With respect to the itching, this is a long shot but it'd be easy to rule out with a blood test: ask your doctor to check your liver function. Severe itching (pruritis) with no visible external cause can be induced by a surplus of bile acids in the bloodstream. It can be treated with cholestyramine.
I know this because I had a reaction to medication that impaired my liver for a couple of months, a few years back. The itching was terrible. Hot water was one of the only things that did give it some relief (like yours) but not for long. I wasn't showing many other signs of liver problems, no jaundice or anything like that, but that is what turned out to be the problem. (In my case, discontinuing the medication that caused the liver problem was what I needed to do ... though then I had to wait for the liver to recover, which is what took a couple of months ...)
Iron deficiency can also cause that kind of itching. There are actually lots of things that can (link offered not to scare but to inform, because information is empowering :) )
I hope you find out what is causing it. That kind of itching is one of the worse things I've experienced in my life and I hope never to experience it again.
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Date: 2008-10-20 06:37 pm (UTC)I know this because I had a reaction to medication that impaired my liver for a couple of months, a few years back. The itching was terrible. Hot water was one of the only things that did give it some relief (like yours) but not for long. I wasn't showing many other signs of liver problems, no jaundice or anything like that, but that is what turned out to be the problem. (In my case, discontinuing the medication that caused the liver problem was what I needed to do ... though then I had to wait for the liver to recover, which is what took a couple of months ...)
Iron deficiency can also cause that kind of itching. There are actually lots of things that can (link offered not to scare but to inform, because information is empowering :) )
I hope you find out what is causing it. That kind of itching is one of the worse things I've experienced in my life and I hope never to experience it again.