i need help! for about 10 years my skin has been welting when ever i sctatch it. It wasn't so bad in the begining i would notice it after any heavy impact on my skin. now it's getting alot worse with new symptoms. i get so itchy for no reason, normally at night. i scratch and scratch all over even my lips and fingers and feet are itchy. then the welting starts even with light scratching all over my body. i use the hypoallergenic soaps and detergants and i'm on antihistamines and beta-blockers but nothing works. I've always had sensative skin but this is crazy! I cant take it n e more i need sleep and relief.
I have an appt. with a dermatologist tomorrow but i'm so nervous. i've never been to one before. i dont know what is going to happen. I'm worried that either i'll have to take more meds and completely alter my life or that he'll be no help at all!
n e way i was hoping that if n e one else is dealing with this problem if they could tell me how thay manage it and perhaps what causes this b/c i know it's extremely rare. please help , any and all advice is needed
thankx

itchy and welted in Pa

HI,

You sound just like me. Mine didn't start to get any better until I went to an allergist. One of the things we discovered was a nickel allergy, and it turns out that this was the major cause of the skin symptoms.

A nickel allergy as bad as mine means no jewelry (all gold has nickel in it, white gold even more than yellow), and covering up the inside of the button on my jeans with a Band Aid, stuff like that.

He gave me some VaniCream with Triamcinolone in it (it's like hydrocortisone), and I take antihistamines and allergy shots. My skin has gotten much better since I started all of this.

I don't know if yours is the same as mine, but maybe my experience helps. :)

Dustoff

You should also look into your thyroid. If you are hypo or hyper thyroid it can cause extreme skin issues.

Now you can not accept just a TSH test it will only tell you when something is extremely out of whack. You will need to get FreeT4 and FreeT3 and a TPO antibody check as well. Most MD will just check the T4 and TSH this is unsuffiecient to see the whole picture.

Sincerely,
MG

As the other poster said, you need to look at allergy issues. I didn't have anything as severe as what you are describing, but I was having some serious skin issues just about daily on my upper body. I tried everything. Somedays it would be much worse. I then realized that after taking certain medications, it got worse. I wasn't allergic to the medicine but to a filler that was common in all of these pills: povidone. I stopped taking all of them but was still not COMPLETELY better. I then realized that the Synthroid pill I took everyday had povidone in it so I had to change brands. Now, my skin is much better but I'm still having a little bit of trouble. So, I'm trying to figure out where it is coming from.

An allergist might be your best bet if you can't get it under control. My derm was of no help to me.