Sulfamethoxazole and prednisone

I started taking two 160mg tablets of sulfameth a day about a week ago in conjunction with prednisone and hydroxyzine for a bad case of contact dermititis. Yesterday I woke up with a crazy fever, pressure in my sinuses and headache. I got off work and went to sleep at 5:30pm. Around 9pm I woke up covered in hives. The fever had broke, but this was a new beast. The hives started out all over, but there were not many. Over the next 24 hrs they spread so that now I am mostly a giant red splotch. It itches like hell and for some damn reason I feel wired. I can't get to sleep. I keep pacing around.

I went to the ER and they said it was probably the sulfameth. They told me to discontinue use and put me on a higher dose of prednisone, zantac and diphenhydramine.

I am almost sure it was the sulfameth. I have been on prednisone before without anything like this happening. I have never taken the sulfameth before this and I rarely took the hydroxyzine they gave me so I doubt it caused it.

The reaction to the sulfameth is seriously 100 times worse then what they gave it to me for. I would rather have just not gone to the doctor and suffered through what I had before than deal with this. It's a sleepless, itching hell. I will never take a sulfa drug again.

I can only wonder how bad it would have been had I not already been on prednisone when the allergic reaction hit. So 24 hrs into it and the hives are getting worse. Hopefully the prednisone and benadryl will end it soon.