On to the Next Medication!

It’s been a few months since I posted a treatment update. When last I left you, I had just heard from my doctor that I had to stop my immune suppressant drug because my body was not metabolizing the medicine correctly, causing the levels of the medication to be far too high in my body. I wish I had an awesome update for you, to let you know that my hives are back under control, but unfortunately, that’s not the news I have to report.

Medications: side effects and interactions

After stopping my immune suppressant, I sent a message to my allergist, ranking the medications that I would like to try next. It took a few weeks for him to get back to me, but we finally had the chance to weed through my options. Before sending the list to my doctor, I went through and looked at the medications, the side effects, and the interactions with other medications I am on. Unfortunately, I hadn’t looked closely enough. As my doctor and I were discussing the medications, I rechecked potential interactions, and low and behold, there was an interaction that was completely unavoidable. That was certainly disappointing because that particular medication has been shown to have pretty good efficacy with my types of hives.

Medication allergies

We decided to go with the second medication on my list. But there was a caveat, a BIG caveat. This particular medication is very similar to a class of medication that I’m known to be highly allergic to. According to my doctor, there is a chance of cross-reactivity with the medications, but it was not a guarantee. So we decided to proceed with caution. More on that in just a second.

We also discussed medication number three, but although there is so much research that the medication can help chronic hives, the literature is not very favorable. Thus we decided to go with option two.

So we proceeded with option two, with a heap of caution. We discussed at length the potential for me to react negatively to this medicine. My doctor told me the things to look at as far as reacting to the medication was concerned. He explained the different blood work that would need to be followed while I was on this medicine. And after a long discussion, he sent the prescription to my pharmacy.

Discussing the risks

I’m thankful to use a small, local pharmacy. They are great at communicating with me and even use an app that allows me to text back and forth with the pharmacist and pharmacy techs.

No sooner had my doctor sent the prescription to the pharmacy, they sent me a text message questioning the prescription because of the medication allergies they have on file for me. I assured them that the prescription was correct and that my doctor and I had discussed the risks at length.

I did fine on the medication for the first few weeks but started to have some issues with it, which I will discuss in a future article. Ultimately, it didn’t work out. So we are back to square one. There are still a few options for me to try, but the list is growing smaller and smaller. A big part of the issue is that I am on many other medications for different health conditions and they all seem to interact with one option or another. Honestly, I’m feeling a lot better now that I’m off the medication I mentioned above. Only time will tell what my next steps will be and how my symptoms progress.