Re: Re: itching & medication induced hepatitis

[Guest guest]

I'm very sorry to hear of all you and your family have gone through.

I'm writing to strongly agree with you on taking someone with you to

appointments. When first diagnosed with AIH, I was extremely ill. I'd never

in my

adult life had anyone go with me into a doctor's appointment, and it never

occurred to me to do so at this time. My husband had to take me to

appointments, but he waited outside. One day, he suggested he go in, to help me

carry

paperwork, I think. Afer the appointment, I discovered that he and I had heard

entirely different things from the doctor! My ability to comprehend was quite

scrambled, although I didn't realize it at the time.

I believe that many people who are ill or worried have trouble understanding

all a doctor's instructions and remembering everything they need to ask.

When I became stronger and could get to appts on my own, I began writing out

every question I had in advance, leaving a space to write in the responses if

they were complex.

Best wishes to all of you.

(Incidentally, I lived in Boston for 25 years, before moving to San

Francisco.)

Harper

In a message dated 1/10/07 5:21:35 AM, mbdill@... writes:

>

> And, for all of you out there struggling with these various liver

> problems, do try to take someone with you to appointments if you

> can. My husband thought he was mentally ok all along, but he was

> quite shocked to discover just what he did not hear during or

> remember about the many appointments. I kept a note book, helped him

> with the questions and wrote down what the doctors had to say during

> each appointment.

>

[Guest guest]

I'm very sorry to hear of all you and your family have gone through.

I'm writing to strongly agree with you on taking someone with you to

appointments. When first diagnosed with AIH, I was extremely ill. I'd never

in my

adult life had anyone go with me into a doctor's appointment, and it never

occurred to me to do so at this time. My husband had to take me to

appointments, but he waited outside. One day, he suggested he go in, to help me

carry

paperwork, I think. Afer the appointment, I discovered that he and I had heard

entirely different things from the doctor! My ability to comprehend was quite

scrambled, although I didn't realize it at the time.

I believe that many people who are ill or worried have trouble understanding

all a doctor's instructions and remembering everything they need to ask.

When I became stronger and could get to appts on my own, I began writing out

every question I had in advance, leaving a space to write in the responses if

they were complex.

Best wishes to all of you.

(Incidentally, I lived in Boston for 25 years, before moving to San

Francisco.)

Harper

In a message dated 1/10/07 5:21:35 AM, mbdill@... writes:

>

> And, for all of you out there struggling with these various liver

> problems, do try to take someone with you to appointments if you

> can. My husband thought he was mentally ok all along, but he was

> quite shocked to discover just what he did not hear during or

> remember about the many appointments. I kept a note book, helped him

> with the questions and wrote down what the doctors had to say during

> each appointment.

>

[Guest guest]

I wish you well with the medical bracelet. I have worn one for years, but only

once, in an emergency, did anyone look at it.

Last month, I was experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. Hubby took

me to Urgent Care who shipped me off to ER by ambulance. I could not remember

all of my meds, and kept giving wrong information. I had my bracelet on, but

not once did they check it out...not even in the ambulance.

Finally, after two nitro pills and two baby asprin, oxygen, they allowed me to

go home saying that they thought it was just stress. Perhaps it was, but the

arterial gas blood work showed that my O2 level was 70%. That is why the O2

helped.

I wish you well.

Debby

[ ] Re: itching & medication induced hepatitis

-

Hello All:

I joined this site looking for information to help my husband who

was diagnosed with drug (augmentin)induced hepatitis in

September '06. While there has been little info related to this up

until now, we have still found the exchange of information helpful

re diet and support in general and we thank all of you who

faithfully correspond.

I'd like to share what we have learned thus far: Drug induced

hepatitis due to augmentin is not that rare or unusual and it is a

known problem. My husband also was given augmentin for a stubborn

sinus infection when amoxocillin failed to clear up the infection.

The intense itching, anorexia, low grade fever etc. all followed

within about 10 days, give or take, of his last dose.

