1 May 2010
You know everybody reacts differently to medicines, especially HIV meds (YUCK). Any allergic reaction you have is nothing to fool around with . . . it can cause liver damage, kidney, etc. can even be fatal if left unchecked. Actually a sick or damaged liver from meds can & will cause hives & a rash all over your body. Did you know that your nose is full of Staff bacteria? Well, don't pick your nose . . . it can cause a skin rash/infection that will not go away without antibiotics. Use a Kleenex tissue at all times.I have found that since I have been taking HIV meds and if I get lets say a simple urinary tract infection (which is commonly associated with e-coli) some antibiotics I took caused me to have a severe reaction, i.e., swollen lips, blisters in the mouth, rash all over my bod, face, etc. I had to take strong doses of antihistamines & discontinue the Med. which strangely enough I never had a problem with before I became HIV. This med was Bactrim. This leads me to believe the chemistry of meds & the disease itself makes us reactic differently to other meds we used to take without incident than before acquiring the disease. Now, given your situation it is possible that your rash may not be an allergic reaction to your meds at all. I had a rash all over my neck, shoulders, face arms that no matter what I did, it would not go away. Months & months & months I tried everything over the counter & NOTHING. Sometimes it seemed it was getting better & slowly fade away & then it came back again. Very frustrating. Well guess what . . . it wasn't an allergic reaction at all to meds, instead it was fungal and bacterial combined. I am a very clean person & take care of my physical hygeine religiously. But sometimes because our immune system has been so beaten up over the years your viral load if any & CD4 count yo-yo-ing between 200 - 500 prevents our system from fighting off certain common fungal & bacterial microbials that everybody is exposed to daily, but because non-HIV folks immune system is not compromised - there's typically no infections. These pathogens, etc. are everywhere, dirt, air, animals,people; especially kids, your house & on & on.You would not believe all the severe health problems fungal infections can cause: it is nasty stuff. Normally HIV- people's immune system fights off the things I just talked about. However, my Doctor did prescribe to me (combined attack all) lotions called "MetroLotion", Triamcinolone Acetonide Cream, Cutivate Lotion & also Dermarest medical skin treatment to use twice a day on the rash . . . . well the rash went away & so far after a year it has never come back. I still have to be careful with certain antibiotics that I am very allergic to that I wasn't allergic to in the past . . . . so go figure. Try these and see what happens. From now on I wear rubber gloves (like in the hospital) when cleaning the house, etc. Use paper napkins in public places to open doors, elevator buttons, bathrooms, etc. (You don't know what kind of crap all those zillions of people have on their hands. A good example is buffet resturants where everybody & their brother handles the same spoon (do you actually believe they all washed their hands)? Also you may want to change your diet - quit drinking sodas, alcoholic beverages, candy, pork & beef. Eats tons of fruit, raw & steamed vegetables, salmon, tuna, chicken, & things like that. Stay away from salt and drink lots of water & juices to flush your system out everyday. Exercise. Yogurt & cottage cheese are fungus killers. SUGAR is food for fungus & bacteria. It lives on it & mutiplies like crazy causing you to itch like crazy. Well, I guess I have covered everything I know & have experienced . . hope I didn't ramble on too much. Anyway, hope what I have written has given you peace of mind & some realistic hope to get well and stay that way. God bless you and take care. Ava Marie.
suzanne66
I have made some recent research on this issue with rash/hives. You are definitely allergic to meds you are taking. You should be taken off of them immediately. Certain reaction can be life threatening. You problem will not resolve itself until you stop taking what is causing it. You should go to the ER and tell them your history/and the severety of your problem. Be up front and tell them everything you know about your illness. You should be seen by another doctor if your primary doctor is uncoopertive or lax about your suffering. You should probably be on IV's of antihistamins/anti-allergins and also short term Prednasone which will quickly relieve your systems. I recently had a severe reaction to meds & antibiotics. 3 of which they found I was allergic to. All 3 meds were stopped. I was given IV of what I told you above and now I am doing fine. I do still have a little bit redness, but the horrible pain has gone away. Take care my friend. Please try doing this. It is all I know to share with you. I hope it helps you. God bless. Ava