Why am I getting sudden red blothchy rashes all over upper body?

[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. Does anyone know what this sudden red blotchy rash could be from?I would love to know if anyone has any ideas or suggestions.

[preciousgirl]

Also, I should've mentioned this earlier but I didn't know if you even knew what this disease is or what it's symptoms are, but I have RSD/CRPS. That stands for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and it affects every part of your body including your skin and immune system.

I did read in a few places that RSD can cause skin rashes but I don't know if it's like the ones I'm having and I can't see any pictures on it so I don't if they look like mine or not. Also, I don't have a pain mgt. dr. right now so I can't even go to them and ask if this rash could be from my RSD. I guess I just thought it might be an allergic reaction to a drug-thinking it was either the Vicodin or the Marcaine injections since that's the things that happened around the time/day the rashes began. I also have Fibromyalgia but I don't know if skin rashes can be a symtom of Fibro or not.

So now you see why I'm so very confused as I don't know if the rash is from RSD or if it's an allergic reaction or if it's something else or what it's from so I don't know how to treat it to make it go away. Thanks again for all your ideas, suggestions, and help. Let me know if you have more of these!

[preciousgirl]

Hi, thanks again for answering my questions. I'm learning a lot I didn't know. I just figured like my doctor said that if I were allergic to something(the Vicoden) for instance that I would have gotten the rash or reaction immediately not months later. But thank you for telling me that that's not true. I am so confused as you can see by how many medicines I'm on that it could be any of those I guess and I sure don't want to have to go off all of them to find out which one it could be!

I am going to ask my Rhematologist who put me on the Vicodin and gave me the trigger point injections if I should first try to stop taking the Vicodin and see if the rash goes away to see if it's from that. Hopefully he'll replace it with another pain med though as I am in alot of pain and I take it at night to help me get some sleep and not be in as much pain. Then if it doesn't go away(the rash in a few days I guess?) then I am going to ask my parents if I can go to an Allergist and get tested to find out what this rash is from and if it is an allergic reaction to something then tell me what it is so I can stop taking/using it!

I'll also ask about a dermatologist but they would only be able to tell me if the rash was an allergic reaction or a rash from something else, right? I mean they wouldn't be able to tell me what the allergic reaction is to bc they can't do allergy tests to do that,right?

I am going back to my primary care dr who told me he didn't know what the rash is from on Wednesday to do some blood work. However, I'm not excited bc when I called today to ask what he was testing for, the nurse just said he's testing the lipids in my liver, kidneys,thyroid, and also testing to see if I'm anemic. That's it. When I asked why she said bc they want to make sure there isn't any problems with any of those things like liver failure or something that could be causing the rash. I was shocked that that's all he's testing for and not retesting for any autoimmune diseases. But he's not and I guess he can't do any allergy tests either, even blood ones which is a disappointment bc I feel like this won't tell me anything.

If after maybe trying going off the Vicodin and getting the results back from this bloodwork I'm getting in a couple days, if I don't get any changes with the rash going away or answers from the blood test then I am going to ask to go to an Allergist and dermatologist. I especially want to do that bc both of the doctors aren't giving me anything for the rash except telling me to take Zyrtec for a couple MONTHS to see if it'll go away. I don't want to do that though since now I've been taking Claritin in day and Benadryl at night and rash keeps coming back everyday and it doesn't help with the itchiness either, so I don't see the point in the Zyrtec bc I don't feel it will take the rash away or help the itchiness since the Claritin and Benadryl don't, do you?

I want them or some doctor to figure out and treat the problem, not just tell me take an antihistamine for a few months and see if it works bc then I won't know what's causing it. If it is an allergic reaction to say a medicine I'm taking, it may not go away just by treating the symptoms if I never stop taking the med that's causing it, right?Would you just take the Zyrtec and not change or stop taking any medicine-especially the Vicodin and wait a few months like he said to see if it goes away on that? Or would you instead try to go to an allergist and pos. a dermatologist to figure out if it is an allergic reaction and if so to what? And at least if they don't know what's causing it don't you think they'd have better ways to treat the rash and itchiness?(since what I'm taking isn't working).

Hopefully my parents will let me as this is driving me crazy this rash along with the itchiness and not knowing where it's coming from makes me crazy thinking docs won't want to give me any new pain meds for fear I'm allergic to them when maybe I'm not.

I will def keep you updated on what happens and appreciate your help.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
I know it sounds strange, but allergy to anything be it medicine, food, dust, animal dander –anything, can develop at any time. Many people may have been taking something for years and suddenly find themselves allergic to it.
Allergy tests are available everywhere.
Read more about them on: http://medlineplus.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/allergy.html#cat5
“Diagnosis/Symptoms
• Allergy Skin Tests(Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Allergy Testing(American Association for Clinical Chemistry)
• What Is Allergy Testing?(American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)
• White Blood Cell Differential Count(American Association for Clinical Chemistry)”
You need to consult an allergy specialist for this. Also consult a skin specialist for though we may be thinking in lines of allergy it could be something else too.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[preciousgirl]

Hi, thank you for responding. How do I get these tests you listed?And what type of doctor would I get it from? Would these tests tell which medicines I'm taking I'm allergic to? Besides the Vicoden, I also take Tramadol, Tizanidine, Zolpidem, Lorazepam, and Microgestin 1/20. And of course I got those trig.pt.injections done 3 wks ago. If it were from the Marcaine in the injections, would it be able to tell if that medicine's already out of my system which the dr says it should be?Also, is it true what my dr said about if I were allergic to the Vicoden this rash would've happened right away instead of now after 2 months of taking it?I mean is it possible to suddenly be allergic to this medicine or medicine for that matter no matter how long you've been taking it(months, years)?

Besides that I haven't done anything else differently with using anything new or eating anything new. I have a dog but I've had her 9yrs and never had this rash before...

If you know the answers to these questions I would really love to know them. Thanks for all your help so far and for your future help as well. I appreciate it very much. Katie

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the forum!
Allergic reactions are possible with both the drugs. Hence it is difficult to comment what could be causing this. You would need to get a skin test or RAST or an ELISA test to know what you are allergic to. It could be the medicines or animal dander or pollen or a new cosmetic or anything you started wearing recently.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!