Ok … so much for that new drug I was trying for my Crohn’s disease.
I started the Sulfasalazine on Saturday – only one pill, four on Sunday and by Sunday evening my face and upper body were red!
It looked like I had either had too much sun or like I was blushing. By Monday I had a strange rash – little red dots over pink to red skin starting on my left lower leg. I stopped taking the medication as soon as I noticed the rash (one pill Monday so six in total) and called the Internist who had prescribed the new anti-inflammatory medication.
By last night the rash on my leg had spread to both legs and my lower torso … ok maybe slightly on my arms as well.
Here’s what it looks like:
The picture isn’t the best (that’s my shin), but if you can remember what your skin looks like after you’ve fallen and scraped your leg or some how got rug burn – well that’s what it looks like … not pleasant, but at least it’s not itching or bothering me in anyway other than it’s appearance.
I’m also really really really nauseated and have a headache. I guess that’s normal enough when starting a new medication, but considering I only had one pill yesterday – maybe 32 hours ago, you’d think that the rash, nausea and headache would be starting to die down. I guess it’s going to take a few more days before I feel more like myself again.
Obviously from the name of the drug- Sulfasalazine there’s sulfa drugs in it. We think that’s what I reacted to because the rest of the medication that makes up Sulfasalazine is similar to the Pentasa that I used to take (which only gave me a mild little tiny red dot barely noticeable rash). So I guess I’m allergic or hypersensitive to Sulfa drugs now. I’ve had them in the past – you know, for bladder infections without any problems, but I guess that’s changed.
In other news … I had to call my family doctor today- yet again! Remember I had an ultrasound on my neck two weeks ago that revealed that I have several solid thyroid nodules? I had precancerous tumors in my thyroid in the past so new growths are of great concern to me. Well I finally got my doctor to call me back and she was just going to sit on this and see what happened … duh! You don’t do that when one of the solid nodules is close to 2 cm and a previous history of suspicious growth. Plus my sister had regrowth on her thyroid (she’d had a partial thyroidectomy when she was 18) a few years ago and it was cancer.
I told her that I wanted to see an endocrinologist and supplied her with the name and number for the doctor of my choice. I’m pretty sure he’ll want to at least do a fine needle biopsy of the a few of the growths (any solid nodule over 1 cm should have FNB). Then we can decide from there whether we should just watch the lumps in my throat and see if they grow more (already have swallowing difficulty) or do surgery to remove the rest of my thyroid. Geez I hope that my family doctor doesn’t have any patients with Mesothelioma cancer, she probably just let them sit and wait before sending them to a specialist too!
Yeah, I’m more than a little angry at my family doctors poor care … she’s only done one physical on me in the last five years and has only tested my thyroid levels twice in that time too – not to mention never doing a thyroglobulin which might have picked up on suspicious growths.
Anyway … now I’m going to wait and see when I might have an appointment with the Endocrinologist. Plus I’m going to wait a day or two before I started taking the Pentasa again – i want that rash to mostly disappear before I start putting another drug into my body.
Have you had strange reactions to medications too? I seem to have reactions to about every second new drug I try.
I came out in red spots once when I had some penicillin.
Ugh. So sorry to hear. I know how frustrating it is to be sick and the medication not help out. Doubly frustrating. My body is a cage, stupid body.
hope you get better soon
Ahh I hope you get better soon, that rash looks really nasty
Ew at the picture! Hope you feel better.
That’s the pits! I had an allergic reaction to an adhesive they used to help close some wounds on my leg after surgery. It spread all over my body, and took weeks do disappear. I hope you can get things straightened out faster than I did. When medications backfire, it’s the worst feeling ever.
That’s a nasty looking rash. I have had strange complications to medications too. They’ve never found a reason why I react so strong to medicition. Hope you get better soon.
Sorry to hear about your health problems. I have had hypothyroidism for years. It seems thyroid problems are becoming more and more common.
Sorry about your health, but one of your comments was really interesting:
“somehow got rug burn” – very polite way of saying, since there aren’t really that many “how tos” on getting rug burn…
Hope this won’t offend you, it’s just a simple attempt to make you smile.
Leo Saraceni
Dang, what a bummer. Hope it all gets cleared up soon! I’ve dealt with endothermic skin in my life, and it is not fun at all.
Sorry to hear about your health problems.I know how frustrating it is to be sick.Believe on god I hope you get better soon.
I completely understand your frustration. Several years ago, I took one penicillin pill and my tongue swelled and it could have been severe if I hadn’t got to the hospital.
sad to hear about your condition but I hope you’re feeling much better now. Get well!
Oh, poor you! I’m so sorry to hear that you have such health concerns. Sounds awful!
Sulfa yes, I’ve heard many that reacts really bad at that. I know one that were so badly swollen up that she had to be hospitalized and they had never seen such a severe case. She did switch skin after that too, looking like h*ll when the skin flakes came off…. she was their study case…
I guess when having autoimmune deseases, we’re worse coping with everything else. I have that problem too, overreacting to everything nowadays. *sigh*
Regarding the thyroid nodules, get rid off them. I hate doctors like that, to sit and wait for something bad to happen? No way! My sister had one too, they took it away.
Tricia, I just happened upon your blog today and is kind of seemed like it was meant to be. I had been out of commission for a couple of months (just 2 months ago). I happened to go into the E.R. at our local hosp. with what was diagnosed as kidney stones. I was admitted and somewhere in between being admitted I was put on a ventilator and was in a coma for about 4-5 days. After coming out of all of this and getting home (with lots of other things happening in between these times) and asking to have copies of all records that were taken at the hospital… when reading these records I wonder how some of these Dr.s. get away with what they do. In the records it seemed that I was being blamed for going into the coma and having to go on life support. What’s up with this? I have since decided not to ever go to that hospital again. After going there for the last probably 30 years. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with reactions to drugs but I just thought it seemed so similar in our own way. I wish you nothing but good luck from here on out and that you also have good luck with medications. Stay well. JJ
Tricia, it is just tough luck girl. get down to finding the right doctor who can give you some personalised attention. I just hope that your problems are sorted away soon.
Do you no what ther rash was called?
Do you know what that rash is called cause I have the same excact rash.and want to know what its called
No I don’t have a name for it but it was an allergy to the medication I was taking which was a sulfa drug. Are you taking any medication … particularly a medication with Sulfa in it? If so .. call your doctor and more than likely stop or start to taper down your dosage right away. Sometimes this kind of rash can not only be an allergic reaction but something called Stevens-Johnson syndrome which is a very severe form of this rash and it needs medical attention immediately.
Anyway .. there are all kinds of rashes. Mine was from a medication – one that I can never ever take again or I may have a very serious reaction. However if you have a rash that looks similar to the one in my photo but it wasn’t caused by a medication it could be from a food or a bug or a new soap. The best thing to do is see a doctor. Hope this helps!