Posted to urticaria forum 26th Feb

I am trying to schedule my doses of meds to prevent skin outbreaks
Currently I am tapering down from 10mg prednisolone. I don't think it is helping much and I want to come off it.

My current regime and symptoms are as follows
Wake up in morning. No cholinergic urticaria. I usually have about 6-8 vasculitic `insect bite like' eruptions which have erupted overnight. They will be scattered over my body. They sting excruciatingly. They sometimes wake me at
night. The stinging is unbearable and I have to get into a bath. Fortunately
most times I sleep through and just wake up in the morning with them. I also have many of these eruptions from previous days including some bruises and some scabbed, but they only really sting when they are new.

The ? cholinergic hives come up as soon as I start moving around.
I have been taking my tapering dose of prednisolone on getting up about 8.30 am currently 7 mg for 2 days.
Initially the prednisolone carried me through for a few hours and then I took my
Z/Z combo. But I am having to take that earlier now. So I probably take the Z/Z
about 9am.

I am having major cholinergic skin reactions after eating anything. So now I take 1 Avil (chlorpheniramine) about 11am 1 hour before lunch. I still have a reaction after lunch no matter what I eat so I really need to boost my antihistamine load so that it peaks at lunch-time. I don't think I could take a
higher dose of sedating AH so I'm wondering if I should take 2 Zyrtec in themorning. I have also been prescribed Doxepin (deptran) but I'm not taking that at the moment. I'm not sure how long it takes for deptran to reach its peak
levels .
I have been taking the 2nd Zyrtec after lunch.

Then a Avil (chlorpheniramine) before dinner and maybe another Avil after dinner
if flaring.
I usually take phenergan 25 mg before bed.
I'm just looking for some comments on my meds
The local GPs don't seem to want to start me on any mast cell stabilizers. They want me to see a specialist first, but I cannot get an appointment until the endof March.

Unfortunately it is not easy to get diphenhydramine in Australia for some
reason. The Benadryl Night time cough elixir has another active ingredient init. I rang epharmacy today and they have it in 50 mg tabs so I will get some tomorrow.

Fortunately I am semi-retired and apart from 1 day a week when I have a short term job I can experiment with meds at home. I am also a nurse so am aware of issues regarding meds.

Thankyou in advance for any comments

Gerri

Fine-tuning meds

I am trying to schedule my doses of meds to prevent skin outbreaks

Currently I am tapering down from 10mg prednisolone. I don't think it is helping much and I want to come off it.

My current regime and symptoms are as follows

Wake up in morning. No cholinergic urticaria. I usually have about 6-8 vasculitic 'insect bite like' eruptions which have erupted overnight. They will be scattered over my body. They sting excruciatingly. They sometimes wake me at night. The stinging is unbearable and I have to get into a bath. Fortunately most times I sleep through and just wake up in the morning with them. I also have many of these eruptions from previous days including some bruises and some scabbed, but they only really sting when they are new.

The ? cholinergic hives come up as soon as I start moving around.

I have been taking my tapering dose of prednisolone on getting up about 8.30 am currently 7 mg for 2 days.

Initially the prednisolone carried me through for a few hours and then I took my Z/Z combo. But I am having to take that earlier now. So I probably take the Z/Z about 9am.

I am having major cholinergic skin reactions after eating anything. So now I take 1 Avil (chlorpheniramine) about 11am 1 hour before lunch. I still have a reaction after lunch no matter what I eat so I really need to boost my antihistamine load so that it peaks at lunch-time. I don't think I could take a higher dose of sedating AH so I'm wondering if I should take 2 Zyrtec in the morning. I have also been prescribed Doxepin (deptran) but I'm not taking that at the moment. I'm not sure how long it takes for deptran to reach its peak levels .

I have been taking the 2^nd Zyrtec after lunch.

Then a Avil (chlorpheniramine) before dinner and maybe another Avil after dinner if flaring.

I usually take phenergan 25 mg before bed.

I'm just looking for some comments on my meds

The local GPs don't seem to want to start me on any mast cell stabilizers. They want me to see a specialist first, but I cannot get an appointment until the end of March.

Unfortunately it is not easy to get diphenhydramine in Australia for some reason. The Benadryl Night time cough elixir has another active ingredient in it. I rang epharmacy today and they have it in 50 mg tabs so I will get some tomorrow.

Meds today

9 am 8mg pred

10 am Z/Z

11 am Avil

12md Zyrtec

1.30 avil

5 avil