerance and break out in hives. After they go away, I ramp back up and am fine for another 6 months or so.
-------------------- "Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love". Mother Theresa
posted
I stopped my abx-I was taking diflucan and omincef-
The smoothies have orange juice, strawberries, blackberries, blue berries, and raspberris and the vit-c nothing else. Just frozen fruit and oj.
I stopped the smoothies on Wed and by yesturday I thought the hives were on their way out-but this morning (friday) I woke up with hives head to toe. Welts on my face, to my feet.
I left work at 12 and went to the doctor-and did a 3 hour vit-c IV-and it did help-my face looks better but the rest of my body is stil covered with them.
I am going to try doing the vit-c again but with cran-apple-I am beside myself! Please anything you can think of would be great!
Posts: 19 | From Northern California | Registered: Sep 2005
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
I didn't finish reading your posts yet but I wanted to tell you I think (non-professional opinion) that this sounds like SJS Steven's Johnson Syndrome, which is a very serious drug reaction.
Had you recently been taking Bactrim or any other Sulfa drugs or is this listed as a possible side effect of any of the meds you're taking?
Do you have a fever?
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
Vitamin C is water soluble, it shouldn't "build up" in your system. Too much would just give you the runs.
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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I acually saw a "Medical Mystery" on ABC last week after my doctor had said, there's this syndrome calle Steven Johnsons and if your skin starts to "fluff" or shed go to the ER.
I do not have that condition or atleast I don't think I do. I do not have hive-like sores or darkness or anything on my lips in terms of cold sores (nor have I ever). I did have cold cores inside my mouth but they have all gone away and been gone for almost a week.
I did get tiny white blisters on the palms of my hands that have disapeared. They were literally the size of a pin drop. My eyes are not yellow-they are very clear.
It's really just the hives. Just huge welts all over. I am continuing to take the vit-c and that's it. I have stopped everything else-
Posts: 19 | From Northern California | Registered: Sep 2005
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Lindsay,
First, if you are signing with your real full name, you might want to just use your first name for security reasons. Anytime anyone in the future may google your name, your posts will pop up.
=======
As the inside of my hands simply flaked away during college while on abx for "mono" - this caught my eye.
Apparently, infections can be a cause of this, too. Bartonella is listed (cat-scratch fever).
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) is a life-threatening condition affecting the skin in which cell death causes the epidermis to separate from the dermis.
The syndrome is thought to be a hypersensitivity complex affecting the skin and the mucous membranes. Although the majority of cases are idiopathic, the main class of known causes is medications, followed by infections and (rarely) cancers.
. . . Causes SJS can be caused by infections (usually following viral infections such as herpes simplex virus, influenza, mumps, cat-scratch fever, histoplasmosis, Epstein-Barr virus, or similar),
(in the links, it is suggested that Motrin may be involved)
SJS has also been consistently reported as an uncommon side effect of herbal supplements containing ginseng. . . .
Although Stevens Johnson Syndrome can be caused by viral infections, malignancies or severe allergic reactions to medication,the leading cause appears to be the inappropriate use of antibiotics and sulfa drugs.
- full article at link.
=============
I wonder if milk thistle or other liver support might help.
For skin irritations now, I use a very mild soothing gel:
Califlora Calendula Gel (by Broerick & Tafel).
I've tried and tried to use doxycycline and each time I break out in silver dollar sized round rashes - while I know that could be lyme or die-off - they are very hot and itch severely and then very painful even with gentle scratching.
The Calendula Gel really helped when that last happened (and I'll never take doxy again).
It's different from your rash, but still, you might find the gel soothing.
you can just search google with "Califlora Calendula Gel" and many purchasing options pop up. Some vitamin shops or health groceries carry it.
Cold Aloe Vera Gel, too, but the calendula worked better.
Lily of the Desert 99% Aloe Vera Jelly - organic. I got it at a GNC store.
Neither of these has an oily base which I thought very good as any oil would have increased the burning.
Q. I was recently told I had Stevens-Johnson syndrome. What is happening to cause these burnlike skin lesions?
A. The exact cause and how it develops are not well understood, ``but it is almost always a reaction to medications,'' said Dr. Richard D. Granstein, dermatologist in chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Some implicated drugs include sulfanomides; anticonvulsants; the antibiotics penicillin, tetracycline and doxycycline; and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which may be the most common.
Other cases involve infections.
``Some researchers have hypothesized that certain enzymes are missing in people who are susceptible to the syndrome, so that these metabolites build up and inhibit cell protein synthesis,'' Dr. Granstein said.
``There is also some evidence that immune cells called cytotoxic lymphocytes are attacking cells that make up the upper layer of skin,'' he said. Still other pathways may also be involved.
Treatment is also controversial, especially whether to give corticosteroids. Some studies suggest that intravenous immunoglobulin may be very useful. Controlled studies are clearly needed, Dr. Granstein said.
posted
Causes SJS can be caused by infections (usually following viral infections such as herpes simplex virus, influenza, mumps, cat-scratch fever, histoplasmosis, Epstein-Barr virus, or similar),
allergic reactions to drugs, .... fluconazole (Diflucan) +++++++++++++++++++++
You COULD suddenly be allergic to ANY one of the fruits you mentioned.....but have you been drinking the smoothies a lot prior to this latest episode??
Could be yeast too.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
It's commonly misdiagnosed. It's an immune mediated reaction & not an allergic reaction.
If there is ANY chance you have this get to the hospital ASAP and ask them. SJS IS LIFE THREATENING!!!!
I didn't get to read & can't do so now to determine what a time frame for progression might be. Please check it out.
I'm praying for you that it's not that.
Best wishes, Ali
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
OOps, my last post got hung up. I see you've gotten a lot of good info in the mean time.
I'm glad to hear that you seem to be improving. I must have misunderstood, I thought you were worsening again.
I'm glad we've got someone with SJS experience to help. (Not glad you've had that experience, but glad your here )
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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And, oh, be sure your LLMD knows that your other doctor put you on hydrocortisone. There may be special things your LLMD will do to compensate for the steroid cream.
---
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
Did you have a white coating on your tongue with the sores?
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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