Amoxcillin-induced Rash - Duration / Treatment??? Help!

...Just fyi, the doctor gave me some aerius (aka clarinex or desloratadine) that i've started taking, and I don't know if it's working or the rash is just fading on its own, but once I started taking it things got a better, and sleep is now somewhat easier. It's still extremely obnoxious, but between that and the various skin creams my girlfriend has recommended, I am surviving. And thinking, every day, "man, if only that doctor hadn't given me those stupid antibiotics"...

good luck to all,

ds

I had a really bad sore throat for about 4 weeks now, but first doctor I went to, for the sore throat, about 3 weeks ago, told me I have no strep and no mono.

He prescribed me penicillin for a week, concluding it is possibly a bacterial infection.

A week after the first doctor visit my sore throat got even worse, so, seeing my second doctor (my family doctor), I hoped to get a real cure for my sore throat. It ended up, all he said was penicillin is no good and put me on amoxicillin, and I was on my way.

So after a week of being on amoxicillin (augmentin) I woke up and broke out in a horrible rash all over my upper body and decided to head to the er by nightime, as it was incredibly itchy. Seeing the nurse there, they were quick to tell me that amoxicillin is well known for causing this rash in people who have mono. I was put on an iv and after about 5 hours of waiting (they lost my blood sample twice, somehow) they came back and confirmed that I have mono... And have had it for weeks.

I have no idea how I got mono, but because of the doctors, I now have this incredible rash to deal with, probably have given 2 girls mono, and a lot of medical bills to pay, not to mention I still have a sore throat.

If I had the money I would hire one of those lawyers and sue for millions.

But overall, I guess I got off pretty easy as far as being sick, the only symptoms I had was the sore throat and some sleepiness.

I got sick and went to a local dr, they diagnosed a viral infection, that night I thought I was going to die......Went to the dr I work for and got the test then I was in bed for 6 months, I got up to go to the toilet which wasnt often because it affected my liver, all I did was sleep. I did get a rash but it wasnt that bad......
And as for passing it on, aslong as the girls have been in contact with it before the chances are slim of getting it. I was around my whole family and with my fiance and none of them got it.

I was diagnosed with mono, january 10. But recently before that I was seen at the doctors on january 3rd and diagnosed with strep throat. As you all know being on penicillin or ammoxicilin while having mono causes extreme rashes and hives. After a week of not getting better I finally went back to the doctor and took a blood test. About everyday from january 10th until about the 24th I would randomly break out in hives and they would not seem to get better until 2-3 hours after taking medicine for it. I am said to have had mono since about the end of december until now.

Everyone: if you have common symptons of mono:cough,fever,flu,side aches,sorer throat,drowsiness, I would go get tested. Knowing is better.

The only thing I can tell you to do is when you start breaking out automatically take an allergy medication such as benadryl. If you wait it out it only gets worse and could leave to problems. Use topical creams to relieve itch and drink alot of fluids to flush your system

Hey all, well im 16 years old and i've had mono for 2 weeks now. At the beginning they said I only had strep so they put me on amoxacillin (sp?) now look at me! I have the same rash as you all are talking about and im completely miserable! Other than the rash I feel fine, but the itching is making me crazy. I feel like I cant do anything without stopping to itch myself. In fact I can hardly type this! I've been up all but like 2 hours during the night crying because everything I try doesnt work for me! I dont know what to do. Im now on steroids for it and have been for just today and I guess they have worked a little but only for about 15 min after they kick in. Everything from my fingers and hands to my legs, trunk, and toes itches! I really dont even feel like going out in public looking like this and stopping to scratch myself (in certain places) all the time. So if any of you know of anything else I can do besides powders and creams that dont work please help me! I need some answers because I just want to go back to being normal again!

Thank you

Below the dotted line is my universal solution for hives. I helped 9 people separately suffering from hives after I experienced it myself. Using my technique, all of them have completely gotten rid of chronic urticaria/hives.

None of them however, started with mono or penicillin. So it's the least I can suggest. From my earlier research, drug-induced hives are immediate. If you did not get hives on the day you took the medicine, it probably didn't come from the drugs!!


------
i had hives for 1 1/2 year. It took me an insane amount of research, and I finally solved it.

Do the following.... No medicine needed. The cause is "detergent residue" and most people in their life time are not commited enough to solve it. Follow these techniques, it has not failed once.

1.) get rid of all your clothes. Throw them away or put them in a plastic bag air tight. You'll likely never wear them again.

2.) buy all new clothes. Preferably loose instead of tight. If you are budget strapped, buy just enough full sets of clothes for a 2 week rotation only.

3.) buy a new bath towel. Only use this one.

4.) get rid of your bed sheets and blankets. Buy new ones.

