Posted by Peter on October 1, 2003, at 17:49:07
I woke up at 5a.m. this morning 'cause my body was so itchy. I turned on the light and saw that I had what appeared to be hive-like welts on my hands, face, and one or two on my arms. I took a claritin (the only antihistamine I had handy) and 5mg ambien to get back to sleep for a few hours. The conditiom has persisted throughout the day today, and the areas around the hives are more swelled-up. Also, a rash has popped up on my neck - little red spots all over my neck.
Now, I've been taking lexapro for 26 days and nothing like this has happened before since I started it. I've also been taking adderall and klonopin with it, and I haven't added anything new to the mix; in fact, I've been decreasing the adderall,for the last week, following the orders of my pdoc.
Is it possible that this is an allergic reaction to the lexapro? But how could it happen this late into treatment? I thought allergic reactions to meds happen pretty soon after you start them. I called my pdoc's private line, because I've been bugging-out all day about this; I think he was with a patient so the conversation was very short; but he said I should take benadryl and see if it helps - he said he didn't see how this could be an allergic reaction to the lex this late into treatment. I didn't have time to ask him anything else. Then I looked up 'hives medication allergy' on the web, and I found a few sites describing allergic reactions to meds - they said that one rarely has an allergic reaction the first time the body is exposed to a med - it's only after the body begins to recognize the foreign substance that the immune system begins to respond. I might be thinking unclearly because of the high level of anxiety this has provoked in me, but when I read that I started thinking that allergic reactions to medications do NOT happen immediately, and now I'm paranoid that this is a dangerous allergy to the lexapro. Any feedback? I'm really anxious.
poster:Peter
thread:264784
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030928/msgs/264784.html