Final note on the Urticaria I suffered earlier this year

Regular readers of my blog will recall that earlier this year I suffered a bout of Urticaria.

My posts mentioning Urticaria can be found here.

The purpose of this post is to inform interested readers of my final conclusions, now that some time has passed.

Simply speaking, I self diagnosed that the Urticaria was caused by a medication; being: Pantoprazole. In Australia, the brand name for Pantoprazole is Somac (there may be other brand names in use here).

Somac is, I am informed by a GP (Physician), soon to become a non prescription drug here in Australia.

During my ordeal, I my research indicated that around 1% of people get Urticaria as a side effect of Somac.

Now, several months on, here are my findings:

1. I have not taken anti histamines for a long time.
2. I have not had a recurrence of Urticaria.
3. I have never taken Somac again – not since that day when taking it overcame the high dose steroids, such was the power of the adverse reaction.
4. The elimination of Somac is the only thing of medical significance I have changed in my life since the Urticaria episode.
5. The reflux and heartburn I used to suffer from has almost totally disappeared. It has been a long time since I got heartburn and even longer since I had reflux. Accordingly I am not currently taking any medication for the (non existent) problem.
6. I had been taking Somac for a number of years. Since I stopped taking it, various minor skin irritations that I had been suffering from for years have disappeared too.
7. It seems that my body finally developed a severe allergic response to Somac.
8. A senior surgeon friend suggested I report my experience to the TGA. I have not done so, mainly because I simply do not have the time.

Conclusion:

1. It is very clear that Somac was responsible for the nasty bout of Urticaria I suffered from.
2. Somac was so bad that it even overcame a high dose of steroids.
3. This is not medical advice – see your physician (but be careful!).
4. The whole episode strengthened my psyche a great deal (my ordeal was further exacerbated by having to deal with a nasty person on a forum at the time, who has a very spiteful spirit).
5. I will never take Somac again.
6. I HATE Somac!

Filed Under: Personal

Tags: Health • Personal