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Clash

Clash

Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
6,370
Ok first C:

He pointed out a place at the base of his thumb, he thought he had a bug bite but it was swollen, red, no itching, ulcerated in the middle, a couple days later he showed another on same hand on the knuckle. He thought this one was a cut but swollen red around it and ulcer looking in the middle. Then next day he had pulled a hang nail on his thumb and it was red(as they can normally be) but then a raised red bumpy line ran from side of nail bed half way down base of thumb. None of these itch

So we took a trip to GP, I really thought it was just due to being on Remicade and MTX and it just takes longer to heal. GP took a look and pressed around, asked some questions. He said that it wasn't infection(not sure how he knows) and that he wasn't worried. I also showed him the back of C's ear, he has cystic acne in his ears at times and had on the back side of his ear lobe. He said it looked bad, gave us some cream and said come back if it doesn't start to heal(it had busted while C slept)

That evening when we got home I noticed a slightly raised red line below C's left eye, it runs along the edge of his lower eye socket bone and is about one inch long. By the next day it was even more red and raised, a little more today. I guess a derm appt is in order but I have just not been impressed with any derm we have been too. Ugghhh...

Ok sorry this is long but skin issue 2 involves my non IBD daughter:

First of August of this year her and 3 roomies moved into a house at college(4br/4ba)

By the second week in August she called and said she had bug bites on her and they itched. They had been to the river kayaking so I didn't think much.

A week later she came home and showed them to me on her lower legs and around her wrists. I thought maybe red bugs, still she wasn't overly worried and we both thought related to river. I told her to run by the clinic but of course she never finds time.

The end of that week she was saying they were on her arms and torso as well, but said they had been there just wrists and bottom of legs was first. I kinda freaked out and thought, oh my what if it is bed bugs since the only thing that had changed was moving into that house.(we purchased a new mattress and bedsprings, bedroom suit at move in)

So we called an exterminator and he came out and did an inspection, he said the bites didn't look like bed bugs and with the number of them on her he would easily be able to find the culprits. He said there was nothing, no bed bugs what so ever.

We went to GP, he looked at them and said he didn't know what to think. I had looked online(I know I know) and they look a little like the celiac rash but the GP said no and no to red bugs, no to scabies, no to allergic reaction. He gave her something to help with the itching but we are to see the derm. There have been no new places since the first two weeks but the ones drying up and starting to dry up itch like crazy. Anyone want to play outguess the derm? And can some one please assure me there is no weird chicken pox looking skin condition related to CD?

She won't be able to see the derm until next week so we will see. Oh and C's and hers skin things look nothing alike.

Again so sorry this is so long, I was just tired of stressing about all of it alone!:ybatty:
 
Call and make sure the derm has experience treating people with cd .
That made the real difference for DS .
He had seen two other dermos prior to that with little to no exp from a cd point of view
 
When we went to Florida on vacation both my partner and my mother got bit by "something" that gave them horrible bites, itchy and they both developed an infection within 2 days. The doctor at urgent care said they were flies.

Don't know if that helps with your daughter but I don't have anything else to offer.

Glad your son's problems don't bother him particularly. can't guess what they are but there's this dermatology site with pictures I'll try to find and put up a link for your viewing "pleasure"
 
Clash said:
So we called an exterminator and he came out and did an inspection, he said the bites didn't look like bed bugs and with the number of them on her he would easily be able to find the culprits. He said there was nothing, no bed bugs what so ever.
Click to expand...

I worked in a motel and we had one room that was infested with bed bugs. Everyone that slept in the room got bitten. My boss called an exterminator and they kept telling them there was no bugs. They sprayed the room and the mattresses but people kept getting bitten. This went on for a year till my boss decided to paint the room. That's when they found the bugs...They were all hiding in the brick wall. There must have been hundreds of them. The exterminator had never bothered to check the walls...So these bugs can do a good job of hiding.
 
