posted
I've gotten a huge amount of facial swelling when I've taken penicillin, amoxicillin, zithromax, or bactrim. This happens with really small dosages such as 1/4 of the smallest pill it comes in then lasts for about a month or two during this time the swelling and pain go down at a really slow rate until everything is back to normal.
For doxy and tetracyline with tiny dosages I get swelling that is more in the eye and top of the head region. This reaction is more scary and severe, but goes away faster in the span of about 4 days.
I was misdirected by several doctors and paitents as nobody warned me the symptoms I was having could be an allergic reaction and not a herx. Then I have myself also to blame for not realizing what should have been more obvious earlier on. My latest experiment was to take off from work and just bare the herx/side effects instead of stopping the pills right away. Out of caution I took just a little spec of powder rubbed of the inside of a amoxicillin pill and it caused the same reaction as the bigger dosages did.
It is unbearable and clearly a perplexing allergic reaction as a spec should cause no reaction at all.
So now besides ramping up on buhner herbs, I'm also will soon be seeing a doctor who does antibiotic desensitization to see if he can help me out. Has anyone done antibiotic desensitization before? I couldn't find much about lyme and getting antibiotic desensitization done, there is however a lot of information about recommending you get it done for penicillin if you are allergic and have syphilis. Probably has a lot to do with the view that syphilis is really bad, but lyme isn't and therefore isn't worth the risk (though I beg to differ).
Posts: 526 | From NJ | Registered: May 2007
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
I seem to remember someone talking about it as it relates to Bactrim here- I think it was in response to a question by CD57 when she was going on Bactrim? I don't seem to remember that anyone had actually done it, but it sounds like important info.
Sorry I can't help with more info, glad you figured it out before anything more severe happened!
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
Another odd thing is the skin scratch testing for pencillin said it was ok for me to take! Granted the test isn't supposed to be perfect, but added to the confusion.
Posts: 526 | From NJ | Registered: May 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- On every information sheet for every pharmaceutical is an section about allergic reactions. However, sometimes, those sections are abbreviated and it helps to consult several different sites or ask the pharmacist for the full physician's page on each drug.
The patient information system could be better. For now, we really have to consult several sources to try to get the details.
Also adding to the tenuous terrain is the fact that a drug that was previously perfected okay for a person can, at anytime, then cause an allergic reaction.
As for as "antibiotic desensitization" - time might do that but I'd not chance taking a certain drug again if I'd had allergic reaction to it. There are always other choices.
Different medicines, rotated or a different route such as alternative plan . . . Liver support is absolutely essential, too.
What liver support did you use before? Maybe that needs to be altered, too. It might not be so connected to the immediate allergic reactions as puffy eyes, but it can help your body normalize if you have a high level of toxins that contribute to the overall haystack, so to speak.
Also to consider are generic drugs - or drugs from different sources. Different fillers and binder - or even the DYES can be to blame. These are also things that often change even within a company from time to time with no notice to patients.
But, backing up . . . there are many fakes out there - be sure to check the photo of the pill on the manufacturer's web site against the actual pill. Some of the counterfeit drugs look startlingly similar. Check for all details of sheen, markings, etchings, hue, etc. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
Are there some antibiotics that you've been able to take successfully? That's quite a big list in your post.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
I've taken zithromax a few times in the past because I was supposedly allergic to penicillin as a child when I took it got some minor hives. So zithromax was my antibiotic of choice in the past and didn't cause problems.
Before I got diagnosised I tried doxycycline from an online pharmacy and stopped because of the reaction.
With my first LLMD we started my lyme treatment with biaxin and I started to improve really quickly. Then we switched to zithromax because I couldn't sleep at all on biaxin. Within two week of zithromax I had my swelling reaction and stopped. After that is when I tried the other meds including doxycycline again this time from a legit phamarcy and had all the further bad reactions. I wonder if a possiblity is that some of them I'm not really allergic to, but the fact that I took other antibiotics before the allergic reaction fully died down caused it to happen again on meds that it might not have happened on.
When I talk about desensitization I mean the treatment they do when you are deathly allergic and they give you miniscule dosages and work you up to a real dosage in order to get your body to tolerate it. (The same treatment they would give you if you had Anaphylaxis to a particular medication and you absolutely needed it such as in a case of having some bacteria that would kill you within days without treatment)
Porphyria I will have to look into from the list of symptoms I don't really have much of these, but who knows.
Not sure I'm willing to blame fillers or dyes as I taken lots of other meds and herbs during this time and never such bizzare reactions with them.
Posts: 526 | From NJ | Registered: May 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- There have been some extremely remarkable allergies to some dyes in capsules. Just a thought.
I know I did not save the articles I've read on that but about 2-4 years ago, someone nearly died and it turned out to be the dye in the drug. It was on one of the main news networks or in major city newspaper. I distinctly remember that since I have such bad reactions to so many things. I wish now that I had saved the details. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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CD57
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11749
posted
I did it two weeks ago for Bactrim, just in case I was allergic (it was thought that I was when I took it in college). Worked like a charm.
HIV patients sometimes have to take Bactrim for opportunistici infections and they do this for them. I called my allergist's office and asked them to do it, they were a little weirded out but agreed.
Posts: 3528 | From US | Registered: Apr 2007
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
I'm sorry- what was the procedure you had done? just an allergy test, or some kind of desensitization?
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
I don't deny that is possible to have allergies to dyes just seemed unlikely in my case. I have all the medication here that I took and most of it is plain white un-dyed pills. If I was allergic to dyes I would have a high likelyhood of triggering allergic reactions to other medication, herbs, supplements, and foods and that is not the case.
The allergist I saw is going to help my LLMD get me on rocephin and do a desensitization procedure to start me off to lessen the chance of a bad reaction.
Posts: 526 | From NJ | Registered: May 2007
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