Why am I getting sudden red blothchy rashes all over upper body-could it be from stress or anxiety?

[preciousgirl]

I was wondering if anyone could give me ideas on what my rash is coming from. I got 4 trigger point injections with Marcaine done 3 weeks ago for the first time ever for Fibromyalgia. That was on a Friday. The next day-Saturday (about 27hrs later), I discovered that I had several red blotchy rashes all over most of my upper body(chest, breasts, stomach, whole back, shoulders and upper arms, and face. It lasted a few minutes and then disappeared just on its own. It has continued to come back like that everyday and again leave in a few minutes-sometimes up to an hr or so but then keeps coming back more than once a day everyday for the past 3 weeks.The only other thing that I have done differently besides getting those trigger point injections, is that I did increase my Vicoden pills from 1 a day up to 3 a day that Saturday that I got the rash later that evening.That is also the day after the day I got the trigger point injections). It has now been 3 weeks with this red blotchy rash that comes and goes sporadically throughout the day everyday and I don't know what it's from. I tried decreasing the Vicoden back down to 1 pill a day and taking Claritin in day and Benadryl at night and its still not going away and keeps coming back everyday.

So my question is what do you think this rash is and what is it being caused from? Do you think it's an allergic reaction from the trigger point injections or from the Vicoden or neither? My doctor doesn't know what the rash could be from and said he didn't think it was from the Vicoden because I had already been taking 1Vicoden pill a day for 2 months with no rashes up until the day I increased it to 3 pills a day which he says shouldn't make a difference bc if I was allergic, that should've happened even when I was just on 1Vicoden a day.

I am also a very stressed out person and am very anxious and worried all the time. I have several chronic pain conditions that cause me anxiety and stress and worry. My doctor did say just as a guess well maybe the rash is from"nerves". He said you are very anxious and stressed and maybe the rashes are from that. The thing is though, I've been anxious and stressed my whole life and especially so these last three years when I got all these pain conditions. So what bothers me about that answer is why would I all of a sudden get these rashes from stress if I never got them before when I was anxious and stressed?

Does anyone know what this sudden red blotchy rash could be from?I would love to know if anyone has any ideas or suggestions. And also can stress and anxiety cause these kind of rashes? Have any of you ever gotten these rashes from stress? Or do you think the rashes are caused by something else-and if so what could it be from?

[margypops]

I have had the same ,definatly from an allergic reaction and they always say they dont know, so when you stop a med check that out... I still get the rashes, I have never found out what caused it, mine is Chronic Urticaria ,hives, and I get dremographism... itchy lines appear and then disappear, so I deal with it I have checked if I have Low Thyroid and Lyme disease I have been to docs.... they no nothing, you can go for allergy tests ,they are expensive unless you can go through your insurance , I still got nowhere, 18 months later I am still battling through, doing my own research, mine came on after a Dental procedure went badly wrong, I was given several meds at that time and they also reacted with each other , wont go into it, its a long nasty story of a incompetant Dentist  who had Alzheimers and shouldnt have been practising.So I still dont know whether it was meds he gave me or the Novocaine, or any of the materials he used.I use for the burning and itching, Aloe Vera Gel, I get it from Trader Joes, sometimes I take claritin but it doesnt take it away. I get an itchy scalp aswell.Good Luck let us know if you find out anything new .but it does sound like allergy and if you eliminate each thing where you can you may find out .

[preciousgirl]

Thank you for answering me and for your suggestions as well. I think it is an allergic reaction too. But I don't know if it's from the Marcaine(in the trigger pt injections) or if it's the Vicodin or one of the other meds I'm on. I just figured it would be from the Marcaine or Vicodin since those are the only meds that were given(Marcaine) or increased(Vicodin) at the same time I got the rash all over my body.

I've asked my GP and he says he doesn't think it's from the Marcaine(trig pt.injec.)bc he says thatMarcaine only lasts like 4-8 hrs so it should be out of my system already. And again he didn't think it was from the Vicoden because I had already been taking 1Vicoden pill a day for 2 months with no rashes up until the day I increased it to 3 pills a day, which he says shouldn't make a difference bc if I was allergic to the Vicodin then the rash should've happened even when I was just on 1Vicoden a day. Meaning I should've gotten this rash 3months ago, when I first started taking Vicodin, which I didn't get the rash til 2 months of taking it when dr increased dose. But again I don't even know if the Vicodin is what's causing it. He doesn't even think the rash is an allergic reaction, he just said it looks histamine related.He has no idea what is causing this rash.He just told me to take Zyrtec for a couple months and see if it takes it away. I haven't done that yet bc

#1.I want to wait til I go tomorrow back to my Rheumy who gave me the trig.pt.inj. and put me on the Vicodin and ask him what to do for the rash. Hopefully the rash will be there when I'm in his office with him(since it comes and goes sporadically) so he can see what it looks like and maybe he'll be able to tell if it's an allergic reaction based on that. I already called him earlier a couple weeks ago but only got to ask the nurse who asked my rheumy and said he didn't know what the rash could be from but didn't think it was from the Marcaine injections. I was the one who asked if it could be from the Vicodin increase and she said to go ahead and decrease my Vicodin pills by 1 a day to see if it made a difference in the rash or if it went away. She didn't even ask the dr about if it could be from the Vicodin. She just told me to do that.

So I want to go tomorrow to him(rheumy) and ask him if it's from the Vicodin. I even went back down to 1pill a day which is what I was taking for 2months with no rash and the rash and itchiness still keeps coming back everyday. No change.I want to ask him if it's not from that, then what? He said on phone he doesn't know, but maybe he'll know if he can see it. Hopefully. I am going to ask him if he doesn't already tell me to go off the Vicodin completely. That is the only way I will know whether or not that is what is causing the rash or not. Then I will ask him to give me another alternative pain mgt. medicine to take in Vicodin's place since I am in severe pain and it's the only pain med I take at night before bed so I need something for pain.
And lastly I will tell him how my GP wanted to treat it with Zyrtec and ask if he thinks that's how I should treat it or if he thinks I should treat it some other way with something else instead or along with the Zyrtec. But then I'll be confused about which treatment(med)to take if he disagrees with my GP.
Can you all of a sudden become allergic to a drug you've been taking for months?
My dr doesn't seem to think you can but can you?
And is there any way this rash can be just from stress or anxiety? Is that possible?Thanks for your help!

[preciousgirl]

That was to margypops by the way.