Hives, Welts, Alergic reaction 1-week after surgery?

[decooney]

As I was recovering in the hospital, I started getting these heat/sweat rashes the 2nd day after surgery.  It seemed about an hour after taking my regular Norco/Hydrocodone pain medication, I would start sweating all over, like crazy. I was also taking Kumaden? for blood thinning to prevent clots once a day.   On the 3rd day post-op the sweating and itching got so bad they had to change my sheets and gown and everything to non-alergenic type and tried more hand wash baths and powder.  It seemed to stay the same, still itching a bit each day a little more an more and as they sent me home it was not good, but they were hopeful it would go away once I started getting up and around more.   

1-week after surgery, I'm at home and start getting larger and larger and increasingly red spots and welts popping up on areas where I sit or lay the most, buttocks, upper back/shoulders, inside of arms.  Obviously something really starting to get out of control now and getting worse or esclating.  I put up with this for about a day then went into emergency, at a local hospital and they said "wow" I was having a very strong case of hives, and they made up a cocktail off all sorts of stuff (5 things) on an IV drip, and I was there most of the afternoon today, resting, and things started to come under control a bit more, still red, but not swollen or itching nearly as much.  I hope to get responses here from others with similar happenings where it was absolutely determined the cause being meds or sweat, etc.  The other reason I ask is I had some organic strawberry juice the day before and the day of this hives incident, and I think I may have a reaction to red dye (40). When we looked on the bottle of blue Gatorade that I had been drinking a lot of since I got home for the hospital, it had Red dye 40 in it too.  Meds, Juices, confused.   I just seemed like the whole surgery made me extra sensitive to various conditions.  Confused, and just trying to figure this out so I can avoid it again in the future .  I keep guessing it's the Norco Pain meds.  I took another pain med after I got back from the hospital today, and sure enough, hives started up in a new area for a bit, but not bad and I only took one instead of two pain med pills just to see.  Hard to experiment when having pain.  Calliny my surgeon in the morning to maybe try a different pain med. 

Questions:
1. Could this just be heat rash that got worse?
2. Does this seem more liek an allergy to the ongoing Norco?
3. Or, could this be left over from the ?Keflexin they gave me the week before in surgery?
4. Or something else like the natural strawberry and Gatorade with Red Dye 40 in it.

Any solid feedback would be appreciated.  Thanks, DC

[obxpelican]

Are you still taking blood thinners?   That would be my guess.  I am not a doctor, but it's been a week now and the meds you got while in the hospital should be out of your system by now.... IMHO.  Many people have had reactions to blood thinners in the past.

As with most allergies you are going to have to stop taking some of the things you mentioned, then see the results, of course do not stop taking your prescriptions unless told by your doctor.  Try drinking only water.


Chuck

[Pat Walter]

Hi DC

I am really sorry to hear about your reactions.  I don't think I can give you much input since I am not medically trained.  It definitely sounds like an allergic reaction.  I did have a lot of itching, especially in my tummy area, when I was taking my heprin shots to the stomach.  I know I had a small allergic reaction.  Dr. De Smet confirmed it.

Unfortunatly, the only thing that can probably be done is to take some Benedryl or stop taking the meds causing the problems.  Did the doctor give you anything to take to calm the allergy?  Even steroids will sometimes help.

I think you really need some good doctor help here.  Maybe even get your family doctor involved if need be. 

I wish I could help more, but I can't. 

I will keep you in my thoughts and hope that you will get over the reaction soon.

Pat

[ahershberger]

Hi. 

I too had welt like hives all through my mid-section and upper thighs that itched so severely that I was on benadryl as much or more as I was on my pain meds.  My surgeon thinks it may be a reaction to the block and I am having another bhr in December and said we can talk with the anethesiologist but wants to still do a block.  It lasted almost 2 weeks and then went completely away.

Unfortunately, I will probably have this again but at least I know what to expect and maybe there is a counter drug after surgery they can give me.

I don't know what to tell you except that some people are extremely sensitive but it does go away.
Alison Hershberger
rbhr 8/4/08
Dr. Scott Cook
Leawod, Kansas

[decooney]

Hello,

Well, the Hives have subsided quite a bit now since early Sunday's vist to the emergency room, and after they put me on the special "cocktail" IV drip of various things I'll never be able to explain since I was so out of it when I arrived there.  My doc swtiched me right off the Norco/Hydrocodone pain med.  Also, was presribed presdisone and some other things to help keep the hives/itching away.  Just getting off the Norco makes me feel a lot better, more clear headed.  Spots are still there but don't itch near as much as before.  Also, I was twitching alot before on the Norco, and that has gone away almost completely. That was very scary and strange to wake up 20 times a night from a violent twitch so bad that it would send a shot of pain righ through my healing hip.  Nothing I've ever experienced before.  Now I can see why drug addicts twitch and flinch, all that stuff messing with the brain and the central nervous system and muscles.  Narcotics are some serious stuff, as I learned the more I had to keep taking them into my 2nd week. I hate taking anything always in fear of a reaction.  Even more so now, need to monitor closely and be careful in my situation.   

