Urticarial vasculitis returns

Hi 

Thanks for your advice re taking Zantac for H2 receptor function and PPI for relief of heartburn. I'm glad your children did so well in the competition Deb. It's great to get advice from people experiencing the condition rather than health professionals who are often being overly cautious to protect themselves and I say that as a health professional (RN)

I'm having a setback today.  The  vasculitic hives have returned.I am very upset as they are stinging, despite taking pain relief. They will annoy me for at least the next 10 days as they progress from stinging> burning> itching> sore> bruising lasting about 2 weeks. There are some pics of what my back looked like when I had the vasculitic hives about 2 weeks ago at http://bolandg.zenfolio.com/p352969536 ( can't seem to put a link in here)

  My back was just starting to heal up and now I will be back to square 1. Today  I also have vascultic hives on the back of my neck,arms, abdo and legs. I seem to have 2 different but related condtions:  chronic urticaria and occasional EIA and the very nasty urticarial vasculitis. Do any other forum members have UV as a symptom of MCAD.

Changes prior to this new development:

started Pantoprazole ( Protonix Somac) yesterday. So far I have not experienced the severe GERD that I had, so the PPI must be working
reduced Deptran from 100 mg to 50 mg
Had some jelly with food colourings. I don't seem to have sal. sensitivity. My triggers seem to be change in core body temp.

Any thoughts on what might have caused this?

I still have cholinergic hives after every meal but  can live with that.

Current meds: 1mg prednisolone morning (slow taper 1 mg since about 1wk ago),  Non sedating anithistamine morning, small dose sedating antihistamine morning, Zantac morning, PPI morning, sedating antihistamine and Deptran before bed. I have been playing around with meds as I am trying to find the most effective and least expensive combo.

Anyway this is a bit of a self indulgent rant.

Patersonic. I have an appointment with Dr Wei on the 16th April late morning. Just thought I'd let you know in case you are in Melbourne that day.

Thanks in advance

Gerri

--

Post to ICUS forum

I have had anaphalactoid type reactions in the past to the following products, but this was before I developed CU (only had that for about 2 months)

 

Weight loss products:

Optislim

protein shake for dieting( forgot name)

Ovaltine Low joule variety

I thought it might be the maldextrin in these products or possibly soy. Needless to say I haven't had them since experiencing these symptoms about 18 months ago.

 

and cosmetic products as follows

make up remover wipes

sunscreen

lipsticks

hair gel or fudge

 

The symptoms were itchy all over, especially around the eyes, cramping bowel spasms and/or diarrhoea, dizziness/ low BP, tingling all over and muscle pains in arms and legs. I also get these symptoms from exercise too but not all the time.

 

Just thought I'd add this because someone may be able to enlighten me further

Post to mast cell disorders forum

Hello back again.

 

I am in e-mail contact with Dr Wei now and he has sent me a request to have the following blood tests which I have had done.

 U&E

LFT

FBE

tryptase

Coeliacs

chlamidia pstiticossis (? sp)

strongoloides

cryoglobulin

cold agglutinin

E&A

ANA

ANCA

RF.

 

The pathology lab said that it may take up to 2 weeks for some of the results to be completed.

 

 I have been playing around with my meds and am having some success. Since taking Doxepin 50 mg at night I no longer have the stinging and  burning from the mosquito bite like hives which is a great relief.

 

Today I have taken Zyrtec 10 mg at 7 am, 9 am, 11 am, and 4pm. I have not taken any sedating anti -histamines. I had a small flare of all-over hives after lunch. I've also taken 2 lots of Zantac 150mg. I'm tapering off prednisolone down to 6mg /day.

 

It feels so much better having some control. I feel almost normal except for the dry mouth, blurred vision, poor balance and occasional brain fog.

 

My skin reaction images of are at this web address http://bolandg.zenfolio.com/p3529

 

I'm curious to know whether anyone has flares from the very act of eating regardless what the food is, because this is what happens to me. My system has to be saturated in anti- histamines to prevent an over all break out of hives about 30mins - 45 mins after eating.

 

Just to remind you my symptoms are chronic urticaria (every day since 21/12/09), cold-induced urticaria (first observed when developed urticaria after swimming Dec 09), exercise-induced anaphalactoid reactions ( I now realise I've been having them off and on for the last 10 years or so)

 

Well that's it for now

 

Gerri