Was this a serious allergy?

Over the weekend, after a week of taking amoxicillin and probenecid, I started having extreme itching on my back, arms, legs, stomach, everywhere. There were also bumps that were flesh colored in the itchy patches which I think were hives.

It started on Thursday and was minor. Then I added another med that I have never taken before on Friday. Friday night, I had intense itching. Saturday the itching started in the afternoon, went away, then came back really badly in the evening.

That same night, I had a feeling in my lungs like I had just gone running in really cold air. I started to get worried then, but I wanted to make sure it was the antibiotics and not something else so I took one more dose on Sunday morning. I got very tired shortly after with intense itching and I fell asleep. When I woke up my eyes were watering terribly and the breathing issue began again and lasted (but faded) until Sunday evening.

I had just restarted treatment after being off everything for almost a month for liver enzymes so I was extremely upset that I was having another issue. I have other allergies and had benadryl and epinephrine on hand. I decided on my own to eliminate the amoxicillin and probenicid to see if they were the cause rather than the biaxin and newly started tindamax. I have not had any further itching or breathing problems so I'm fairly sure the amoxicillin caused it.

I spoke to a doctor but didn't get a ton of answers other than not to take amoxicillin again and meet with my LLMD (next week). Has anyone ever had a similar reaction that wasn't a true allergy?

Will this allergy eliminate bicillin as a choice also? Was anyone allergic to amoxicillin but able to take cephalosporins or bicillin? I had a similar reaction when I got really sick back in September to Keflex. I'm super worried that I'm eliminating a lot of the key Lyme meds.

I don't think I'm ready to do herbs alone yet, but my options are getting limited.

Post Edited (Summer3) : 4/2/2012 4:39:12 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks borderlyme. I'm sorry that you have been having problems with allergies too. How did you know for sure that you were having one?

I don't know if mine were hives. I had small areas of skin colored bumps like 5-10 in each spot. Those areas were itching badly. It started on my back and then my head, arms, stomach, legs but just in small patches. I know amoxicillin causes a non-allergic rash sometimes but I don't think that is supposed to itch.

I thought at first that it might be a harmless thing or a herx so I continued to take it between Thursday evening when it started, and Sunday afternoon. When the lung pain started Saturday night, I started getting worried but I tried one more dose the next morning and the itching came back strongly again, plus I became suddenly exhausted, fell asleep in the middle of the day (VERY unusual for me) and had terribly watery itchy eyes when I woke up. It always came about 6-8 hours after I took a dose. Not immediately.

I would really like to know for sure before this is completely eliminated. But I don't think it's a good idea to try it again on my own. Can a LLMD that's also a regular MD test for an allergy or do a trial/challenge?