Mary2e

Sunday report ...

The old hives are down, but still reddish and I've got a couple more small ones today. They don't seem to get as large as the earlier ones, which were about the size of a dime.

This reminded me that in the spring I normally get one or 2 hives that last for a couple of weeks. This year, I have a bundle of them, mostly on my arms & legs. I'm still thinking it's a combination of the allergy season plus the smell of the stain. I remember getting my first hive of the season (which should have been my only) right before memorial day at the worst point of the allergy season.

I've followed all the good advise, from wearing long pants & long sleeves and staying cool and I'm itching far less. Taking a cool shower is a killer, but if I raise the temp of the water I turn red again.

Any hints how to get rid of the redness in the older, now non-itchy ones? I still look diseased.

Thanks again for all your good advice.

BTW - my husband has very fair skin and goes to a dermatologist annually and he has to wait 2 months for an appointment. What is it with these MDs? Aren't there enough of them or did they all go into plastic surgery?

Mary2e

Thanks.

Funny you mention Atarax as an anti-itch medication. When we first moved to NJ my husband had an awful case of hay fever. So bad he yelled at me if I opened the door. I've never seen him so miserable. Anyway, the doctor prescribed this tiny little triangular shaped pill called Atarax. It knocked him on his tail so badly he could not even walk up the stairs to get to bed. I had to help him. He also got up in the middle of the night so thirsty he actually went downstairs & ate ice cream in his sleep. I found melted chocolate on the counters in the morning. He had no recollection of even getting out of bed.

Ever since, we've stayed away from anti histimines that cause drowsiness. But, if this keeps up much longer, I just may take on before bed and cross my fingers.

All of you are swearing by it, so I may have to give it a try.

Thanks again.

wma

Mary,

Atarax is prescriptive and I wouldn't take it without your doctor's approval. As far as Benadryl goes - Benadryl is over the counter, but it too needs approval if you are taking other medication.

My son takes a very low dose of risperdol, an anti-psychotic prescriptive drug that at his dosage is used for anti-anxiety. The point is he CAN NOT TAKE BENADRYL. The only anti-histamine he can take is Allegra. The reason is although Benadryl is over the counter it is still a powerful anti-histamine that has side effects with prescriptive medicines. If you are taking any prescriptive medication read the benadryl label carefully.

I don't mean to scare you but even over the counter drugs are quite powerful!!!

Mary2e

Absolutely... I agree with you. You mentioning Atarax simply made me recall this incredibly funny story. My husband couldn't crawl up the stairs after taking it.

The strongest medication I take is tylenol. I'm not worried about drug interactions. I never had a problem with any antihistimines. I'm one of those people who could take the old formulation of Contac and still drive my car. I sometimes can't sleep when taking certain ones, like Nyquil. So, I'm hesitant to take Benadryl because of that. I think I'm going to have to get some of the old version of Contac from the UK, since I know that works & doesn't bother me. Too bad it will be too late for this bout of hives.

Thanks for your note!

techgirl

We are facing a shortage of 250k physicians by the year 2020. Pretty scary when you realize we only have about 750k nationally seeing patients right now.

Dermatology is a multipart problem -

One, reimbursement for dermatology from insurers is horrible so cash procedures pay more - so the number of "medical" cases a dermatologist takes has to be considered... if a derm doesn't want to do cosmetic or other cash-generating work, they have to cram in even more medical cases to keep their heads above water. Most do both because...

Two, over two-thirds of the dermatologists we are training in the US are female. This wouldn't be a problem except that female dermatologists see up to 25% fewer patients and practice, on average, 1 to 1.5 days less per week overall than their male counterparts which causes a crunch because...

Three, we have continued to decrease the number of dermatologists we train annually since 1979 despite evidence over the last ten years that physicians are retiring overall at an earlier age and also that more women are entering medical school (now over 50% of the average med school class) yet not practicing the same as males who finish training. And yet no one is screaming about dermatology because...

Four, dermatologists are largely practicing independent of hospitals since all procedures can be done in-office. Most hospitals require staff physicians to see inpatient consultations and emergency room cases - and dermatologists can effectively control both the payor mix and case mix of their practice if they stick to the wait times that are imposed by their front office staff. And since the hospitals aren't making any money off dermatology...

Five, hospitals just don't see dermatology as "their" problem. And really, that is a tough break because recruiting new physicians to a community is a hard job. Its an easy draw for a practice in a major metro city to recruit, but with fewer candidates coming out, these guys (or really gals) get to name, their own price and negotiate furiously. Many groups can't afford to subsidize a new physician, particularly one with a lot of educational debt that they want paid off by their new group. So they turn to hospitals for financial assistance with this. For specialties like cardiology or neurosurgery that generate positive revenue for a hospital, no problem. But ask most hospitals to subsidize dermatology recruitment and they see it as a community problem that doesn't affect the hospital.

