Allergies? Scratch my arm, bumbs appear along where i scratched - Allergies Message Board

adam2000 · 02-26-2006, 09:16 PM

I have this weird thing going on...Ill get itchy out of nowhere...say on my arm. When i scratch it, the line i scratched in gets red, sometimes raised, along with some bumps along that raised red area. After a while they fade away. Allergic reaction? Hives?

Thanks for your help

Adam

Titchou · 02-27-2006, 06:39 AM

Sounds more like dry skin...severely so.

joojoobee1967 · 02-27-2006, 08:39 AM

I have had this now for over a year. It's called Dermatagraphia. The allergy Dr said it is from the mast cells in your body. Your body is reacting to something and this is what's happening. I'm taking Benadryl, Zantac (it's also a histamine blocker), Singulair (this is what finally helped me), and Zyrtec.

I have discovered that I'm allergic to Vicodin which I take for chronic pain. The itching is intense and nuts when I'm taking it but as soon as I stop the itching gets better. When all my itching started I also developed terrible heartburn which I'd never had before. Nothing was controlling it so I had an endoscopy which showed extra cells in my esophagus. The dr thought they were from an allergy so he put me on the singulair. Within 2 days the heartburn was gone and itching was much better. Now I just have to decide if I want to have chronic pain or itch all the time.

I hope this helps.

Julie

fayefvt · 04-07-2006, 12:02 PM

Hi Adam

I don't know if you're still on this site but I thought I'd reply just in case! I've had dermographia, what you describe, all my life. It's become really bad in the last two years though and I'm only now getting towards some solutions. Mine is coupled with chronic idiopathic urticaria (this is what causes my random itch, which in turn I scratch, and which in turn makes the dermographia flare). You should start by going to see your GP. Don't let anyone tell you that it's just an itch and you should just deal with it. It's not - it will drive you absolutely crazy and make you very uncomfortable!

If it's just the dermographia (and by that, I mean it's not coupled with anything) then you could ask to try various antihistamines to see which works best for you. I've tried Loratadine, Cetirizine, Atarax and Telfast. I find the latter is best for me but this is very individual so give 'em a shot and see what happens.

If it's not just the dermographia, if you feel there's an underlying cause as to why you get itchy in the first place, see if you can have a referral to a dermatologist for further examination. I've just done this (it took ages!) and have found that I'm allergic to three different things - this might help me, it might not....but it's a good place to start!

Keep in touch with the folks here at the forum though - we can all help each other with this rubbishy disease!