We reside in the Boston area, and the primary care doc and the

initial gastro, both at a reputable suburban hospital, while

concerned, were not able to help with the non-stop itching and

ongoing weight loss (about a pound every day or two).

Cholestyramine (what an adversive drug!), urso, atarax, ice packs,

fans, etc. were all tried

with little success and at most, my husband would sleep 45 minutes

at a time followed by 3 hours of itching to the point where he was

losing his ability to cope.

Through an unexpected connection, in November we were able to get a

referral to the gastro department/transplant team at Lahey Clinic.

They had him stop all of the above meds and start naltrexone which

dramatically relieved his itching. Per the Lahey doctor, naltrexone

is commonly used for people with drug addictions but a side effect

of the drug is the relief of itching. Must work on the same brain

receptor sites.

Because of the relief provided by the naltrexone, my husband was

able to sleep again---up to 18 hours at the start--- and this seemed

to be key in allowing the liver to begin to repair itself. We were

also told that medication induced hepatitis is a necrotic process as

opposed to autoimmune. Typically, they said that people usually

improve more quickly than my husband has from a drug induced

hepatitis. But, they are also more certain than ever that the

culprit

was the augmentin and not any of his blood pressure or heartburn

medications. Apparently, almost every drug has the potential to

cause a problem, but augmentin does so more often than others.

However, as of 12/22/06, all of the labs were finally headed in the

right direction and this hepatitis should be behind him within the

next month. He has been able to return to work (after 4 months out)

and now wears a med alert bracelet engraved with " penicillin

sensitivity " as we were told he should now consider himself at risk

with any future use of penicillin related meds.

We also learned, that because the augmentin caused a necrotic

process, my husband would have been too ill for a partial

transplant, would never have been able to regenerate a whole liveron

his own and thus would require one from a cadaver. Lahey is one of

the transplant hospitals in this area and does live donor

transplants, which our son had volunteered to do for his Dad. We had

thought that we had a " worst case " solution until we talked to the

Lahey team.

While we were extremely lucky that we made the connection with the

team at Lahey, I do feel that my husband spent 2 months suffering

needlessly because of the first group of doctors. We had asked the

orginal doctors if there was anything else they could do for him,

prescribe for him but they had assured us there wasn't. I do

believe he would still be struggling, perhaps worse and heading for

a transplant if not for Lahey Clinic.

I suppose the lesson here is to keep asking, keep trying, keep

pushing for answers. There is no good way of predicting, evidently,

just who will react badly to a medication and there is a lot of luck

involved in getting to a person who might hold the key to getting

better. It is rather ironic that all of the heptologists here seem

to know each other---big city but small medical specialty. Why the

first doctors weren't making use of naltrexone, or at least giving

it a try when a patient wasn't making any progress, is a mystery to

us.

And, for all of you out there struggling with these various liver

problems, do try to take someone with you to appointments if you

can. My husband thought he was mentally ok all along, but he was

quite shocked to discover just what he did not hear during or

remember about the many appointments. I kept a note book, helped him

with the questions and wrote down what the doctors had to say during

each appointment.

Best wishes for 2007 and hope everyone finds and receives the help

and support they need for a healthier new year.

ronnie in MA

-- In , chris shevchik <chrisnc06@...>

wrote:

>

>

> erSupport-L , " chrisnc06 " <chrisnc06@> wrote:

> >

> > I was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with autoimmune hepatitis. they

believe

> it

> > was drug induced by taking the antibiotic augmentin for

sinusitis.

> > I also have hypothyroidism and was told augmentin is

contraindicated

> > in people with thyroid problems. My liver was having acute

symptoms

> > and a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. I am on prednisone 40 mg

daily

> > and having lots of sleeping issues.

> > Has anyone else gotten hepatitis this way? I am scared of the

side

> > effects of the prednisone - any advice on treatment?

> >

>

>

>

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>