5.) before you do laundry, pre rinse 1 cycle with just water.

6.) when you do laundry, don't use any detergent. Use baking soda only. The hard part is making sure the people who share machine with you don't use detergent either!!!!

7.) now wash everything you bought a couple times with baking soda only. Towel, bed sheets, clothes.

8.) only wear your newly purchased clothes, all cotton. No polyester.

9.) only sleep on the bed with the new bed sheets.

10.) exercise daily enough to sweat the existing residue off. If you can't workout and sweat, take a detox bath. Make sure the bath tub is detergent free. No trace of any chemicals etc.

11.) wipe any furniture/couch/chair you might have very clean. Detergent residues are practically invisible.

12.) I have not met one person who was not cleared of this problem after 4-6 weeks. 4 weeks if you are committed!!!!

The rash caused by taking penicillin, or a penicillin derivative while having mono is annoying and ugly I think we can all agree. However, there's really not much you can do to help make it go away faster. Benadryl will help take away some of the itch and also make you tired enough to sleep even if you do itch in most cases, but creams and things which you apply to the skin will not effect the itch or the rash itself because it is drug induced. Also, for some cases, the rash can occur when you first start taking the medication, a few days later, or even once you've finished the perscription all-together. It is not always an immediate reaction.
The majority of the itching and redness of the rash should fade within a few days, possibly a week, but it will still take some time for the rash to disappear completely.

It never seems to work out that you're diagnosed with mono before perscriptions are given out does it? :roll:

good luck

I have gotten the same thing... Ive been on amoxicillin for 7 days now.. And just now the rash appears within hours... I have stopped taking amoxicillin because my sore throat has been gone for a couple days anyway...

How long does it take the rash to dissapear after u stop taking the drugs??

Anyone?? Help :(

I had been sick and went to the Dr.'s on feb. 3rd and was diagnosed with a sinus infection and was given some antibiotics.. (not amoxicillin) nothing changed so I went to another Dr. And was diagnosed with a sinus infection again and put on another antibiotic. This time it was sulfa based.(again not amoxicillin) there was a chance of an allergic reaction but it was slim. I had never taken a sulfa based medication before. This did the trick. I felt great. After about 9 days of taking this medicine without any problems, I was in school (yesterday) and randomly broke out in the itchy rash on my face and my hands. We went to another Dr. (my pediatrician this time) and was told it was probably strep or mono induced rash. Turns out its not strep and I wont know for sure if its mono until monday but I thought you only get a rash if you are mis diagnosed and given amoxicillin ..?
Is this true?
How can I get rid of this horrible rash which today is now on my arms and legs also?

I've had this same damn rash for 4 days now. It is worse then the mono itself. Im going on my third week of having mono and I feel great other then this damn itchy rash!! I rather go back to having the sore throat and not being able to swallow anything. At least I was able to stay in one place and sleep. I wish I knew how long this stupid thing was going to last for. I'll come back and let everyone know when mine is gone, if ever. To help out the others that are going to be in the same situation as me (all of us!) I hate the stupid doctor for giving me amoxicillin when I have mono. She didnt even warn me about a rash! Its like doctors get off on this stuff!

After I had an ear infection and mono at the same time. Took a long time for the doctors to find out what was wrong with me, too, and I had quite a few weeks of horrible itchy rash all over my whole body. It has got to be one of least physically fun experiences of my life--- especially the part where the bottoms of your feet itch too much for you to walk, and your underwear feels as though it's cutting into your skin.


This is not an allergic reaction, so antihistamines do not do anything except make you drowsy (which may help you sleep).


Cold showers and baths are quite nice. A room-temperature (or colder) bath is very nice. Do not take a hot bath or shower or it will hurt. After this rash experience I actually showered with cold water for some months, being so used to sitting in an icy tub for hours at a time.


The only thing I found which helped at all was marijuana. I smoked just a little and was free of horrible itchy pain for about three or four hours; was able to walk around, kiss my girlfriend, and comfortably sit in a chair. Such a wonderful experience- the itchyness just went away. After the four hours were up the itchyness came back and stayed for several more weeks, as I had no more marijuana. Best of luck to all you all, my itchy brothers and sisters.

My daughter has had this same reaction. Head-to-toe itchy red rash, like measles. She has tried soaking in a tub with baking soda, which has eased the itch (about half a box), soaking in a tub with an anti-itch solution we purchased, putting ice-cold wet compresses on arms and legs, and over-the-counter anti-itch lotion. They all work for short periods of time. The doctor recommended claritin as well as benadryl. They haven't seemed to have much efect. It seems we must just wait it out.

Question -- which I haven't seen answered in this forum yet, even though it's been asked -- how long does this last? I think it would make it easier if we knew it would only be a few days or so.

