Weird Allergic Reactions

[Unf4bul0us]

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone else suffers from strange allergic reactions where you can’t pinpoint the cause? Both this morning and this evening my face has swollen up like a balloon, all around my jaw and my lips and I have no clue why? Last month a similar thing happened and I ended up in hospital as my throat began to close up. Is this ‘normal’ for lupus or should I get it checked out? Thanks x

[Sana78]

Hi there. ☺️

I am not diagnosed with lupus. I'm actually still waiting for results. However, when I was in college I would always get hives. Each time it was different. At one point I had to go to the ER. Some days wore worse than others. I got a bunch of allergy test done but everything came back negative. Honestly, I don't know if it's lupus related but I did experience what you are talking about.

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Sana78]

Hey! How strange!! I’ve had hives too. Good luck with all your test results. Xx

[Sana78 in reply to Unf4bul0us]

Thank you 😊 and yes it's weird but I don't get them anymore. Thankfully 😌 Did you get an allergy testing done?

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Sana78]

No not yet, just got given a course of steroids when it happened last time. X

[Sana78 in reply to Unf4bul0us]

Oh alright. Well I hope all goes well and I hope you feel better 🤗

[MEW53]

Unf4bul0us,

I don’t have Lupus.

I had the same problem many years ago with swollen face etc and always ended up at the local emergency doctor’s clinic. This went on for about 10 years, I tried to backtrack and work out what had caused it each time but couldn’t work it out. Each time I was given a high dose of prednisolone to help and always carry an Epipen on me.

This happened a few times a year and was before I became very ill with Scleroderma/Myositis. It also only happened on Fri/Sat, on one occasion I took a Chinese takeaway box to my GP and he did some nut testing and found out I was allergic to Hazelnuts and pralines, as we would have the odd takeaway on a Friday and then on some occasions have some pralines.

It took years to find and strangely enough 3 years ago when II became very ill I became allergic to penicillin and several other things.

My advice is to try and keep a diary for a while on what you eat and do, like changing sheets (has the washing powder been changed).

It took a long time to find out but got it solved in the end.

Good luck.

[Unf4bul0us in reply to MEW53]

Oh my 10 years!!! That sounds awful. Thanks for the advice, I’m definitely going to start keeping track of everything. X

[Penguintaz]

Hi unf4bl0us

I do have Lupus but I also have ecsma so most of my allergies are from that!

I find my skin is extremely sensitive to some washing powders that others use, dust , stress and pollen. Pollen sometimes even makes my eyes swell. I think the best things to do, as others have said is keep track of what you are eating or if you have a reaction after interacting with something in paticular.

Ask your GP for some allergy testing! You may get a lovely long list like me

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Penguintaz]

Apart from hives, I don’t tend to get skin involvement in my reactions. I’m definitely going to try keeping track of everything and go for some allergy testing. Thank you x

[Barbara17]

Recently I’ve discovered I’m allergic to silver. I never used to be but now if I wear a silver necklace I come out in a rash round my neck. And silver earrings gave me painful ear lobes for a week! I’m going to ask dermie at my next appointment but has anyone else on here had anything like this? I wondered if it could have anything to do with then sulphur in hydroxychloroquine sulphate? Or am I just weird???

[PMRpro in reply to Barbara17]

Is it silver? Are the items pure silver or do they have some nickel in them? That is a very common allergy and can be rather a nuisance as so many poppers or jeans buttons have nickel in them.

[Barbara17 in reply to PMRpro]

No, I think it’s just silver as I can wear cheap jewellery with no problems.

[PMRpro in reply to Barbara17]

How bizarre... Silver allergy does occur - but it is very rare.

This is quite good

dermnetnz.org/topics/jewelr...

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Barbara17]

Oh how odd, not heard of silver allergy but have heard of it in other metals!! Hope you manage to get some answers x

[Florriemay]

Hi, I had similar when I took diclofenac, I had taken it years ago with no reaction.

Sometimes our immune systems are overloaded and react to things they did not previously.

Keeping a diary and trying exclusion tests help pin it down.

Good luck.

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Florriemay]

The exact same thing happened to me with aspirin, apparently NSAID reactions are quite common in lupus (which isn’t helpful because we need them frequently!!) x

[PMRpro]

If it is that bad you DO need to get it checked out - and possibly issued with an epi-pen or the like in case it happens again and gets too bad.

Keep a diary to try to narrow down the cause - but it is very difficult. I have a food allergy, doesn't cause swollen lips or anything like that, just violent D&V until I have got rid of whatever it is but the immunologist said we could test for years and not find what it is, I should take antihistamines and that works fine for me.

I don't want to scare you, but the problem is that once you develop an allergic reaction like that to something it can suddenly get worse. So you need to be prepared.

[Unf4bul0us in reply to PMRpro]

Yeah I do know how bad it can get as my throat started closing up last month because of it. I take daily antihistamines but they don’t seem to work. After my last big reaction I was given prednisolone and double the dose of antihistamines which did calm things down but only for so long. Xx

[PMRpro in reply to Unf4bul0us]

Then you MUST get through to the medics how bad it has become.

[Shaysuekirk]

I had this all of the time! I now take Benadryl almost daily. I'm not allergic to anything (technically).

[Unf4bul0us in reply to Shaysuekirk]

I take antihistamines daily too but it doesn’t help as I’m still getting reactions which is odd!! X