Amoxcillin-induced Rash - Duration / Treatment??? Help!

About a week and a half ago, I came down with a sore throat and mild symptoms, nothing serious, but just annoying. After 3 days of these mild cold symptoms, the sore throat got a lot worse and my glands were swollen beyond belief on my neck and in my mouth. The sore throat got very severe and it was almost impossible to swallow at one point. I went to the Doctor and they did a throat culture, which came back negative for Strep throat. The Doc prescribed me Amoxicillin 875mg and told me to take them for 10 days.

So, I did as instructed and the next few days were very, very rough. The sore throat was terrible, I had this foul taste in my mouth, I had a fever, chills, couldn't sleep at night. It sucked. (This is all over the 4th of July too...)

Finally after 3-4 days of these terrible symptoms, the pain subsided and I got most of my energy back. I went back to work and everything looked like it was clearing up. I still had a mild sore throat though. Yesterday I started noticing these little red bumps on my chest. They got worse throughout the evening. No itching present, just red bumps everywhere.

This morning they spread to my legs and arms and neck. Very unsightly, but the Doctor said it should go away once the Amoxicillin is out of my system in 2-3 days. After reading the horror stories some of you went through, I fear that I may end up in a similiar state.

Hope everyone else is healthy, I know I'm ready to be back to my normal self.

I know everyone was asking about the duration of this rash, so I figured I'd post an update on my condition.

So on monday the rash started as a few scattered red dots and quickly spread from there. No itch present, just very gross looking.

Tuesday: Rash had spread to trunk, neck, arms (all the way to the hands). The rash is just a red spot on my trunk/shoulders. It becomes spotty as it spreads outward. The rash stops at my knees on the lower portion. No itch.

Wednesday: In the morning the rash looked horrible, still no itch. This evening it looks to have lost its puffiness and my skin firmness has returned (I'm a pretty built up guy). It looks to be losing its grip on my skin. I noticed minor itching, but I'm not touching it or putting anything on it. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I hope this helps anyone who is just starting to get it.

So far, I'd recommend not touching it. If it itches, leave it alone. I will update again tomorrow evening.

Woke up this morning with good news. The rash on my chest and upper shoulders (where the rash began) was almost completely gone. My skin looked normal and healthy. My left arm got better throughout the day but the right arm remained blotchy. My legs and lower abdomen still look very red but I think thats good news that my chest is now healthy.

This is day #3 and things are looking bright.

Its now been a week and the rash is completely gone.

So as far as duration goes, mine got really bad on day 2, by day 4 it started to disappear and by day 7 it was completely gone.

Hope this helps anyone who has to deal with this "doctor induced" rash

Hi -- want to add my two cents to this mono rash conversation. my son is 13 and was diagnosed with mono -- within days he broke out in "the" rash. horrible blisters starting on chest and moving up and down. ended up in ER where he was admitted to the hospital with stevens johnson syndrome. that is what this so-called mono rash is and you need to check out the websites on it. it's very dangerous and for some is triggered by the antibiotics and mono. in my son's case it was triggered by the mono itself (he never went on antibiotics). it can also be triggered by ibuprofin. anyway, it is serious and needs to be dealth with appropriately. see your doctor if this happens to you! in regards to the itching: it is horrific. my son screamed in agony for 24 hours because of the itching which didn't respond to steriods, coedine, benadryl, etc. doc & nurses were stumped but we kept using all these things and finally he was given atavan. that helped some and so did cold cold compresses on the itchy part. after 24 hours the itching seems to have stopped and he's just been released after five days in the hospital. i'll report back on how his recovery goes but really really understand how much people suffer with this terrible condition.

follow-up on this mono rash stuff. my son christopher has been out of the hospital three days now and here's the story: itching has stopped. he's still on meds but it's so important that you identify what you have: STEVENS JOHNSON SYNDROME. what the docs did was while my son was writhing in the hospital they gave him steriods, benoldryl and coedine, dose after dose after dose. after 24 hours they gave him atavan. that calmed him some and we noticed his itching responded very well to cold compresses. the hospital docs were stumped and called in a dermatologist who told us the skin has three receptors: for itch, for temperature and for pressure. you add something to these and the receptors change. so when we changed temperature with cold cloths on his back (AND A FAN TO KEEP THEM COLD) it helped. this itching can last for days so once we broke the itching we've kept on the benodryl and steriods for days now. it's been six days since the itching started and nothing. we're slowly stopping the meds now (doing the benodryl every 6 hours instead of round the clock every 4 and cutting the steriods slowly in half. have to be careful about that, you know) anyway, my son is out of danger and no longer suffering so i write this for all the people like me who surf the web desperate for help that they may find the path that works for them. again, mono treated with antiobiotics can cause this STEVENS JOHNSON SYNDROME, google it, but so can mono itself in some cases and in others the ibuprofin that you use to deal with fever. best of luck getting through this but again my advice is to see a doctor. this is such a serious condition you may need help. and even in a less serious condition you're probably going to have to deal with this hellacious itching. so sorry. it's awful, but in my son's case we were able to stop it after 24 hours....good luck to those of you who come here after us. Laura-Lynne Powell, sacramento, calif. 9/30/07