Thanks again to all of you for your review and feedback. I do feel the meds/narcotics were causing me the Hives/itching and reaction issues.  I am still on the cumaden/blood thinner and a different pain med now.  Hopefully on the home strech now in my ending my 2nd week of recovery. Starting the 3rd week is a LOT better than the 1st and 2nd week of full upper and partial lower hip replacement.

   

[decooney]

Update / Bummer!

The hives and rash are back, almost in full force again after hopital "cocktail" of suppressants wore off. 

- Previously cut back on using Norco/Hydrocodone and using another med (no change)
- Stopped drinking anything with any kind of Red Dye or Red Dye (40) in it.  (no change)
- Was recently ordered by nurse monitoring my blook to step up dose of Coumadin to 1.5x (hmmmm)
- Contine to see and feel red hives, rash, looks horrible, and kept mildly under control with other meds.
- Every night I'm dealing with hot/cold sweats almost like a fever condition.  Hard to sleep with this.

Note: The only thing left that I'm taking as compared to the beginning of post-op, is the Coumadin blood thinner medication.

GENERIC NAME: WARFARIN - ORAL (WARF-uh-rin)
BRAND NAME(S): Coumadin

I looked up side effects and it does show hives/rash. By trial and error, it's either this last Coumadin drug, or some kind of rejection to my installed components, which is very scary if that is possible. 

Any other solid ideas or thoughts about Coumadin and these symptoms, would be appreciate. Have you seen this?

[obxpelican]

I've heard of those symptoms with blood thinners.  I've also heard of strange reactions to the meds that put you out when you get a spinal.

How are you doing otherwise?  Hopefully really well.

I wonder if your doc would consider like Arixtra or something similar.... I guess it depends on how long you will be on it too.

Keep us posted on what happens.


Chuck

[decooney]

Hi Chuck,
Otherwise, I have one good day and one bad day.  I'm shocked at how much my hip muscle area aches. I'm 43 year old, formerly very active atheltically, cycling, and usually the type of person who recovers faster than average, so this whole hip replacement and post-op drugs, thinners, sweaty nights trying to get sleep is very foreign to me. 

I'm now just out of my 2nd week of recovery, got my staples out yesterday - YAAAAYYYY, and was hoping that I would feel better about my therapy exercices and simply walking on my walker.  I have some strange aches/pains that I was certain would be gone by now.  I was at pain level of 7/8 the first week.  Was at 6/7, the 2nd week.  I'm now at 5/6 this week going into the 3rd week.  I do get sharp pain when I put full weight on my newly constructed hip. They ended up installing a FULL upper acetabulum X3/Polymer insert with two screws (2nd operation same day) and left the stainless femor ball cemented in from the first procedure.  So, to recap, I had the operation twice in the same day since the first cup slipped out just out of surgery in recovery because I was shaking so bad coming out of anestisia.  I hope this helps to understand how my recovery might be different than others who only had one surgery the first day/try. Ugh.

Going into the 3rd week:

-Hives/Rash persists, maybe it's the coumadin
-Seem to get cold sweats at night when sleeping; could be drugs?
-Sharp pain in joint, when I put full weight on it, walking on walker.
-Burning/streched muscle feel all around joint, and at hamstring.
-Hurts (transition) on right side to lay down with pillow between legs
-Getting better, but still having a hard time finding comfortable sleeping positions.

[mitch]

Hope your feeling better. They had me on 2000 mg of norco every 4 hours while I was in hospital and rehab, I was so messed up I hardly knew what day it was. On thursay or friday I cut that in half and I also felt a million times better. 9 days after surgery I still take 1 hydracodone and 1 tylenal every 4 hours but I'm going to cut that down again in a day or two. I also take kumadin 1 a day. I hope your doing better. Mitch

[decooney]

END of Story, Figured it out.


Mitch,
Well, i guess it was not just me. That's how I felt too, exactly.


ANSWER/CONCLUSION:

Coumadin blood thinning medication was the culprit. 


Last details - Getting down to the last thing left, I contacted my Surgeon and told him, "that's it". I'm done with the Coumadin. What are my alternatives?  Aspirin!    The next day, ALL of my hives and symptoms went away. Also, I decided to cut waaaaaay back on the Norco, only taking one when I really need it. 

Oh my gosh, I fell sooooooo much better.  Like Mitch said above, I too was going nuts from all the stupid meds.  My head and mind is out of the clouds now. 

Thought all of you should know, the root cause analysis is complete.  Thanks for your support.