Bug Bites...

Has anyone ever had this happen or anything along those lines.....(SORRY LONG)

I went to Florida for a wedding in October, 25th to be exact. The day after all the girls were itching like crazy on our legs, naturally since we were all wearing short dresses and exposed feet....soooo come Sunday, we all have like 20/30 bites PER leg and are scratching like crazy....Monday comes we leave and I start using calamine lotion thinking mosquito bites....we get home I find out one of my gfriends has Cellulitis an infection from scrachting so hard, and at least 8 others are in the same boat as me. Now Tuesday night they are ripe and swollen and itching to the point where I wanted to cut my legs off from the knee down...I go to the ER that night he gives me Prednisone and an antibiotic just incase any look infected...Wed i go to the dermotologist who says the red marks (they look like chicken pox or purple blotches at this point) can last up to a month or so (thank god my wedding was first!) the dermo gives me these pills to take for the itching, some steriod cream and allegra. It seems to do the trick, they start to heal but still semi itch...fast forward 2 weeks to last night....I get home from the gym last night and my ankles are itching like crazy!!!! I see that it looks like 7 new fresh or reappearing bites on my left ankle and 3 on my right, keeps me up all night burning and itching. I don't want to take anything right now because we are TTC and I am afraid it will have some effect. I am gonig to see the dermo tomorrow morning but holy crap!!!! Will they ever go away, has anyone ever heard of this or had reoccuring bug bites?!?! I am beside myself with this already, it is like enough!!!!DH has none and I envy him as he sleeps soundly through the night...someone said they could be noseeums? but still it stays in your system for that long!? OK sorry for the long post I just am so aggrevated...thanks for listening!

I'm really sensitive to insect bites, so I can feel for you.

Benadryl makes a topical gel that works pretty good. It cools and soothes at the same time.
Can you also take benadryl pills ?

Try gently patting down the bites with cool water with baking soda in it. The baking soda also soothes the skin. You can also make a paste of baking soda and water and leave it on for 15-20 minutes or so and then rinse it off with cool water.

You may have reactivated the bites by sweating at the gym.

HTH

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Posted by SusiBtoM

I'm really sensitive to insect bites, so I can feel for you.

Benadryl makes a topical gel that works pretty good. It cools and soothes at the same time.
Can you also take benadryl pills ?

Try gently patting down the bites with cool water with baking soda in it. The baking soda also soothes the skin. You can also make a paste of baking soda and water and leave it on for 15-20 minutes or so and then rinse it off with cool water.

You may have reactivated the bites by sweating at the gym.

HTH

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I agree, I'm a bug magnet and everytime I get bites the benadryl topical gel works great and the eucerin itch-relief too. So sorry to hear that, hope you feel better soon

yeah this happens to me quite often unfortunately. The worst it has happened to me was when i had this bite then within two hours it was seriously at least the size of a golf ball, it turned purple-ish. Then i started feeling a bit weak and warm. I went quickly to the doctor and had 103 fever. Even my doctor was like OMG what bit you, i guess it was a bit poisonous. I had to get the cortisone shot that is mixed with something else. Then i had to take 10 pills a day for 2 weeks for it to go away.

Many bites i get swell up badly. But they're not always mosquito bites, everyone just always assumes mosquito bites. People also do get spider bites and now i can tell when its a spider bite bc they are a bit different. Usually they do swell up more, are very hard and also its very warm in that one spot.

Sorry to crash, but I just got back from Brazil a few weeks ago and I have something similar. It looks like I have 4 huge hickeys on my leg. And they itched like crazy.
My Dr. put me on methylpred (a corticosteroid). I am almost done with the pack (it lasts for a week) and they just look like dry skin at this point. They do still itch, especially in the morning, but they definitely look better then they did.

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Posted by SusiBtoM

I'm really sensitive to insect bites, so I can feel for you.

Benadryl makes a topical gel that works pretty good. It cools and soothes at the same time.
Can you also take benadryl pills ?

Try gently patting down the bites with cool water with baking soda in it. The baking soda also soothes the skin. You can also make a paste of baking soda and water and leave it on for 15-20 minutes or so and then rinse it off with cool water.

You may have reactivated the bites by sweating at the gym.

HTH

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That is what someone else from work told me that sweating may have caused it...i put ice packs on them when they seem to act up but that was mostly in the beginning it was getting better until last night. I can take benedryl but I am nervous to take medication right now since we are trying to have a baby...