Alright so this is the basic story. Last friday I woke up and I couldn't really swallow. My glands were so swollen I looked like I had no neck! Unfortunately I made the mistake of going to a walk in clinic. The doctor diagnosed me with strep but surprise! I actually had mono.
The doctor said that there was a HIGH chance I have mono but on the off-chance that it's strep take some amoxicillin. So I did..
It didn't help my mono at all so I stopped taking it on the sunday and went to a different doctor. She said to keep taking it because theres no harm.. and prescribed me a painkiller.. I only took it for a day and didn't take my amox. again
So a couple days later I felt GREAT! No more mono I thought! But then this friday I discovered red dots on my neck. I ignored it and went shopping.. Then my cheeks got red. Then I looked at my stomach and I was COVERED! I went home and checked my whole body.. my legs were fine and my lower arms were fine.
The next day I woke up and my cheeks, lips and tounge were swollen. Also my legs and lower arms were covered!
The swelling went down during the day but the dots increased.
The next day (today-sunday) I woke up with a black eye, swollen lips and cheeks and a swollen tounge again. Now the dots were on my hands (palms included). On my stomach, back and shoulders you couldn't see skin- just a red blob!
The itch isn't THAT bad unless you start itching! It feels amazing at first and then it hurts... so I started rubbing.. it's better I think!
The swelling has gone down again and the dots on my face are spreading out and fading.. hopefully this DOESN'T last the 8 days that people are saying it does because I have a date! lmao
I really feel awful for everyone that has/had this.. you don't feel like going out in public.. you're uncomfortable and you hate your stupid doctor for not realizing that they just prescribed you the most ridiculous rash EVER!
Benedryl doesn't help me AT ALL.. As I'm typing the dots are getting worse on my hands!!
Anyways.. I've heard that this rash starts at the top and works it's way down.. so that means that it disappears off the top first! I don't think there are any medications that could help us but lets be honest here.. meds got us into this mess..
I'm off to my doctor tomorrow so I'll let you guys know how I do!

ok i took a total of 4 pills mayb 2 hrs after i took the last pill i started top get itchy o though it was just dry skin then it got worse i then though it was an alergic reaction so i took benedrill but it jsut got worse. i jsut want to no even taking benedrill how long will it take for th erash an itching to go away??

So i was just recently diagnosed with mono, too. However, since the the virus showed up first in my liver, every doctor i saw said it was a stomach virus, and no antibiotics were prescribed to me.

Here's the weird part....i have that same, horrible, INCREDIBLY itchy rash! No matter how much antihistamines i take, it won't go away! I'm wondering when this torture will end.

My experience actually started out with swollen lymph nodes way before I got the symptoms of mono. Because I couldn't get into my regular doctor, I went to the clinic they had there and saw someone else. He barely looked into anything and prescribed pain meds and antibiotics (I was having severe pain from the lymph nodes hitting nerves). I am so glad I did not feel good about following the doctor's instructions because then I would have ended up with the lovely rash from head to toe. And I already have allergies to certain antibiotics as it is! I have a lymph node on the back of my neck that is usually large to begin with but it was just worse. Swelling went down for a bit so I didn't think anything of it.
Then a few weeks later, found another large and painful lump and was able to get into my regular doctor. Thank goodness I know she will do whatever she can to find out what is the underlying cause instead of just handing out medication. She wanted to run blood tests and surprise! I have mono! (I'm 27, so it's a bit of a pain to have it at this age). The sore throat, fever, and exhaustion and now kicking in (I'm in the early stages).
But what prompted me to find this was that I am getting a rash and really itchy on my face today. But it's looking like mono can cause that sometimes.
I feel for all those experiencing the rash, I'm allergic to augmenten and have had that nasty rash from head to toe. It's miserable (mine felt like itchy fire ants crawling all over me for days). And it took a long time for it to clear up. And I'm just really glad I didn't trust that first doctor's advice and didn't take the medication.

My story is pretty much the same as everyone here. I had swollen glands, and was feeling really tired and so on, I did a mit on internet research and decided it was probably mono, or Glandular Fever as I know it. went to the doctors, but since it was a sunday, the only one's open were a rather dodgy, walk in clinic. the doctor saw me for all of two minutes, and said I eaither had tonsilitis, glandular fever or some sort of cold-thing.

he put me on Amoxycillin, and i took it for 6 days with no problems.
I was almost feeling better, when I suddenly noticed all these little red dots all over my body.

I went back to the internet, and found this forum. when mum got home, I got her to take me down to the hospital, cause it was a public holiday and nothing was open, again... the doctors there took a blood test and confirmed that I had glandular Fever. they said it was starndard knowledge that giving any form of penicillin to a glandular fever patient ended in this rash.

this is my second day of the rash, now, and it's spread massivly overnight, with most of the little dots joining up into big, puffy patches around my neck and face. the itching isn't too bad, but is getting steadily worse.

