Severe Itching

jrjr13 · New User Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 2

I have a collegue 57 years old with stage 4 endometrial cancer. The cancer has spread to her lungs. My question however concerns itching that she has had for almost a year now. There is no visible rash. The itch is all over her body (feet, hands, arms, legs, trunk, face, etc) She has been to numerous doctors of all sorts (internist, dermatologist, neurologist, oncologist, herbologist, enocrinologsit, psychiatrist) to no avail. Noone seems to know the source of her itching or can tell her definively if it is caused by her cancer. She has tried many remedies both topical and medicnal. Nothing has helped thus far. Does anyone have any insight?????????

freeio

From painful experience, one potential cause of terrible itching is high biliruben, which is a common byproduct of the liver if the bile system gets backed up. In my case, they found a tumor in my common bile duct, which stopped up the outflow of bile, causing the liver to put out vast quantities of biliruben. Besides the vile itching, the other obvious side effect was jaundice - i.e. first the whites of the eyes, and then the skin turned yellow, over a period of several weeks.

This is not by any means the only potential cause, but it is easily detected by normal blood tests.

Marty
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Duke_Savage · New User Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 3

I would start going through all the meds, maybe there is one that has that side effect, just a thought...

Overwhelmed · New User Joined: 25 Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Florida

I have whats called mpd pv and have trouble with itching constantly, especially when coming in contact with water. I have also tried the meds and topical treatments. I find it helps alot if I take benadryl and also the trick i've found is to make an aveeno paste almost like an oatmeal consistancy, this tends to help sometimes, when i have severe episodes. keeping the skin moisturized but not to moist. Smile

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God Bless

konig30 · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:14 am Post subject: Re: Severe Itching

I had the same type of severe itching that you are describing. It was an uncontrollable itch. After multiple trips to the doctor I was diagnosed with stage 3-B Hodgkins disease (Cancer of the lymphnodes). I was told that the severe itching was caused by abnormalities with the lymphnodes. Out of all of the drugs they gave me to try to control the itch, the only one that even came close to offering some relief was ativan.

I wish your friend the best. My prayers are with her.

brooke0725 · New User Joined: 04 May 2006 Posts: 3

While she was in the hospital, the pain medicine my aunt was taking was making her itch like that and at first we thought it had something to do w/the cancer, but soon after that, they switched her pain meds and the itching went away. I'm not sure if that is it or not, but it sounds like it might be an allergic reation. (also, just so you know, there was no rash or anything either, her sking just itched her.)

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