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Posted by Dr Meg

Sorry to crash, but I just got back from Brazil a few weeks ago and I have something similar. It looks like I have 4 huge hickeys on my leg. And they itched like crazy.
My Dr. put me on methylpred (a corticosteroid). I am almost done with the pack (it lasts for a week) and they just look like dry skin at this point. They do still itch, especially in the morning, but they definitely look better then they did.

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Yeah see the ones that were really bad now are dry skin and sometimes itch but nothing like they did. The ones that never scabbed or healed seem to look like fresh bites today, when they itch they get inflammed and look like red bumps or like hives and then when they don't itch the redness and swelling goes down..it is very very strange!

I'm the same way...it's so frustrating! On our honeymoon I got eaten up alive the first couple of nights by mosquitos. I heard it was worse because the hurricane had passed through the week before. I literally had at least 25 on one leg and a bunch more on the other. I get a bad reaction from them too...huge hives and they leave red marks. I had only taken the Benadryl cream with me, which really wasn't helping...only relieves for a short time. When I get that bad the Benadryl pills are the only thing that give me some relief. The itching was so bad it woke me up one night and I couldn't fall back asleep. I try so hard not to scratch them because it definitely makes it worse when you do. The manager at the poolside bar saw how bad my leg was and said, 'Ooh you have sweet blood!'. She had the bartender give me some alcohol to put on them. It started to dry them up and that finally gave me some relief. The gift shop had been out of Benadryl but ordered some in for me. It took a day or so, but between that, the alcohol and Off spray it was a little better.

Just last week a HUGE mosquito got in my house. I thought I killed it, but I guess not because now I have about a dozen bites on my stomach and they were itching like crazy the past couple of days! Today they are a little better. And, like Denise said, sometimes they can actually be spider bites too. That's why I freak out when I see mosquitos and spiders in the house! So, I sympathize with you.

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Posted by Jenn04

Ughhh hope it wasnt sand fleas...were you near the beach? Or what about bedbugs??

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The wedding was at a country club lake side in Naples, the hotel was the Ritz Carltun not that that matters at all they can have bed bugs anywhere but some of the girls that had been bit didn't stay at our hotel but another one and we all still had these bites. Last night I had the bites reappear after the gym not when I was home or in bed and DH doesn't have any so i can't imagine it being bed bugs...my god that totally sceves me out...

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Posted by Gigi08

I'm the same way...it's so frustrating! On our honeymoon I got eaten up alive the first couple of nights by mosquitos. I heard it was worse because the hurricane had passed through the week before. I literally had at least 25 on one leg and a bunch more on the other. I get a bad reaction from them too...huge hives and they leave red marks. I had only taken the Benadryl cream with me, which really wasn't helping...only relieves for a short time. When I get that bad the Benadryl pills are the only thing that give me some relief. The itching was so bad it woke me up one night and I couldn't fall back asleep. I try so hard not to scratch them because it definitely makes it worse when you do. The manager at the poolside bar saw how bad my leg was and said, 'Ooh you have sweet blood!'. She had the bartender give me some alcohol to put on them. It started to dry them up and that finally gave me some relief. The gift shop had been out of Benadryl but ordered some in for me. It took a day or so, but between that, the alcohol and Off spray it was a little better.

Just last week a HUGE mosquito got in my house. I thought I killed it, but I guess not because now I have about a dozen bites on my stomach and they were itching like crazy the past couple of days! Today they are a little better. And, like Denise said, sometimes they can actually be spider bites too. That's why I freak out when I see mosquitos and spiders in the house! So, I sympathize with you.

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UGGG it is the worst, I really have a new feel for people who have to go through this, it is just terrible.

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That is what someone else from work told me that sweating may have caused it...i put ice packs on them when they seem to act up but that was mostly in the beginning it was getting better until last night. I can take benedryl but I am nervous to take medication right now since we are trying to have a baby...

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Ask your gyn if you can safely take the benadryl while you are ttc. I usually start with half a pill because it does make me really tired, but is the best anti-histamine I've ever taken.
It's been around forever and it does not interact with any other meds.

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Posted by Topher

Is it only on your legs?

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yeah mostly on my ankles and top of my feet...the ones that were on my legs actually are healing, still itch but not as severe.