The doctor suggested taking an antihistamine for the rash, to eaither help it go down, or make you drowsy enough to sleep- if you're sleeping, it's not itching....

I hope that helps someone.... thank you all for helping me figure out what was wrong with me!

My story is the same. I took Amoxycillin for a bacterial infection my doctor thought I had but it turned out to be mono. This rash has insued and it is SO ITCHY and it covers my entire body. I took benadryl and applied corazone cream and NOTHING works. SOMEBODY HELP ME!

i have the amoxycilin + mono rash... its 1 am and i CANNOT SLEEP and i have already stopped three times writing this to itch my body. My entire body is itching like CRAZY SOMEBODY HELP.

My son had mono for approximately 3 months. He had a blood test for mono which was negative. He continually felt bad, was sick, and had a sore throat and swollen glands in his neck. He has allergies, so we assumed this was the cause since the blood test was normal for mono. He eventually became so tired, lost 15 lbs, and could no longer play basketball due to his side hurting. I then took him to a specialist, turns out he had mono and his spleen was enlarged due to the illness. I have heard that the blood test for mono often comes back negative, even when you are suffering from the symptoms.

I went to the doctor for a bad headache, bloody nose, and night sweats. He prescribed me amoxicillin. I took 2 pills daily for 7 days. On the 7th day I noticed my throat started to hurt. A day and a half later I noticed a rash on my upper chest. The next morning the rash was everywhere. It was the worst on the back of my arms, and under my arm pits to my back, and my neck. It also covered my face, and I had a few spots on my hands and forearms. It's been two and a half days since the first outbreak of the rash. It's spread around my hips, my arms are completely covered my face is swollen and covered as well as my neck. The rash makes my face and neck look like I have really bad acne. My arms are the worst though I can hardly see any regular skin... I've been taking ibuprofen, claritin, and daily vitamins. I have been hydrating with plenty of water and orange juice. I eat fruit regularly as well as soup along with a daily vitamin. I've also been gargling salt water and mouthwash. The rash just keeps getting worse and worse. My throat still hurts just as much, and the fevers, chills, and night sweats are getting worse...Should I go back to the doctor?

i have had some of the same experiences with mono. i went to the doc with a really bad sore throat. he told me it was probably just an infection or that it was tonsillitis. he prescribed me amoxicillin (sp?). i took it and on the last day of the prescription i started noticing these red bumps everywhere and they ITCHED LIKE CRAZY. once i started itching it felt good, but once i stopped or moved to another area it felt like i was being stabbed all over with needles. needless to say, i went back to the doc. he took a mono test and w/in a few days i was told i had mono and that the medicine caused the rash. he gave me a steroid shot and told me to drink plenty of fluids. it seemed to help, i took oatmeal baths to relieve itching (that helped a lot--i bought aveeno oatmeal bath, its right next to the calamine lotion). the rash subsided by the end of the seven days the steroid shot was to work for. BUT, the next day, the rash popped up again. I went back to the doc, this time he gave me steroid pills, told me to take benadryl/claritin, and get plenty of rest. well they worked for the seven days i took them, but the next day, the rash was back. it seems like nothing i do helps and apparently the doc has no where else to turn....i now have to just RIDE IT OUT. hopefully, it doesn't last much longer, but it looks like it is going to continually come back for a while. i recommend oatmeal baths for the itching and using topical creams (they may not work for some, but the cooling effect and creamy feel will deter you from itching as much), also try to stay out of the sun, as i was told that could be a factor in the rash returning
Best of Luck to all of you!!!

It's day 4 since my initial outbreak. I think the rash has stopped spreading and it seems like it has started to fade. My throat is feeling much better as well ( this is day 6 of the sore throat).

Ah. My story is quite similar to everyone else's. I've been feeling really crummy for the last few weeks, with night sweats, headaches, fatigue, and nausea. This last Sunday, I woke up with a horrible sore throat! My glands were basically touching in the back of my throat. Swallowing was painful. I finally went to the doctor on Monday, where she immediately thought it was mono. I got the blood test, and it turned out..I did have it. Of course, I was not put on any antibiotics due to the known fact that it causes a rash. However, I was given prednisone (40 mg a day) to reduce the swelling in my throat and whatnot. Yesterday, Tuesday, I woke up with a horrible rash on my face, neck, chest and upper back. I went back to the doctor and they said that it was just a mono rash. Today, I woke up and it was WORSE. My neck is awful, my chest, stomach, back, arms, hands, and now my upper legs are covered in this hideous rash. Ahhh. It's really not THAT itchy. It's just very ugly. Anybody have any ideas or know anything about it? I'm so scared it's going to last a long time or be re-occuring!

I currently have this awful rash from taking amoxicillin because of a misdiagnosis of strep when I really have mono. I am freaking out because it just will not go away. It's already been almost TWO WEEKS and it seems like it's STILL getting worse. I itch like crazy and I look like a freak. I would be able to cope if it looked like it was getting better, but I don't know how much longer I can stand this. If anyone else has had this experience please tell me how long it lasted for you, I want my normal skin back.