Itching

[Gemma01]

Hi today i have come up in what looks like bites, I have 3 of them and they really itch, could like be linked to my PBC?

[cavi]

Hi Gemma01 This is just what is happening to me I get like a sharp prick feeling followed by a really bad itch it starts to bleed then two or three bite looking lumps appear this is a completely different itch to my other itch I get .The other itch is really bad but I don't get these bite looking lumps when that starts,i have had all kinds of things for all kinds of bites but as today not a thing as helped me one kind of itch is bad enough without two it drives me to tears Take Care

[Gemma01 in reply to cavi]

Really, so they don't go away, mine have only started today? Have you had yours for long?

[cavi in reply to Gemma01]

Believe me this as been going on well before I was diagnosed with PBC I have been to a skin specialist had skin allergy tests and still happening no one else in the house gets bites so I just don't know anymore perhaps it is another thing that can happen with PBC its very strange I get them most days I even had it happen when I was with my PBC consultant I showed him and I don't think he had a clue either what they were I am thinking of having a skin biopsy if its the last thing I do Ill find out whats going on please let me know if yours are a one of or you get them again and if you ever find out whats going on I would really like to hear from you .

[Gemma01 in reply to cavi]

Oh dear that sounds horrible. Ok i will let you know if they last, I have 3 at the moment and they have all come up today i hope they go away soon. Take care thanks for you reply

[littlemo in reply to Gemma01]

sHi Gemma I got lumps like that the year before I was diagnosed with PBC seen dermatologist who felt it was folliculitis from all the cratching and prescribed an antibiotic which actually made my itch worse so I didnt take it for long. Eventually when got started on med for itch the lumps did go away but I did have a bit of faint scarring from where had scratched so much bled then healed. Another little tip is to keep nails short to lessen the damage you can do. Best of luck.

[judyt in reply to littlemo]

I know this is something you have probably thought of but are you sure it is not dust mites, or feather mites. It makes it sound like one is not a good housekeeper, but believe me you can be really careful and still find it hard to avoid these things. I have a daughter who is Coeliac and when she was a child I had endless trouble with her getting itchy bites. In the end we tracked her problem down to feather mites because in winter we had feather duvets on our beds. Nobody else in the family got them and once I changed her bed to have a wool filled duvet the problem stopped.

Also once she was on a gluten free diet lots of her problems have disappeared and I am inclined to think that having an autoimmune disorder leaves us open to all sorts of other things. Once your body is under stress with coping with the autoimmune thing, whatever it is, you fall prey to things that other people don't.

[littlemo in reply to judyt]

Hi Judyt no the problem is just the itch you get from PBC. I only got the lumps the year before I was diagnosed from all the scratching but since that (12yrs ago) I rarely get lumps but still have itch but fairly well controlled with the meds. The professionals feel the itch may be down to the bile not being excreted in the normal way and rising to the under surface of the skin, the other theory about what causes the itch is that the bodys own opiate levels are low and the body craves the opiate (much like a drug addict craves eg. heroine and itches if cant get a "fix"). My theory would be more re the first to do with the bile as over the yrs have found that if havent eaten for while or just after eating (for just few mins though) or in the night the itch is at its worst when my stomach is empty and therefore there is nothing for the bile to work on

[Hidden in reply to littlemo]

Hello littlemo.

I have also read the professionals' theory with regards to the itch of PBC (and other liver disorders).

I know myself that with just being a nithg-time itcher, reason being it is at random places over the body is due to it being in the bloodstream that is constantly flowing. The bile seeps out and apparently does try to leech out via the skin. In my opinion to add further I reckon it is the bile that reacts with the tiny nerve endings that give us all the sensations of the itch.

In a way if you look at it as obnoxious as it is, it is probably a body defence mechanism, leak used bile out of the skin to rid ourselves of toxins that the liver is in a bit of struggle with now.

My itch disappears around 5a.m. every day and I assume then that due to the stomach being empty and food all digested, there is no bile left in the system to process. As soon as we have something that has a bit of fat in it, bile tends to be released from the gallbladder to start further with the digestion process so it figures that early morn when we rise our system is pretty much clear and in that restful period. We start eating breakfast and then the bile starts to flow once again.

[Hidden]

Hello Gemma01.

Just seen your question (I had a week away hence no postings in that time).

You don't mean the little itchy sort of raised lumps that tend to appear on the backs of your hands?

If what I think then it is due to the heat. I've always got them and know of others who do too. They seem to surface when it is sunny but I think it is made all the worse with having PBC especially if you have the itch as it adds to it temporarily (as the lumps do vanish).