Allergies

Does anyone know if Allergies and ITP can interact? I believe I am being bitten by bed bugs. I have a severe allergic reaction in my opinion to the venom the bugs use. I get huge painful hives. I'm 90% sure of these facts.

However my doctor, his assistant, and my landlord are not convinced. I was told that ITP can cause swelling. Or perhaps it can even exacerbate the swelling of hives.

So does anyone have any experience with allergies/hives and ITP? Also has anyone ever noticed that if multiple people live in your household, that you get bitten more often than the rest of your family? In New Orleans, we had a flea problem but my husband would rarely get bitten while I would get tons of bites. Now he has rarely been bitten by the bed bugs, while I am getting bitten multiple times almost every night.

On a side note, my count was down to 24k on Tuesday. Lowest I have ever been I was surprised because it looked like my bruises were healing. However some of the larger hives are bruising. I was told to stop taking ibuprofen for the pain and to stop taking antihistamines for the allergies. Guess we will see if that helps on my next count which is on Monday.

Thanks for any replies!

I'm not sure about bed bugs, but for the fleas, yes. My husband and kids get bites all the time and I don't get any, ever. Are you on any treatments that you could be allergic to, causing the hives? I dunno, just a try and see thing I guess!

I've never been allergic to anything in my entire life. I only take one medication, and this is definatly not the cause.

I'm sure it's bed bugs for a couple of reasons: 1.) Before the hive gets so large, it usually starts with about two to three small hives. (bed bugs bite in two's and three's) 2.) I notice the hives in the morning when I wake up (bed bugs usually bite right before dawn or in the night) 3.) I've seen a bug on me at night, and I'm pretty damn sure it's a bed bug. 4.) I only get the hives on exposed areas of my skin. For example, if I go to bed in pants, I don't get them on my legs.

Also anyone notice yellow bruising? Past couple of weeks I've been getting a lot of yellow bruising once the hives disappear. Had a couple of yellows ones with peticia as well.

If your so sure it's bed bugs, maybe u should get a new mattress or get a professional cleaner in to clean your mattress. I don't think u would be getting bitten because of the ITP, but I would be washing your sheets and bed stuff and cleaning or buying a new mattress.

Well, if you do have bed bugs, you should get rid of them. You can see them on your mattress, they look like this:

www.flickr.com/photos/voltrader/3786234927/in/pool-bedbugs#/photos/voltrader/3786234927/in/pool-308028@N24/

People can develop allergies to anything at any time. My husband is going through something similar. About 6 weeks ago, he broke out in hives and blisters all over his body. Never had allergies in his life. A biopsy did not determine a cause. He still needs some allergy testing which he will have done in a few weeks after he is off of Prednisone. I suspect a peanut allergy -he has been eating peanuts all of his life. Right before he started with the hives though, he was eating them every day. When he stopped, the hives slowed down, but he is still getting them. Probably because he is eating foods with peanut oil that he is not aware of.

The only thing that ITP and allergies have in common is that they are both autoimmune in nature. Where did you hear that ITP can cause swelling?

We have terminex coming out once a week right now. I haven't had a hive since Tuesday (so according to my theory I haven't been bitten since Monday night). Terminex came on Tuesday. Hopefully they are gone for good, but Terminex will be back next week to be sure.

My hematologist said that ITP can cause swelling in some cases. When his assistant saw a bruise from one of my hives, she thought that it was a bruise that maybe looked like a hive. I wish they would have seen the hives, but they haven't seen them yet.

This may not be relevant, but one reason you were getting bitten and your husband wasn't might be that some critters respond to females, but not males. Our next-door neighbor couldn't figure out why she was being bitten and her husband wasn't. Their problem turned out to be not bedbugs, but fleas that live in rats! Those fleas, the exterminators told our neighbor, are mostly interested in females. When the rats and the fleas were gone, our neighbor's bites disappeared too.

Glad to hear that Terminix has brought some relief. There have been a couple of news spots on bed bugs recently. They recommend a professional exterminator for the bed frame,etc. And then washing the bedding in water hot enough to kill them and using a plastic mattress cover that may sufficate them or minimally keep them from crawling in the seams, etc.

It could well be somthing in our blood chemistry. I'm a mesquito magnit when they don't bother those standing around me. Someone told me that one of the B vitamins made you less attractive to Mesquito's, don't know if it works on other bugs.

I get allergy shots that occassionally swell and can get some funky brusing after it goes down so I can easily believe you may get yellow bruises after the hives do.

I was so tired of people not believing me (my hema and my landlord). My hema refused to sign a letter saying I was getting an allergic reaction to the bugs (which I needed so I can break my lease). But his assistant agreed to see me and after I showed her the pictures (my hema didn't see them because he wouldn't even see me today) she agreed with me and made a note! She said that if the hives continued after I moved out though that I need to tell her in case it was another immune disorder.

So now my landlord is going to let us out of the lease. We are throwing basically everything away. What a freaking nightmare.

My husband jokes that I'm the only one who gets bitten because I'm an all-you-can-eat buffet with blood that doesn't clot (well).

I just wanted to add that my count was at 24k last Monday and my hema told me to stop taking antihistamines. My counts were 45k this Monday (after a week of no antihistamines). Are antihistamines known to lower our platelets? Well anyways, hope it keeps going up.

Just read this now so I thought I'd answer!
bed bug bites look like big mosquito bites, my friend went backpacking a few years back and reported that fact. You can also get allergic reactions to them.
Apparently they also smell. The word corriander comes from the Greek 'koris' for bug and 'ander' from smell. Smells like bugs! You can apparently smell corriander if you have them. One of the things I remember from a parasitology course at uni They can live a year without feeding and can be found in crevices, behind wallpaper, seams of the mattress, etc. I have also heard that there were bed bugs to be found under tramps toenails in Edinburgh!
And they also tend to bite the same person every night.

Not sure if that helps but it might be worth seeing if you can get someone in to check it out.

Hello,
I was just reading this topic and was wondering if Antihistamines do affect Platelet counts.
My husband was diagnosed with ITP in 9/10. He takes allergy medication daily.
His Platelet count has been stable for the last weeks, thanks to Rituxan.
I would like to say Thanks to all of you sharing your stories and your wisdom. It sure has helped me so very much to understand ITP better and not to be so afraid of the "What If's" and the unknown.
I admire your outlook on life, it sure has given us a different prospective on life and what is really important.
Thanks again

Rita wrote: Hello,
I was just reading this topic and was wondering if Antihistamines do affect Platelet counts.
My husband was diagnosed with ITP in 9/10. He takes allergy medication daily.
His Platelet count has been stable for the last weeks, thanks to Rituxan.
I would like to say Thanks to all of you sharing your stories and your wisdom. It sure has helped me so very much to understand ITP better and not to be so afraid of the "What If's" and the unknown.
I admire your outlook on life, it sure has given us a different prospective on life and what is really important.
Thanks again

Absolutely, yes. My son had WAY too much benadryl from 14mos. to age 8 and we know it was very contributory to his ITP. The only way we could get his platelets up was to antidote the benadryl out of his system.

Thanks Patti,
do you have any suggestions how to "control" allergies without taking allergy medication?