This is an ampicillin-caused rash; diagnosed with strep before mono.

Help! Thanks!!!

Question -- which I haven't seen answered in this forum yet, even though it's been asked -- how long does this last? I think it would make it easier if we knew it would only be a few days or so.


This is an ampicillin-caused rash; diagnosed with strep before mono.


Help! Thanks!!![/quote]

everyone i’ve talked with agrees that the rash lasts for a few weeks in some form or another.

The doctor is most likely wrong to prescribe claritin and benadryl. The rash looks like an allergic reaction, and because it was in response to medication, your doctor seems to think that it is. This is also what the first three or four doctors told me about my rash. When I was finally able to speak with a specialist ( a dermatologist who also teaches at the usc medical school, I was an undergraduate at the time) he called the penicillin / epstein-barr interaction “the poor man’s mono test” and seemed quite amused. He also said that all doctors are required to learn about this sort of interaction but that they sometimes forget, and that it is not an allergic reaction.

Your daughter will definitely get better, and in just a short while. You have nothing to worry about--- the mono is self-limiting--- but I know the pain is hard to swallow.

I’d also be interested in hearing what your doc has to say about the histamine-blocker thing, since I am not at all an expert. If you get a response from him/her, please post it.

I was diagnosed with mono this year and received iv treatments with something in it, I don't recall the name of what was in it at this time but it was done as an out patient situation and it was not an anti-biotic, oh yes, it was a hydrgen peroxyde but not the type that is bought over the counter, something new that they are using and I realize that these posts started out along time ago.

Good luck!

For those of you suffering from this wretched condition, here was the duration of my daughter's experience. She had the head-to-toe rash with the non-stop itching. This itching lasted for 8 days, then started subsiding. By day 10, the itching had stopped. The rash hung around for much longer, first starting to look a bit less red, than changing to a "mottled" look. It disappeared from the top down -- first from her face, then moving down her torso and arms, with her legs staying rashy the longest. It took a complete month for it to completely disappear.

Just knowing approximately how long this all lasts can be of help when you're in the midst of it!

I too had mono and was diagnosed with have strep throat. The doctors put me on augmentin and two nights later I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and went to the bathroom to poop out the runniest stools I have ever seen with a lot of blood in them. My parents rushed me to the er and I had to be rehydrated with an iv for a few hours and given cipro because I had a bowel infection. Apparantly the augmentin killed all the good bacterial in my bowel and somehow I got the infection. It was definitely the most awful experience of my life so far and took me months to fully recover from it. It was rough because I had mono while I could only drink fluids for a few days then gradually move back up to solid food. So I guess watch out for extreme diarrhea and definitely get help if this happens to you.

I have itched from the mono rash for four days now. I have been going crazy and itching my skin off. But, the Aveeno Calamine and Pramoxine HCl anti-itch cream specifically for "dries out weepy rashes." It works amazingly well; I do not itch like crazy anymore. There is still some itch, but it is much better than it was. Ahh, what relief!

so i was diagnosed with mono mid March
i first was diagnosed wrong and took pencilian
when i was diagnosed correctly with mono
he gave me amox and this steroid type drug
they worked fast and i was better with in a week
minus the whole possible spleen exploding thing


well its now end of april
and i have this REALLY bad itching.
i dont see a rash or anything
just my entire body itches
i thought it was the sunburn i got on vacation
but its the worst on my back where i didnt get burnt at all.
i feel like a crack addict going thru withdrawl
im going to scratch my skin off
i got some claretin from my doc but he didnt say what it could be
what could this be PLEASE help

I went to a walk in clinic and was told I had strep throat (without a test). My lymph glands in my neck were so swollen they gave me a shot of penicillin on the spot. They also wrote me a prescription for amoxicillin. I probably took 2 of those pills. The following day my throat was still swollen and I was having difficulty breathing. I went to the E.R. that night where they simply told me I had mono. I was then put on sterioids and hydrocodone for the pain.
A week later, I felt better. The symptoms were gone, I was just a little tired. I made my way to Target. I noticed little red bumps on my arms. Within 30 minutes, they were on my face. I thought I was stressed and needed to go back to bed because my body was not fully recovered. I went a day and the bumps continued to cover my entire body. I woke up the next morning after enduring an entire day of being clueless, and I felt my throat closing up. I had to go to the E.R. once again where they gave me a shot of benedryl and epinephrine. They told me if I arrived 30 minutes later, my throat would have been completely shut. I was told I was having a reaction to the penicillin and/or amoxicillin I was given a week before.

The rash is no fun. Starts as bumps, goes down, becomes blotchy etc. It lasted for about 10 days for me. All I have to say is if I were rich, I'd sue that walk in clinic.