[suba]

Hi I am taking only 25mg lamictal (changed it myself w/o dr knowing cause I have nursing background and meds she prescribed are nightmare) any way today I have itchy red bumpy patch on forearm and freaking out (took years before I trusted people enough to take pharmaceuticals REALLY scared and distrustful of them) I should know this but freaking anyway help! Advice? Scared and going through lots with my husband recently died and recently dx need support and friends since I've been isolating........

[Blue_Bird]

You really need to have it checked out by a doctor

[lunaticfringe]

You are allergic to the med do not take any more of it!!!

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Don't take anymore! I ignored the first little bit of rash and wound up with it much more severely than if I hadn't done that (I thought it was a bug bite on my face).

Call your dr. first thing tomorrow but do not take any more until you are cleared. If the rash gets worse or spreads to your face monitor closely. If you have itching in your mouth or throat, swelling in your throat, any involvement of the eye or any difficulty breathing get to an ER (this is unlikely if it is on your arm and not your face but it is important if it spreads).

When I had it I had a little one night, just maybe an inch of itchy bumps; in the morning after I took another dose (stupid, stupid, stupid) of 150 or 200 mg I had it on my face and it kept spreading on my face for a day or two. In the end my entire face including lips and one eye were involved and I barely managed to avoid IV steroids. I truly believe it would have stopped if it weren't for that last dose.

Hyrdocortisone will help with the itching. If it gets bigger or the itching is worse than that you may need prescription steroid creams (I did). Avoid hot water on it as that tends to burn.

If you have any questions that I can answer please feel free to ask. I hope that it stops where it is for you and it should because you are much smarter than I was (and it's not on your face which is where you don't want it), but if you have questions I'm here.

Let us know what the dr says!

[BeyondtheRainbow]

PS. Don't freak out! It's not pleasant but it's not horrible.

And I am so sorry about the loss of your husband. This seems very unfair on top of dealing with that. I know sometimes they can start over with dosing differently and everything is fine. For me it wasn't an option because of the location, severity of the rash and that it was my 2nd bad reaction in 2 tries on it (the first was daily vomiting which was oh so pleasant).

You'll be fine. I promise. I am, not even a scar.

[suba]

Thank you so much Rainbow, you helped me feel so much better and I will call doc first thing and not take anymore. (Though am scared I'll get in "trouble" or "fired" we had a talk about this before when I changed meds I think she's best doc I've seen but I know my own body better than she does!!) Your kindness and suggestions will help me get thru till A.M.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Not taking it because you are worried about having the rash is not being non-compliant.

I am not sure that's what it will turn out to be; I'm trying to remember this for sure but I think the rash nearly always is on the face or chest or is everywhere. I don't remember it being common on extremities so with luck that won't be what you have (but assume it is until proven otherwise or you'll be like me, 7 or 8 years later telling people how you let the rash spread all over and nearly wound up on IV steroids when it wasn't necessary).

How long have you been on it? At 25 mg I assume not too long. I did it my own way; however long the risky period is I did great through that and then 2 weeks after it was over I got the rash. Which is partly why I didn't identify the risk initially although mostly it was denial or just plain not thinking or something else not very smart. I made it even better for myself in having a cold and the only cold med I could take then (and I think now with MAOI restrictions) I had been on for several days and now I'm considered allergic to that med too. So no cold meds at all for me. And that stuff was new and I'd not had a cold med in several years when I was allowed to take that so it had been exciting.

You can also take benadryl. I wound up on vistaril along with topical steroids and took quite a bit of it for the week I had the rash. I mostly slept through it. I remember what it looked like, that water made it burn and so I took few showers during that time and that it was itchy and that's about all I remember from the time I first saw my family dr for diagnosis (he immediately called my pdoc) and when it got better. I do remember that I got it badly on a Wednesday and worked part of that day which was really convenient because I couldn't work for a week but only missed 3 days (I also hit a holiday weekend).

Just try to not worry too much about it (just worry more than I did ) and it will be fine. I know it's really hard. I just started a 2nd AP and have a history of extrapydramidal syndrome on other meds and this one is an older drug so more risky. The 2nd or 3rd day I got really anxious because I had a lot of muscle pain and hadn't done anything to cause it. It turned out that someone on here told me it was probably from dropping my Seroquel dose and even though it was a tiny drop I think they were right as it was better the next day and then gone. Tomorrow I increase the dose and will go through another few days of being afraid of side effects, even though I have a script for cogentin so that if anything starts I can treat it immediately.