Uggh, wish you didn't have something else to worry about! :( I don't know what to suggest but I do sympathize! Over the years, my daughter's had lots of strange skin rashes... most of the time, it's taken so long to figure out what they are (mostly, never did figure it out), by that time, the rashes were gone! :ywow:

I'll throw out one 'sort of' answer we got... nickel allergy. This happened a few years ago, so the details are getting vague but, she started with a small spots/rashes in random spots (behind ear, on belly, etc.), I also thought bed bugs, checked EVERYWHERE, couldn't find anything close to resembling bugs, after a few derms and apptmts, one derm suggested nickel allergy. My daughter had worn a belt with an old buckle (so coating had worn out), the buckle scratched the skin on her belly and, I suppose, the nickel got into her bloodstream?? By that time, it had spread to more random locations - chest, elbows, etc. They did start off looking like bug bites but eventually clustered and turned into quasi-lesions... the best way I can describe it is that it looked like the top layer of the skin on the spot 'melted' off. They eventually healed... BUT, even now, there are still some scars left, perhaps if it had somehow been treated earlier, we may have avoided some of the scarring.

I don't know about C's rash but has your daughter ever had any sensitivity to metals? Is it possible she could she have scraped herself while river kayaking on a piece of equipment?

:ghug:
 
The only thing is that none of the other roomies have bites, although they don't share bedrooms, they do pile up and fall asleep in each others' beds at night and when J comes home for the weekend one of the roomies sleeps in her bedroom because it is downstairs and she doesn't like sleeping upstairs alone. Also the exterminator took the baseboard off and ran a light and camera through because me and my Mom were so convinced that had to be it so to placate us he ran it all behind the wall through the hole he created and still didn't see anything. We just don't know what to think. The exterminator said that he had treated for bedbugs for 28 different customers and the bites had a look and pattern that J's didn't have but not to go on that and make sure the doctor had a look. The doctor agreed that it wasn't bedbugs.

We are kind of at a loss. I then thought scabies when they didn't find bedbugs since they all share clothes and such but no one she knows has these bites or what ever they are and the doc and google said scabies was highly contagious. He said if she was sharing clothes and beds with her roomies they would have it too, plus he said it didn't look like scabies.

I just want to know how he would know it wasn't an allergic response, he said there was a histamine response, hence the itching. How would that differ from an allergic reaction, MLP? The cream he gave her was to treat the itching it started with a K.
 
Re C: Perhaps a bacterial infection along the lines of one of the Staphylococci? These type of infections normally produce inflamed, swollen and ulcerated lesions.

Re daughter: With the change of residence has she also changed washing powder or any personal hygiene products?
Agree re scabies, with that close a contact with others then her friends should also be showing symptoms. Of course you could always run her through a treatment and see if it makes a difference. A telling sign would be if the itching is worse at night.

Of course you do know they say that the most lucrative branch of medicine is Dermatology. Why? Because you never kill your patients but then you never cure them either! :eek2:

Good luck! I hope you soon have solid answers for both your kinder! :ghug:

Dusty. xxx
 
Tesscorm, as usually we had posted around the same time and I missed your post. I'll have to check into nickel allergy! Thanks.

Dusty, your derm comment is exactly what the GP said, although at the time I wondered how he thought he was doing any better.

I thought about staph too, with the hand things but didn't mention it to the doctor. The line under his eye looks almost like a line of mosquito bites...red raised no head to the bump at all. Ughhh...it seems that every time I turn around we are calling or going to the doc about something that is off the wall and it is really starting to make me feel like the doctor hates to see us coming.

J swears she hasn't changed anything, washing powder, lotion etc but honestly, who knows. She's in college, who is to say if she runs out of item "x" she doesn't just use the roomies box.
 
Of course you do know they say that the most lucrative branch of medicine is Dermatology. Why? Because you never kill your patients but then you never cure them either!
Click to expand...

Going back even more years :eek:, when Stephen was about 2 or 3, he developed a rash, ped sent us to derm, derm said it was some sort of allergy. I asked if he could narrow it down to some sort of trigger, his answer (not kidding!!)... something he ate, touched or smelled. Gee, thanks! :lol: I think he prescribed hydrocortisone... the cure-all! :)
 
C gets a peel for his acne, not often anymore since it has cleared up but he had one scheduled for this week. I called the lady and told her my reason for cancelling. She has worked derm for 23 years. For a long time as the derm's nurse but now for many years as an aesthetician for the derm office. When I described it to her she said what I was describing sounded like urticaria. Maybe she is right, her knowledge of skin and conditions has impressed me far more than any derm I have seen. But, nothing I've seen when googling urticaria has seemed close. But seeing as she was just relying on my description that could account for it.
 
