SIDE EFFECTS! 

Goodness me do I have a story to tell on this one and honestly it was one of the most infuriating things that I have ever had happen to me. 

I was happily pootling (technical term) along on on my Azathioprine, thinking life was great and wondering when I would start to be taken off Ciclosporin when one night I started to itch ALL OVER. 

I had been at Rugby Training that night and from that I wondered whether I had got a bit hot and sweaty (nice) and just needed to calm down and it would go away. I continued taking the medication, as well as my antihistamines and cracked on for a little bit. This would have been great if the itching was being caused by being hot and sweaty however it clearly was not. After a couple of days of frustrating itching I rang the IBD team to enquire whether this might be a side effects and they decided that it might be and that I needed to stop the Azathioprine. 

I did this with immediate effect but the itching just continued. I had a couple of night where I was awake for most of the night because I was just so itchy. I could barely sleep for more than a couple of hours and I was sometimes having to have a cold shower in the middle of the night in order to stop the itch. 

It all came to a head one night when I was itching myself in my sleep so badly that I was starting to draw blood. I rang 111 because I was worried about my liver. I had been told by the doctors that itching all over can be a sign of failing liver/kidneys and as the itching was getting worse I felt it was important to get checked rather than wait a couple of weeks for a blood test as the doctors were suggesting. 

I went to the emergency doctor who was concerned about my liver and kidneys (not such a stupid thing to worry about apparently) and was sent to A&E. Now after all my experiences, going to A&E is not something that I want to be doing and the fear of being re-admitted was massive but I knew I needed to do it. To complicate things (as they weren’t complicated enough at this point), I was meant to be back in work the next day and I was really concerned because I didnt want to miss work, especially as I was so new to the job. 

I spent a long time in A&E, I think I went in at about 2am and wasnt discharged until 8am the next day. They did a blood test which confirmed that my liver and kidneys were doing alright, and prescribed me with some super strong anti-histamines to take alongside the ones that I was already taking. They said that it might take some time but that it would settle down. 

The itching began to settle mainly but I continued to have some problems, especially with my hands and feet. They were itchy and i particularly noticed that my hands would swell up a fair amount. I spoke to a doctor again and they said to just keep taking the antihistamines and that it could be the hot weather causing the swelling. 

I cracked on and after a few weeks I was back to normal. I have now been put on Adalimumab which is an injection. Fingers Crossed. 

I have to say itching all over is NOT pleasant whatsoever. Having been itching all over for multiple nights days and nights, I have to say that was even worse. I am very glad I am now no longer experiencing the night(s) of a thousand itches….