Meds are tough. Necessary sometimes but tough.

[wildflowerchild25]

I have nothing to say about the lamictal rash except I agree with everyone else. But I wanted to let you know I recently lost my husband too (a month ago) so I know what you're going through with that. If you ever want to talk just private message me.

[suba]

I've been on it about 4 months tried going up to 50 mgs but started having bad headaches and feeling weird (can't really describe) so went back down again...stuck with it because it's the only mood stabilizer that hasn't made me sick as hell. Am so afraid of being manic again - walked out of a good job 4 months ago in an angry paranoid manic episode which was what finally made me realize I can't do this without meds anymore. Just started taking Pristiq which is turning out to be great for the depression really no problems with it. Changed from Lexapro which made me want to eat 24/7 But I keep switching w/o my Dr's knowledge and last time she got pretty pissed/frustrated but I can't afford to drop in whenever I have problem with meds and she's been prescribing some real nightmares for me trial and error... I have such a pharmacy from previous months of filling scripts, then being too afraid to take them. (Have some Vistaril on hand, thanks for suggesting it) Benadryl makes me sick but Vistaril ok as long as occasional, low dose...thanks for listening and sharing Rainbow it is wonderful to be able to talk with someone who knows what this process is really like....

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I had the ugly headaches on it going on it both times. They went away fairly quickly though. The first time I was in a clinical trial and had very clearly been on the placebo (would have been IP but didn't have insurance for mental health and lied on the depression scales to avoid being put there) and then moved on to the part of the study where you know you are getting lamictal and it was even more clear from the headaches that I'd not had it before. I'd guess the headaches were about a week each time. Unpleasant though. The first time it just made me sick. They increased the dose people in the trial were to take rather drastically and the end result was I got sick, stayed sick and after a year had to stop the med. When I had been through almost every other common med except Seroquel which I was terrified of because I'd worked in a psych facility and the psychiatrist used Seroquel to snow people which left me believing that was the effect of the drug we tried it again and it went great until the rash. I threw up once early on but thatw as it. And after the rash I wound up on Seroquel after all but it wasn't nearly what I thought it would be like.

It's hard when meds are really scary to you. I absolutely refused to be on ADs when I first needed meds (looking back it was a good instinct but the bipolar wasn't diagnosed yet and there wasn't any reason to suspect it except for the manic summer I didn't tell my therapist about (I was in college so didn't see him in the summer) and it took a year to convince me to try them. By the time I went on mood stabilizers I was very aware that I needed them badly if I wanted to stay alive so that made them less scary. Going on APs was scary at first and then I had bad reactions to several in a row which made me even more afraid of the Seroquel which has worked well for me although I've had to add a 2nd AP recently because I couldn't increase the dose any higher and was still having psychotic symptoms. That was also scary but so far so good. I increase that dose tomorrow and then bring my AD up a little bit (I've been on half the dose for months) at the end of the week. At this rate my now-6 months old-episode will probably be under control fully by the end of the summer which is not fun to think about but I'm also just glad to see an end in sight (and summer is a rough time to stabilize me anyway).

Right now I'm glad I was able to decide to start the 2nd AP and wish I'd chosen to do so earlier and also that I'd chosen to go IP a while back in this episode because I feel like I made myself stay sick longer than was necessary by refusing to go in.

But I think with this disease there are always regrets.

I hope you are feeling better.

[Disorder7]

I was allergic to it. I had itchy bumps all over my legs and one of my feet became swollen. Apparently it wasn't an emergency. My doctor said don't take anymore and basically prescribed Benadryl.

Now....if it spreads to your face. Go ahead and go to the emergency room.

[Capriciousness]

I copied an old post of mine in an old thread. There are a bunch on this topic

Best thing is find a good and available dermatologist. I have had a number of rashes on it including a bad heat rash in the very beginning which freaked me out big time. Urgent care told me to get off it. Pdoc told me to get off of it (with out seeing it or returning my calls) but a nice nurse told me to go straight to a dermatologist. I did and he said heat rash no problem. I now have him on speed dial. And I fired that pdoc. My derm always tell me to put cortaid ointment on it and if it gets better in 24 hrs good and if it doesn't to com

[Capriciousness]

If I had stopped the Lamictal for every rash I would have lost a medication that has been a miracle for me.

You have to take it very seriously but a dermatologist is the way to go. Most pdocs and regular docs have not seen or treated this rash. Any of them will probably just tell you to stop it.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

How is it today? What did the dr say?