Saturday 25 May 2013

My Angioedema

 
 

Hi my name is darren and i suffer from Idiopathic Angioedema.
Basically Angioedema is swelling and most suffers get swelling of the eyes, lips, face, tongue, throat even the genitals.
Now Angioedema comes in 3 forms – Hereditary Angioedema where it is passed down through the generations, Allergic Angioedema where the swellings occur through something that you are allergic to and Idiopathic Angioedema is where they cannot find any cause.





Angioedema is quite a common condition which affects about 10-20% of people during their life,
although some types are more common than others.
Food allergies, the main cause of allergic angioedema, are estimated to affect about 5-8% of children and 1-2% of adults.




It is not clear how common idiopathic angioedema is, as it can be misdiagnosed as allergic angioedema. However, long-lasting (chronic) idiopathic angioedema is estimated to affect 1 in 2,000 people.

 
 
 
 

 
Hereditary angioedema is rare, only affecting between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in
50,000 people worldwide.
What Happened ?
What happened indeed one may ask, well i don’t really know, i am 47 years old always been healthy very rarely been ill until this happened i couldn’t tell you the last time i visited a doctor, i have never suffered from allergies, hay fever or anything like that then it happened.
I was about 44 years old and i woke up one morning to this !

 
One big fat swollen tongue, to be honest i thought i had bitten my tongue while i was asleep as aboutuntil about 2 weeks later and it happened again only this time it was the other side of my tongue, as you can probably guess i put it down to coincidence and just thought i had bitten my tongue again as the swelling again went down with in about 4 hours.
4 hours later the swelling went down and that was it,

What happened Next
What happened next – nothing well not for another 2 weeks anyway then the side of my tongue swelled again and i new it was not normal so i booked in to see the doctor and if yours is anything like mine it was about 4 days before i could get in, well in the meantime the swelling went down again within about 4 hours but this time it swelled up again 2 days later but on the opposite side again and since then i get 2 swellings every 2 weeks 2 days apart first one side then the otherside of my tongue. I used to find sipping cold water for about 2 hours would help take the swelling down a bit quicker but drinking about 4 litres in 2 hours is hard on your bladder.
The Doctors
As you can imagine i went to the doctors and he said “there's not a lot i can do as i can’t see it, next time it swells come straight here or if out of hours go to A & E” but in the mean time did send me for blood tests, they came back fine so i got referred to a maxio facial consultant who had a look sent me for blood tests, came back fine, got sent to a oral consultant, sent for blood tests, came back fine. All this plus more tests happened over a period of about 2 years which by then facial swellings had started and even on my head

 
I woke up one morning about 2 am with the side of my face swollen and did what my doctor had said, I went to A & E and you know what they said “you've got an abscess i argued my case but they were having none of it and sent me away with some antibiotics for an abscess, while i was waiting for my medication a nurse took me to one side and said he had seen this before and told me it was Idiopathic Neurotic Angioedema. Eventually after 2 years of consultants and blood tests they finally came back with the same conclusion and said the only thing they can give me are antihistamines and steroids for severe cases, i was taking them 2 antihistamines on a morning and 1 at night with 1 steroid and to be frank i didn’t think they were helping any, The only thing i did notice was that after taking them for a year if i did stop which i did occasionally for a break and to see if there was any difference was that after going about 3 days without them i would start getting hives which is something i never had before going on the medication.

Now the reason i wrote this is because i have been clear now getting on for 7 months i was doing what i expect most of you are doing and that is trawling the net for information and ideas, well i came across this one at mabakersrashremedy.com now i am not going to say i am cured yet but it seems to be working at the moment so you may want to have a look at this natural hives/angioedema treatment
i will add more to this as time goes by with tips of what i have done, how things are going and other treatments i come across as we are all different, different things work for different people in different ways but for anybody suffering from hives and or angioedema this as got to be worth a look get rid of hives good luck for now. I hope you will leave comments and recommendations to help other people as this can be a soul destroying problem to have.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Darren...thanks for this post. I'm so happy to have found it because I believe I may have a form of angioedema. This morning for the third time, I had a swelling on my upper forehead. It unnerved me the first time I had it, but I dismissed it as an allergic reaction to something. Then the second time it was even more disturbing since it occurred in the exact same spot. Well, it happened again this morning in the same spot, so I knew I needed to understand what was going on. My boyfriend found your post. Thanks for the links and information. I'm happy to have some things to investigate. Best wishes to you!

    Joyce

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  2. Hi Darren, Just came back from the ER my wifes tongue just blew up within 30 minutes and we got nervous and rushed to the hospital. They hit her up with pregnazone and the swelling went down. Your right, I am trawling the web and found this blog. I am not sure what we have, but it sure wasnt allergic. My wife eats the same things morn, lunch dinner (very regimented). The ER doc said its angioedma but not what type. I am wondering if this is the start of bad beginning as you have seen. I will look into these websites you posted and blog back if it happens again. Thanks Mate.

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  3. Hello Darren, hope you are doing well now. I had the same type of tongue swelling like you starting last month. It happened twice. Both times it resolved on its own. It also occured on my arms nd feet. I am a doctor myself. I diagnosed myself and took histamines and steroids only once. Not much of a pill popper. Honestly i never met any patients with this before myself. I can only pray to God, that it doesnt get worse the next time. Thanks for this blog.

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