Mosquitoes Love Lupies

While it has not considered a symptom of lupus, a search on the internet reveals that many lupies suffer from extreme reactions to mosquito bites.  Many lupies also claim to attract mosquitoes.  I have always been one of those "lucky" ones that the mosquitoes are always drawn to (must be because I'm so sweet), and that has bad reactions to their bites.  My bites usually get big and puffy and can last weeks.

According to the Mayo Clinic:

Mosquito bites are caused by the bite of a female mosquito. The female mosquito feeds off your blood by piercing your skin with her mouth (proboscis). While sucking your blood, she also deposits some of her saliva into your skin. This saliva contains proteins that remain in your skin. Your immune system may then react to those proteins, resulting in the characteristic itching and bump.

So it makes sense that lupus, which is a disease in which the immune system is hyperactive, would cause more intense reactions to mosquito bites.  Before being diagnosed with lupus, I thought my extreme reaction was  because I was allergic to the mosquito saliva, but now I'm inclined to blame this one on lupus too.

I bring up this subject because I was recently on a field trip for work which brought me into a lush valley swarming with mosquitoes.  Luckily I was wearing jeans, long sleeves, shoes, and a jacket, but those suckers (literally) managed to get me a couple times on my face.  Now I have a swollen eye that looks like it is starting to bruise.  It seriously looks like I was punched in the eye.  Ahh, the hazards of work...

On a side note, while plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) is a medicine designed to prevent malaria from mosquito bites, I haven't found any information to suggest that it helps lessen mosquito attraction or bite reaction.  I suspect that the prednisone (a corticosteroid to reduce inflammation) I am taking has worked to lessen the swelling -- I imagine that without it, my eye would look much worse.

- a little lupie -