Anyone here suffer from Angioedema?

giddyup715 · 12-19-2003, 08:50 PM

About 6 months ago I woke up in the morning and my face and lips and eyes were all swollen up and painful. I went to Emergency and they said that I was having an allergic reaction to Altace (blood pressure med). Well I was on that med for 3 months. Why now? Then the next day, it was worse. I ended up at another emergency room it got even worse. They said the same thing and sent me home. I ended up waiting for the swelling to go down (took about 8 days). Steroids didn't work either.
Well, it happened again I woke up with it yesterday and went to the dr.'s.
She said I have angioedema. I looked it up on the net and from what I read I have the "rare" kind. She sent me home with 2 shots (didn't work) and a scripts for prednisone. I'm still swelled up and talk funny. I know to watch about my breathing from the swelling. Anyone else have this?

shelremi · 12-27-2003, 11:21 PM

Hi, I have been diagnosed as having urtecaria. Although, I get it all different parts of the body. A long time ago, I got it in the face and mouth, like you, the hospital sent me home too. A GP told me it was giant hives, but it seems to come with the heat or pressure, tight pants, belt, heavy bag hanging off my arm etc. Then last year for 3 weeks from my knees down swelled and felt like they were bruised, I thought it was urtecaria having started aerobics again. I get lumps on my body from time to time which is extremely painful. Today both my arms are sore and can hardly move them as though they were badly bruised, like I have been in an accident. I hate this. It makes me so depressed and cranky. I am in Australia and take Telfast 180, which is for hayfever and itchy skin. The lumps sometimes feel itchy and when you scratch them they hurt like hell, the size of the lump can very from small to the size of a dinner plate or bigger. Sorry to ramble but it's good to find others with the same complaint that may be able to help. Thank you

christie080500 · 01-02-2004, 06:59 PM

I have had chronic urtecaria and agioedema for 8 months now and no Dr. can find the cause. I have been to the hosp. 4 times, and they told me to not take any asprin, tylenol, or ibuiprofin, that they caused the angioedema to flare up. However, on occassion, my lips especially and sometimes my eyes will swell for no reason and last for 2 days or so.
The steriods (prednisone, etc. ) didn't help me, so now The doc gives me Adrenaline shots which really help, but make me want to fight. The swelling goes down much more quickly with the adrenaline.
I am so frustrated, as there is nothing worse than going to work looking like a freak, and I can't miss any more because of it. And those that don't have it, don't understand.

giddyup715 · 01-02-2004, 10:50 PM

Well, the doctor said it was definitely a reaction to something i ate. I usually just eat at work and checked the menu. Nothing unusual that I haven't had before. The only thing I had that was a "possibility" was food coloring. Yes, they put yellow food coloring in the poultry stew to make it appear more appetizing. A lot of restaurants will do this too. Chicken gravies are so yellow cause of the food coloring. Yes, a lot of food institutions use red or yellow food colorings to make their product appear more appetizing. You might want to check into that. Well, to tell you the end of the story about my face, I will warn u that this could gross you out.
My face still was swollen and it went down on one side but got bigger and more painful on the other. I had to blow my nose (the nostrils were so swollen, was a hard thing to do) but I had to blow it and when I did, everything just exploded!
Literally! Something went pop! and all this fluid and pus started coming out of my mouth. There was no place for this stuff to go, so the inside of the top lip just blew and it all came out. Blood and pus and all sorts of yucky stuff. So I thought it had become infected and called my Dr. for antibiotics. She was on vacation and the DR. handling her cases just told me to go to ER and get it checked out to see what "strain" it was. That was on Christmas eve. I didn't go because I felt better and I have a followup appt next week. I still feel like there is something there. The doc's say that there was no infection there or a cyst in there cause I had 2 cat scans done and that it would have shown up if it was.
Well i can still see something there and will show her when I see her.
And yes, how embarassing to work like that. I talked funny too. I work in a prison and have to "face" 1300 male inmates on the chowline daily. Yes, and they do have a few comments to say about the food steward with the swollen face. Sorry this is so long but, on the news the day before I had the guts to go back to work, there was a BIG story on TV about 2 women christmas shopping at a mall and they got into a fight over a parking spot and one of them ended going to the hospital. I told the inmates that I wasn't the one that went to the hospital and that "she" looked worse than me. LOL! The ones that didn't know me fell for it. A few good laughs over that one there and something for the inmates to gossip about for a few days.

captt · 02-07-2004, 12:19 AM

I think I can help with the problem. Start taking a daily dose of Benedrly or generic equivalent before bedtime, it will also help you sleep. Also, Zyrtec can be taken when you feel this swelling starting to happen. There are a number of things that can trigger the Angioedema, for me it is stress, citrus or too much vitamin C. I have been to numerous doctors and allergists and nobody could figure out what I had. I hope this helps.

T