Hives, hives, hives all over!!!

Hi Ladies,

I had my hysterectomy on June 29. Since then I have had a relatively smooth recovery. One oddity - I had a rash in the hospital - the docs said it was due to one of my meds or my anesthesia or just my body reacting to surgery - I can't remember that blurry 2 day period.

After being home a day, parts of my body would turn red like a sunburn, and then go away after couple hours.

Also, I have had hives all over my abdomen and chest. For the most part the are not uncomfortable - they itch a bit, but not a lot.

The doc and nurses have said it is normal - again due in part as a reaction to the surgery and/or anethesia, and maybe the pain med - I'm on percoset (sp?). I'm hoping to switch to a lower dose of codene (vicoden) by tomorrow, and maybe that will help. I've also been taking benadryl with my codene.

So anyone else with rashes and/or hives?

I haven't ever had hives, but I get itchy when I take some pain medications. Whatever it is, I hope you feel better very soon!

Amy

Yes I have had hives in reaction to pain medicines. There are very few they can give me especially of any of the opiates as I break out in hives within minutes. Wouldn't be quite so bad if the medicine would work but it doesn't. I have developed numerous allergies since my hysterectomy and what usually happens is I break out in hives all over the place. It may be related to medicine. One other question. Are you allergic to latex?? I discovered about one week prior to surgery I was. Told everyone, had it on my name band and everything and guess what happened. They had latex gloves in my room and were using them to check me over through the night. I was so itchy it wasn't funny. I had been on Benadryl due to reaction to pain med and doc was saying I should not still be reacting. I found this out because I then developed red,itchy bumps in vaginal area and had to see surgeon. They were immediately saying allergic reaction to something and gave me some cream for it. They called the hospital to check records on my stay and discovered that there were latex gloves in the room.
Hope you feel better and can change the medicines. That will probably help with this. Sending my sympathy and lots of hugs

Pain meds can do that...ICK!...Can they give you a different one?...sorry you are going through this! Does Benedryl help?

Thanks for the replies! I think it is probably an allergic reaction to the pain med. Taking benadryl helps. Bottom line - I'm not too worried about it. The hives look funky, but I'm not going out on the town, so no need to worry about looks. They don't cause me discomfort, so I'll just let them be and let the pain med do it's thing until I switch to a lower dose in a day or so. And in a week or so, I imagine I'll be on just tylenol and/or iboprofen, so all is well.

Oh and I forgot - to DVH - I'm not allergic to latex, so no worries there.

My doctor said it was a reaction to the morphein. : ) I could handle the itching rather than the pain! : )

Labradorchick - I think my doctors may have said it was a reaction to the morphein - I just don't remember - those first couple days are a blur. AND I would 100% agree - I'll take itching over pain any day! Oh how I loved my magical morphein button in the hospital.

LOL....I did too but they neglected to tell me I could only press it 4 times an hour and the first half hour I ran out but learned very quickly to manage it better after that! LOL!! It's all a memory now!!

Sham,
Keep an eye on the hives -- and DON'T SCRATCH them! (more about that later) I have chronic urticaria (I live with hives), and I have been on mega-doses of zyrtec for years. I would never recommend upping the dosage without talking to an allergist, but as long as I stay away from the known allergens -- and track what new "triggers" pop up -- I'm okay.

I wouldn't rule out latex allergy, even if you've never been allergic. I was never latex-allergic until about ten years ago, and now I don't even let care providers THINK about using latex, and it's only medic-alert dog tag. I never had problems with ibuprofen until I was on prescription strength after my endo ablation a year and a half ago. I had hives so bad that I was clawing at them in my sleep, drawing blood, and the medic center doc I saw thought I'd encountered MERSA. I got put on antibiotics so fast it made my head swim!

Good luck!