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Hives
by jonihs, Mar 03, 2004 12:00AM
I know I've heard alot of talk about rashes , but lately I've been getting hives everyday. they are in different places and only last for a few minutes to a few hours. The only new med I am on is Lexapro. I'm not using any new soaps, etc. and I think it was the Med. it would be alot more severe. Anyone else get these or should I see my Doc or just Ignore them?
Joni
Joni
I tried everything there was to try for this rash. I have alwasy heard that some with Hepatitis C and some who do the treatment meds start in with this severe itching. I actually didn't have itching or rash in the beginning of my treatment at all and hoped that I would just bypass this side effect. My itching started really bad on or around week 30. I suffered with it and continued to use bath salts, all kinds of lotions, itch cream and even a cream that my husband was prescribed that had some cortizone in it. I would get relief from the itch with these for only a few hours and then whammy, the itch was back.
I finally called my GI and told them that I had this rash, itch and broken out skin mostly on my arms, backs of my legs and bottom and even started around my eyelids and nose. My GI immediately called in a couple of prescriptions; Elidel creme that I can put on the broken out and itchy areas and then a 25mg pill that I take twice a day called Hydroxyzine (generic for Atarax).
After just the first application of the Elidel I started to get some relief and after 2 days of the Elidel and the pills, I was able to get total relief from itching. My skin where I had scratched so badly even starts to heal up now and the broken up areas on my skin are healing and not itching. As long as I use the creme and take the pills, I'm really not itching whatsoever. I looked up the Hydroxyzine pill to see if there would be any unusual reaction with the other combo meds that we take and I also take an AD; amitriptyline. The information about Ataras says that it is given for itching and not only for itching but for people who have anxiety and either itch or anxiety from itching (this was my catagory) and that it also helps other medications work better.
I just wish that I would of called my GI the minute I started in with this problem and had him give me prescriptions right then. It sure would of saved me a lot of money on over the counter products that didn't work for me and would of saved a lot of my time itching.
Call you doctor right away and don't wait and try to treat this with OTC products like I did. Good Luck, try not to itch. After a couple of weeks of this non stop itching and scratching, it really can tear up your skin.
I lean towards calling my doctor about things I am worried about but it is difficult to know whether or not I worry too much. Better safe than sorry...or itchy in this case.
Can Treating HCV Prevent Progression to Cirrhosis?
Henry Bodenheimer
Source: www.gastrohep.com
Hepatic fibrosis is a progressive insult responsible for morbidity and mortality in chronic hepatitis C infection. Thierry Poynard in his 1999 paper in Hepatology analyzed a large data set of liver biopsies in patients with hepatitis C and suggested that liver fibrosis progression was not uniform in individuals infected with hepatitis C. Some individuals appear to progress slowly while others rapidly progressed to cirrhosis. This dichotomy is perhaps most widely recognized in patients who have under gone liver transplantation. Patients with recurrent hepatitis C following transplant may develop cirrhosis in as short an interval as 4 to 5 years while progression to cirrhosis in a non-transplant setting typically takes 2, 3 or more decades.
Multiple factors have been identified as contributing to progression of fibrosis in hepatitis C. Three of the factors identified deserve highlighting:
Alcohol consumption is a modifiable cofactor which has been associated with more rapid progression of liver fibrosis. Although regular consumption of alcohol at levels more than 50gms of alcohol per day has been linked with rapid progression of disease, no safe level of alcohol consumption has been identified. It is wise therefore that patients with chronic hepatitis C infection avoid alcohol consumption.
A second factor associated with disease progression is fatty liver. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is increasingly recognized as a co-factor in disease progression in patients with various underlying liver conditions. This disorder is difficult to treat and pathogenesis may, in part, be related to insulin resistance associated with hyperlipidemia, diabetes and obesity. Hepatitis C infection itself, however, may contribute to lipid eposition within the infected liver. It is advisable that modifiable factors such as body weight, hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance be addressed and treated in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.
A third factor which is not able to be modified but is associated with disease progression is the acquisition of HCV at an age greater than 40 years. Older patients appear to have more rapid progression of fibrosis