Posted by BarbaraCat on August 27, 2007, at 17:25:49
In reply to To barbaracat, posted by Jeroen on August 24, 2007, at 11:17:12
Sorry to hear you came down with this. I eventually went to the emergency room. I had chicken-pox-like blisters all over, mainly on my torso but plenty everywhere else. My lips were black and swollen and cracked, every orifice was blistered, especially 'down there'. I was terrified that it was progressing into TENS, which is the stage that is deadly.
I was told by the Doc at the ER that there was absolutely nothing they could do for me except provide life support (fluid IV, antibiotics) and wait and see. She said that a hospital is no place for someone with an open skin condition because the place was crawling with staph aureolis 'and you DON'T want to get that', so the safest place was at home. I was told it would either get worse or not and all one could do was stop taking the offending substance and pray.
My prayers were apparently heard and after about 2 weeks of active progression, it turned around and began to subside. It took about a month for the blisters to clear up, but I had discoloration for about a year. I was absolutely wiped out for about 3 months but gradually everything came back to normal.
Now, you have to realize that this was a severe case that had progressed to a dangerous level - not a mild case with fewer side-effects. Also, it was NOT caused directly by Lamictal, but by another drug, DMPS, which was used to chelate mercury out of my system. It's a sulfa-based drug and it was the offending substance, not Lamictal. However, I know in my gut that Lam was the precipitating factor. Ever since I reacted to Lam with itching, red inflamed skin, I know that it set up an inflammatory condition and sensitized me. In this state, things that I had never reacted to before bothered me. I never had a problem with sulfa drugs before (Lam is sulfa-based), but now they're all deadly to me.
For instance, I had brochitis and was prescribed the same antibiotic I'd had many times before with previous conditions. Started getting the same symptoms and had to stop. I seem to be permanently allergic to many drugs I could take with no problems before this adventure.
I did much web research on this and found that this kind of thing is not uncommon with Lamictal, but not everybody reacts. There's much in the way of certain gene markers that determine one's reactivity.
So, that's my update. I'm feeling fine now, and that's saying something since I also have fibromyalgia which is getting better and better. If you don't have health (mental and physical), you don't got nuthin'.
Peace,
BarbCat
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:343909
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070824/msgs/779124.html