I'm having alot of issues with swelling and I'm have some pretty severe breathing issues. Any advice?

Question

For about the last couple weeks, every morning when I get up, my face is very puffy (swollen) and throughout the day, my breathing gets harder and harder. It feels as though I'm being choked and my chest feels very tight. By the end of the day my legs and hands are swollen as well. My breathing gets better if I stand up or walk around. Gets really tight and hard to breath when I sit or lay down. I have been to two different doctors now- the first one said I was dealing with allergies (outside) and that it was an unusually wet season. He gave my a steroid nose spray, Benedryl, and Amoxicillan. Things seemed to get worse, so I went to a different doctor. The second one wasn't sure what was going on- my oxygen levels were a little low, my blood pressure was a little high, he saw the swelling-- gave me 2 weeks worth of Prednisone (steroids), they don't seem to be phasing it either. I am a fairly healthy 25 year old mother and have never had issues like this before. Any ideas what could be going on?

Answer 1

Hi,

Wow - that sucks. It sounds to me like you DO have allergies. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic and the Benadryll is an antihistamine.

How long did you give the first docs meds to work? I had really bad allergies in the spring. It took almost two weeks for the meds to take effect. You might want to get tested for allergies. This test requires up to 20 skin sticks - nothing major. They mark your arm w/ a marker and adjacent the mark, they prick your skin with known allergens. You come back in a few days and they look for swelling. This may be the best way to determine wha you're allergic to. Then - you can get allergy shots!!