Hives and angioedema

[wilbankslisa]

Have any of you ever heard of Hives or Angioedema being
a symptom associated with MS?

[Sequoia]

Welcome to MSWorld, wilbankslisa!

I've moved your thread to the "General Questions and Answers" forum for you. You'll get more responses there.

To answer your question, I haven't heard of hives or angioedema being directly associated with MS. Hives can be a reaction to many medications, though. Have you recently started taking anything new?

If so, you should stop taking the medication right away and contact your doctor. Hives can be an early warning sign for an allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.

You should contact your doctor anyway, because allergic reactions can develop even after you've been taking a medication for a long time. Your doctor will want to find out what's causing your hives. I assume s/he is already looking into the angioedema.

Best of luck with getting these problems solved!

[MSW1963]

wilbankslisa, I had hives associated with my pre-dx MS sx' every month for about 5yrs, after that only occassionally.

I would break out in hives involving my body and face, eye swollen closed that did not respond to treatment; optic neuritis about a week before my 'cycle' each month and I lived with bladder infections during the 5yr period of time.

I've only heard of one other person w/this sx. It's very unusual as an indication of MS, but my world class ms neuro acknowledges the not well understood association between my hives and monthly MS sx early in my disease.

I was also dx with catamenial epilepsy during that time.

[rdmc]

I've developed allergies to quite a number of meds over the course of my MS. Usually it's a med I've been on for awhile , or in the past, and then wham, one day I take it and break out in hives. It's happened with numerous antibiotics, and with drugs I was on long term like tegretol and neurontin.

I've only had the angioedema with one drug and believe it or nor...it was a medrol (steroid) drug. My tongue swelled up and blocked my airway and it was scary....the ER gave me tons of benadryl and epinephrine. since then I steer clear of steroids.

I don't really think the hives are associated with MS...with me I just think I've taken more meds (like more antibiotics due to frequent utis) and that's sent my sensitivity to them over the edge.

[Jade Divine]

Had both years before MS dx

Hi. What an interesting question -- I have always wondered about the angioedema that I was diagnosed with as a teenager due to an allergy to tetracyclines. The doctor told me that it was inflammation of part of the brain if I remember correctly and I had to stop the medication and take high doses of Advil with Tylenol every few hours to get the swelling down.

When I was in my early twenties, I can remember getting an outbreak of hives due to sun exposure - only the parts of my skin that were exposed to the sun, i.e., hands, wrists, forearms, ears, face, neck. Doctors didn't know why. I just treated it with aveeno baths. It lasted a good few days.

Then.... in my late 20s I had an outbreak of hives that lasted months and months and kept me from being able to work sometimes. Again, the dermatologist I went to tested me for all allergies and not one came up. At this time I was also confused as to why I was always "sick" when it rained and when I got sick I was always out of work for longer than other employees. I blamed myself, thought it was some lazy part of me that I was denying existed and maybe I just didn't want to be at work. Crazy how I blamed myself instead of looking into why I was always getting sick.

In my early thirties, I was diagnosed with MS after optic neuritis. About 6 months later I was also diagnosed with lupus. In retrospect I believe those hives were lupus related -- because I do have sun sensitivity. And, I also have MS sun sensitivity that just knocks me on my butt with fatigue and achy limbs.

I think there are so many twisted roads to get to a diagnosis of MS. Sometimes I wonder if the tetracyclines I was taking for acne that caused the swelling in my brain was a springboard for the MS to begin its slow and silent assault on my body.

Hope this is helpful to you. Thanks for your post --

jade

[MSW1963]

Jade Divine, my optic neuritis and hives were always a week to ten days before my cycle. I also had blood in urine that turned the water red until my gyn doc put me in the hospital to determine if I had kidney stones or anything else that might turn up. The 'cluster' of sx's lasted for approx 5yrs, it took a while for me to figure out the predictable timing of my hives outbreak.

I was seeing a dermatologist who did not believe any relationship existed between my period and hives outbreak, beyond coincidence.

I was also experiencing cognative problems with speech and reading comprehension.

Prior to that, I never had a food alergy. I wasn't on medication, I was an otherwise healthy 20 something.

I was eventually diagnoised with catamenial epilepsy which explained the hives, cognative issues and ON that coincided with my period. The Epilepsy Foundation had tons of material for women on the condition for a couple of years, then one day any reference to catamenial epilepsy was just gone.

I think that dx has evolved to be recognized as a presentation of autoimune disorder.

[MSW1963]

I wanted to mention that my epilepsy diagnosis was based on abnormal EEGs, along with the presentation that coincided with hormonal fluctations. Catamenial=hormone.

I wish I could edit a previous post.

[Sequoia]

I wish I could edit a previous post.

You can email a Moderator and specify what changes you want made. Sparky10, KarenR and poohb3ar have their MSWorld email addresses in their Profiles.

[MSW1963]

Also, there was a fair amount of detectible eye rolling from general neuros when I mentioned catamenial epilepsy. I think like a number of other unusual presentations that only women experience, this was not taught in medical school.

Babies are not just smaller versions of adults.

Women are not just humans without the penis.

Sequia, thanks for the suggestion.