And so what we will continue to see, I'm afraid, is shortages of physicians until the federal government steps up their funding of educational programs (and figures out how to start luring science minds back to medicine since a lot of the luster is gone). We also have to overcome the tendancy of young physicians to want to settle in areas around their training programs that are largely saturated with physicians already (who therefore are experiencing gluts and not seeing the shortages that are plaguing other parts of the US).

(Thanks for the Sunday night warm up... I can now go to bed since I've got three days of discussing this topic ahead of me after I fly out in the am!)

joanek

Mary,

The redness shouldn't stay in normal allergic reaction hives. They should disappear within 12 hours of coming out...faster if you take benadryl---which is the one that allergists and dermatologists will recommend for any type of itchy rash reaction. Contac is a decongestant, not an antihistimane, and won't do anything to cure your hives.

But if your hives are not from something you've eaten, but from allergic contact dermatitis ---they will last longer, like what you're seeing.

If you keep breaking out in hives (by that I mean this week, next week, last week), you are still exposing yourself to whatever it is that sets off this reaction. Any new soaps, rugs, paint, clothes? Been pruning in the garden?

As for getting in to see a doctor....if you call and explain that you've been breaking out in hives, or a rash, repeatedly for several weeks, and no home remedies are getting the job done, an allergist or dermatologist will get you in faster than you think.

kipper

A word of caution about Benadryl pills and the cream. Do not use one if you are using the other. If you are taking Benadryl pills, DO NOT use the cream and vice versa. This is especially important for children, but is also important for adults. The cream is absorbed through your skin, into your system, and if you use both, you face the risk of overdosing on it. This happens more often with kids, as their tolerance levels are lower, but it does happen with adults too.

Mary2e

The only thing new is the stain we used. There's still a slight smell in the staircase if I open the door. Yes, I've been in the garden, pulling weeds, but not since last weekend.

I'm going to give this a little more time and do as you suggest re: the MD.

Mary2e

Thank YOU for that excellent explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

CDTraveler

It won't help your curent hives any, but have you considered using an air filter, HEPA grade, in your home? It would remove the stain/varnish from the air sooner, and perhaps prevent future outbreaks from the stuff.

My son has multiple allergies, and his allergist recommended that he always have one in his bedroom. We just bought a second one for the family room, where he spends most of his time, as this year's pollen levels are high enough to be EVIL, and the air filter seems to help my son breathe easier.

Consumer Reports online edition has some great info on air filters, including which are junk and which actually work.

FlyForFun

I almost posted a similar post last week. I started breaking out in hives a couple of weeks ago. Mine are big red splotches and bumps and cover my entire body from my forehead to my toes. The itching is horrible. I have been taking "Claritin For Hives" and it usually gets rid of them within a half an hour. Claritin has a non-drowsy formula and it is supposed to be effective for twenty-four hours

You definitely have my sympathy. I hope they go away soon.

MMMinTX

Mary, I hope a new week finds your hives clearing up and you feeling much more comfortable. You mentioned in another post that the strongest medication you take generally is Tylenol, but just a word of caution to others. I once had a full-blown case of hives covering my entire body for a week as the result of a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was taking for a sinus infection. Yuck!

I had taken the same medicine for the same reason at some other time with no problem, but on this occasion my entire body reacted violently to the meds, such that I required Prednisone to get the hives calmed down and my body back to normal function. If I had realized earlier that the bumps could be caused by my medication, I might have been able to at least reduce the severity of the reaction.

Mary2e

Thanks everyone...

I think I'm getting better. The red splotches seem to be going down & I'm not itchy at all. Still, I have red spots all over my arms & legs that don't itch. My pinky still has 3 or 4 little "active" ones that just seem to be wanting to itch .

I'm not sure if it's the claritin or the lanacane or a combination of both.

I may get brave and NOT take a claritin tonight & see what happens. I should start getting itchy about an hour before it's due. If I don't, well, maybe this bout is on it's way out. ^^

FWIW - Claratin for Hives & Claritin are exactly the same product with exactly the same active & inactive ingredients in the same proportions. However, had I not found Claritin for Hives (which is what I bought) I never would have considered using it. Non of the anti-histamines in the regular cold pill aisle list itch relief as and indication for use.

I better get off this thread before I start itching again .

Punki

The prescription that the Doctor gave me is really Claritin with a different name. It seems to work pretty well.

My biggest challege is to avoid scratching. Once I scratch, I start geting big red welts. As long as I can resist, my skin looks fine. Fortunately, is is not on my face.

My Doc also said that about 90% of the time they never do really figure out what caused the problem. I am pretty certain that I came into contact with something in the garden that just didn't agree with me.

How long does this go on?

Mary2e

Well, I've been scratching for over a week. It started on the bottom of my feet on a Friday night. By Sunday, my arms had quite a few and my legs were starting. By midweek I was up one entire night because nothing would stop the itching.

Then I found claritin ^.

I'm thinking I'm better. I'll let you know what happens when I DON'T take the pill.