OnawaMiniya

Had to take the husband to the emergency room last night. He had drank like crazy. He has asthma. He began struggling to breathe. It got worse and worse and of course, he refused for quite a while to get medical help.

I noticed he was developing a blotchy redness all over - especially his knees and slightly above and below them, upper back, face, but all over generally. It was not raised like a welt or hives. He says it did not itch or anything.

As he was getting worse I asked him to say a sentence to me, and he was having trouble talking which happens when you are having an asthma attack.

Eventually I got him in the car and drive him to the ER, where he received oxygen, steroid treatment, breathing treatment, and an iv (can't recall what it was). Was given an inhaler. I did tell them he has been drinking.

I did some research out of suspicion and found many articles on drinking aggravating asthma. I couldn't really find anything to explain the blotchy redness, though other research I've done talks about skin issues in alcoholism, sometimes because of liver issues.

Also that emotional stress aggrevates asthma.

Last night he drank a lot and did one of his routines of listening to miserable music for hours, crying and getting himself all worked up. That's another thread *sigh*.

The medical staff didn't think the redness was allergic as it didn't itch or was not raised. Just skin color, not like hives. One suggested stress response which could be it. When I first saw it I wondered if it was lack of oxygen but that doesn't seem to fit.

Sorry for the long post. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions? Does this sound like it's got to do with alcohol?

I suspect alcohol played a big role in this.

Thanks everyone

Oh, he's had this thing happening on his hands lately, little raised bump like things, a bit looks like it's peeling now. That looks like some kind of eczema to me. Just wondering if there's a connection that any of you know about. I did read that alcoholism and eczema can be linked in some cases.

LexieCat

Does he drink wine? My mother once got a reaction like that to sulfites in wine that she drank on an airplane (which is actually pretty odd--I can probably count on two hands the number of times I ever saw my mother have a drink). It was almost like anaphylactic shock. I think you can also get it from some kinds of produce.

I never heard of anyone getting a reaction like that from just plain alcohol.

OnawaMiniya

Most of the articles I found regarding that did mention wine as the top offender. No, he doesn't drink wine. Malt liquor is his usual. I did find that though wine was seen as the top offender that other alcoholic beverages were also noted.

Since he has asthma, and it has been humid here, and he got himself VERY worked up, plus quite wasted, I can see why he had an attack. Allergies also been bothering us both a lot lately. Two cats too. What was strange to me, and even to the medical staff, was the red blotchy thing going on all over. I should say they found it unusual, or couldn't definitely explain it.

It didn't seem like a flush reaction, which he doesn't get, not that I've ever seen, anyway.

After a bit of treatment the neocons (eta:wth kindle? I typed blotchiness, not neocons!) went away. Perhaps it was a stress reaction as one of them suggested as a possible cause.

Just all of that plus this new hand rash/eczema like thing (knew someone with bad eczema on hands, it seems similar and isn't sitting to other parts of his body that have had contact with his hands), I'm just getting concerned that maybe his life is beginning to show problems. I've read about liver/Skin issues.

Was in hospital not long ago about a throat infection.

I don't know. Seems like he's worn down in general. But I really feel alcohol is more of the problem than he thinks. Just a gut feeling.

Thanks

OnawaMiniya

knew someone with bad eczema on hands, it seems similar and isn't sitting to other parts of his body...

Typo. Spreading, not sitting. This kindle drives me insane! (I always feel like such a jerk when I complain about something like that....lol)

LexieCat

Um, yeah. I believe that's what they call "first world problems."

OnawaMiniya

LMAO! I was thinking of those "first world problems" memes when I typed that!

wolfpackfan45

It almost sounds like an anaphylactic reaction to something. My daughter carries an epipen because she had a reaction like this to something in a soup she ate. Even after allergy testing they couldn't figure out what caused it. They told us it could be a strange spice or seasoning even. She looked splotchy and red on her face and chest. Almost like patches of sunburn. Really strange looking.She had trouble breathing and by the time I got her to the ER her tongue was swelling. She got splotches on her legs too. They treated her with IV meds and sent us home with an appt to see an allergist. She was prescribed codeine cough syrup for the 1st time in her life several years later and the same thing happened. Found out then she's allergic to codeine. Makes me wonder if he came into contact with something he's allergic to.

OnawaMiniya

Thanks for that, that you mentioned she had the blotchy red reaction too. The medical staff seemed to consider that it was an allergic reaction but to more or less dismiss that because it didn't itch and want raised, just a change in the color of the skin itself. In fact they asked about Sun exposure but I said no, he's not sunburned. Not to mention sunburn doesn't appear in blotchy patches...sigh...

I wished they'd tried to figure that out a bit more but I understand you can't always find a clear answer. We tried to think of what he could have possibly been exposed to. Strange because it just seemed out of the blue, and when he got home he ate more of the same he'd eaten earlierwith no problems.

Hmmm. I'll just have to watch out. I'm just a bit worried because he's been drinking more later and I'm wondering if he's starting to have real health problems from it.

Thanks again

LexieCat

Sometimes ingredients in a new laundry detergent or dry cleaning chemicals can cause a reaction, too.

If it's a one-time deal, it may just be something he inadvertently came into contact with that he normally does not. As I said, with the hundreds of alcoholics I've known, I've never heard of something like that as a reaction to alcohol itself. I do know that there is a reaction like that that sometimes occurs in Asians due to a genetic component that makes it difficult to process alcohol. It's part of the reason alcoholism is rare in the Asian population--most people find it unpleasant enough that they avoid alcohol. But if it were something genetic, it wouldn't just be turning up now all of a sudden.

Quish16

Could it be lupus? AH had a very bad rash which we thought was a reaction to the heart pills but they are now saying it is lupus. Just a thought. I know alcohol can affect the immune system.

transformyself

Rashes are really hard to ID and find the source and treat. Really hard.

I am seeing massive hives and rashes in so many of my friends and family. Massive food allergies. Tons of digestive issues too. I'm sure it's the GMO in all of the grains. My son had a horrible reaction to eggs. The Western Medicine doc confirmed an egg allergy, but the Medicine Man told me it was the GMO grain fed to the chickens. It took literally 6 weeks for us to get it under control.

We're only eating organic, non-GMO at our house now, to the best of our ability.

Also, I've seen my AH get all blotchy just like you describe when he drinks Gin. He's allergic.

Does he stop? Go ahead, guess.

BoxinRotz

I know that when AH checks out with the bottle, he has a heck of a time breathing. He has developed a very high pitched wheeze on the exhale. I tell him, it sounds like your sitting on a kitten! I usually fire up the nebby if he's really bad because that's what his dr said I could do, if he lets me do it at all.

I believe 100% it's a side affect of getting so sh!tfaced wasted all the time that the body just can't recover. I googled too. Once alcohol is in your system, it converts to fluid which runs through every organ including the lungs.

lillamy

I'm not a doctor so take this as musings of someone with an sick interest in the medical field only... Oxygen deprivation usually results in the skin turning blue. However, if you have a high concentration of another substance in the blood, your skin can get red. Carbon monoxide poisoning can make your skin appear very red, almost like a tomato because the carbon monoxide molecules bond with the hemoglobin forming carboxyhemoglobin, which is bright red

There's also something called histotoxic hypoxia - basically means the cells can't use the oxygen in the blood because there's a poisoning of the tissue on a cellular level. This can, I've been told, be caused by alcohol poisoning. But that wouldn't explain the red blotchiness.

So that was just my little thinking out loud.