This hot, itchy skin is driving me up the wall

As though I don't have endless problems sleeping as it is, every time I go to bed now my skin starts to go hot and itchy in minutes, especially my legs and feet. I cannot make it go away. I don't get anything like enough sleep and it's making my life a literal misery: I'm typing this at 4am after utterly utterly failing to fall asleep for the past 3 hours. It's worse than the stoma. Which also disrupts my sleep by being far too painful to lie on btw. God knows why, since I thought the stoma wasn't capable of feeling pain but mine seems to be.

However, it's my skin which is making me despair at the moment. I think it was probably triggered by the oxycodone: I am so bitterly, bitterly regretting ever going anywhere near that med. I've been clean off it for 10 days, can I still really be having physical symptoms from it? On another note, I am also so bitterly envious of people who sleep like a baby. Sorry I just am.

/sleep-deprived rant.

Actually I have a bit of benadryl; I'll take two pills now. My mum gave them to me for nasal congestion (for which they seem to help slightly, but not a great deal; nasal sprays are better). If they help the itching that's at least one thing. I wish I could find a way of keeping cool in bed though. I go to bed and the sheets are deliciously cool for about 10 seconds. Then they start to get uncomfortably warm. I would far rather have the problem of being too cold than too hot - I can tolerate cold so much better than heat, plus with cold you can just curl up under the covers more. With heat there is no respite. I hate it.

Thanks anyway, UC wife :-/

Edit: In part it's a temperature dysregulation thing, because I can have goosepimples on my arms yet still feel hot and itchy. The itching was driving me nuts a few minutes ago, but I think the benadryl might be kicking in... I pray it is because I want to go back to bed soon.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 5/2/2013 10:09:09 PM (GMT-6)

I use an oscillating floor fan to keep me cool. Otherwise I would have the same problem as you. Benadryl controls the itching I get as a result of Percocet. Makes me sleepy which is nice at bedtime but so fun during the day! Hope you get some rest tonight.

NCOT~please hang in there...you are right, those are all withdrawal symptoms and could last 30 days past the last time you took the narcotic.

We are here, so vent away, don't give up there IS light at the end of the tunnel.

This too was one of my fathers problems before he passed. Having low iron made him itch like crazy, even where he would constantly wake me to put cream on. Received it from a dermatologist. Can't recall the name. The cream was a temp fix, as they never could get the anemia under control.

Happy that Benadryl is helping. If this continues, have lab work done. And don't consider getting a fan, get one. It's only going to get hotter and you don't have air conditioning in the UK. Use cotton sheets too.

Equestrian Mom said...
NCOT~please hang in there...you are right, those are all withdrawal symptoms and could last 30 days past the last time you took the narcotic.

We are here, so vent away, don't give up there IS light at the end of the tunnel.

I could hug you for that, after yet another bad night with itchy skin! (And still suffering from it as I type.) It's been two weeks since I took my last pill. I can easily hold for another two weeks if it's temporary.

@Brian84 and windy city - No, my iron levels (including ferritin) are normal at the moment. I have had anaemia before: my main symptom of anaemia when it got severe was restless legs (and the first time it happened, a weird 'bubbling' sensation in my legs as well), but no itchiness. Iron infusions are really good for severe anaemia by the way: far better than oral iron.

@AnnieSB - Thanks, but we don't have Ulta stores in my country! To be honest, nothing external - moisturising creams, antiseptic creams, etc. - has made any difference so far. Even Benadryl doesn't seem to work =/

Anyway thanks folks :p

It's the middle of the night and I've been kept awake for hours by this stupid, stupid itching.

I don't really believe it's the oxycodone any longer. The itching started about 10 days after I came off that drug. Literally everything I read about opoids and itching seemed to imply that itching happened while you were still taking the drug. Likewise, I couldn't find anything which said that physical symptoms lasted longer than a week.

Benadryl doesn't touch it. If this itching doesn't go away my life won't be worth living. I am not exaggerating. By the way, along with the itching, I get goosebumps on my arms and chills, even though I feel hot.

Edit: Sorry for the whingefest, I'm just scared this won't go away =/

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 5/9/2013 8:35:51 PM (GMT-6)