Oh and Tess, when J was in second grade she went to a derm to have these things removed(I can't remember what they were but we've discussed them on the forum). Other than those there wasn't a blemish on her skin, after removing the things the derm looked at her forearm, which had nothing on it not even a dry appearance to me and said she has eczema as well let me px something. Ummm...there were five prescriptions, all tubs or tubes of cream that I was supposed to apply to the affected area!!! I saw no affected area... I called back and asked exactly where and the derm responded where ever it itches...seriously? We chunked all that mess.
 
For your dd you need a derm period.
There are so many different types of rashes and some need biopsied to really tell.
Allergic rashes tend to have a wheal/flare meaning you. Have said bump with a light pink halo around it on the flat skin. Did the gp have you try a dose of Benadryl to see if that helped? Not something to try without the doc knowing since other creams can have it in it and too much can be an issue. So a good derm is really needed and hard to find .

As far as C
Remicade tends to make rashes more prevalent so if you are suseptible to xyz then remicade will bring it out .
DS had lots of different ulcerating rashes on remicade .
Ended up using steriods and other creams to get them under control as well as bactroban since one rash turned into cellulitis quickly on him.
Now all of his ulcerating rashes get bactroban .

I will say it took us three different derms to find one that didn't just say try this on ever itch.
We also work closely with DS's allergist since that is a strong possibility of different rashes for my child


Hope you get answers quickly
 
Could there possibly be fleas in the house? My Mom has a pretty wicked allergy to flea bites - and attracts fleas to her like you wouldn't believe...we could be in the same room and she gets bitten multiple times while I'm not touched! She also swells and itches whereas you can't tell on me when I've been bitten....
 
My oldest daughter and I have both been bothered by mystery rashes. Hers was when she was in college. It itched so badly that it made her cry, as she couldn't sleep. Mine came a few years later...mine was invisable, but always itched in the same places, esp when I would get wet or sweaty at all.
Whenever I got into the shower, I would have to spend at least 1 minute scratching the left side of my head, or I would have gone nuts. It was always the left side, never the right, but also on both shins, both hands and the middle of my back. I can still feel it itch in these places occasionally, but it's very subtle. Docs never knew what it was/is but steroid cream worked fairly well.
 
C now haw 3 red bumps right below his lower eye lid, as close to the ridge as you can get without out being on it, then 2 on his upper eye lid. Appointment tomorrow.

Edit to add: the original raised red line is still there, a deep almost purple red.
 
We went to the derm today for C, it is a skin infection, so antibiotic, called to clear with GI and he said to add probiotic to the mix and take antibiotic with loads of water. So hopefully this takes cares of that.

J has derm appt in her college town about her skin issues this week. She says that hers is clearing up though and hopes the derm can still tell what they are.
 
Good luck with your kiddos Clash! I hope they are both soon over their derm problems. :ghug:

Dusty. xxx
 
Ok, you all know I fear antibiotics now since C was on one when all his symptoms started but WOW this antibiotic is clearing the infection up super quick. The places are dried out already. C has been super compliant with the probiotic and tons of water...I guess he remembers the last round of antibiotics too.

J's appt was cancelled well actually the derm had to cancel but she could see the PA, I said no thanks so rescheduled to next week! Ughh... She still thinks they are clearing up and no new ones. I wish she could come home and go to derm here but between work and school there is no time.
 
Glad they are clearing up quickly. Have to agree with the fear of antibiotics they seem to be a double edged sword for our IBD kiddos.
 
YAY! The GP was right! So excited for you guys.

UGH! That cancellation is so frustrating. It is so hard to get a college kid to make an appointment and then to have it cancelled? GRR!

Good luck getting her in quickly! Keep us posted.
 
Has your daughter been in a hot tub lately? I got a bad case of hot tub folliculitis once and it sounds a lot like what she is experiencing. There were multiple people in the same hot tub and I am the only one who the horrid rash. Good Luck
 
I don't think so but I would have to ask. She'll check in today after classes, hopefully.


C's stuff seems to be clearing up really fast, what little acne he has had is clearing too, probably because it is one of "those" kinds of antibiotics. Ughh...just let us get through this with no repercussions!! So far so good, fingers crossed, touch wood, spin around thrice and touch your nose and any other old wives tale luck charm thingy I can think of!
 

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