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Severe Allergy to Paxlovid

Post-COVID Recovery & COVID-19 | Last Active: Feb 10 9:20pm | Replies (41)

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@sonyap

Hey hral,
I can totally relate to Paxlovid reaction. Got Covid in July 2023. Soon after I had the 1st dose of Paxlovid, I broke into severe hives within 3-4 hrs after taking the first dosage. Swollen lips, itchy hives on arms and legs. My PCP asked me to stop the medication immediately. However I am suffering from hives ever since!!!
Nothing helps 🙁 all I do is to apply aleo gel and try take a nap which helps. But next day, new hives on new places on the body!! No medication, no tests have been of help so far!!
Have you found any solution yet?

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Replies to "Hey hral, I can totally relate to Paxlovid reaction. Got Covid in July 2023. Soon after..."

Yes. I developed severe angioedema and hives lasting 4 days after 3 doses of Paxlovid. I was able to get things under some control with high dose H1/ H2 blockers ( cetirizine 20 BID, Famotidine 10 mg BID), and Singulair 10 mg at bedtime. I was still having some breakthru swelling of my lips, so reluctantly added a Medrol dose pack. I'm now at Day #10 and feeling like I might survive this.
I will be adding Quercitin ( as Quercifit) 300 mg a day, since research is pretty solid that it can stabilize Mast Cells.

One pearl that shows up in many clinical reviews about angioedema is that treatment requires much higher than standard doses of antihistamines. Like cetirizine ( zyrtec) 40 mg/day, rather than 10...and the first generation antihistamines ( benadryl, or hydroxyzine) ,while helpful for hives, do not penetrate soft tissue enough to help angioedema.

It's important to file all our Adverse Drug Reactions with FDA and Pfizer, since Paxlovid is still an EUA medication. It obviously can have profound serious side effects for some. The cheerful commercials advertising it are not the whole story.

@jbljax and @sonyap yeah, i feel sick to my stomach when I see the Paxlovid commercials. I had several doctors put me on massive amounts of zyrtec and clartin with pepcid...which my body just laughed at. then 2 weeks of prednisone which did nothing and then an even higher dose of prednisone 60mg for 5 weeks. this only altered the way the hives came on. but they still keep coming. but mine is regulated to my face and neck with very distinct borders...so strange.

stress is one of the triggers, i've learned. but then so is whiskey and dust and god knows what else! the planet is no longer safe to live on! lol i'm starting to figure out it might be connected to MCAS and prostaglandin (vs histamine), because my histamine numbers keep coming back "normal" but my PGE2 recently came back as 67 when the range is 200-400. I had to beg my PCP to run this test and when the results came back she didn't even know how to talk to me about it. most drs don't know much about PGE2.

the ONLY thing i've found that works (FOR ME...obvs not providing a medical recommendation) is the supplement Ox Bile. Because MCAS is typically found in the gut and can be connected to the gallbladder, it makes sense (for me) that ox bile is helping me. If i take it fast enough(within a couple hours) at the start of a hives episode, which always begins inside my ears first and then works it's way across my face, then neck, then forehead, i can stop it in it's tracks. But if i've missed the breaking point...it's all over. i've never had gallbladder issues before and now i can feel pain in it almost daily. i swear if this drug has messed up my GB, i'm gonna be livid.

also...you can't itch the hives...they spread like wildfire and it becomes unbearable and lasts weeks vs a few days to a week. aloe helps and ice packs. ice packs all day and night. just stock up the freezer and when they get warm, trade it out for a frozen one. I'm so sorry you're dealing with this too.