The Rash

On Friday morning I took a shower in the bathroom attached to our bedroom in the condo at Pigeon Forge.  When I started to dry my hair and looked in the mirror, I noticed large welts on the underside of the top of my right arm.  They looked like something had bitten me, so Gary checked the bed for bugs or spiders or anything that could have bitten me.

As the day progressed and more swollen areas appeared on the same arm and along my wrist and onto my hand, I considered other possibilities.  An allergic reaction to the hand lotion that Karen and I sampled at a cute boutique in the Artists Loop? No - only my left arm felt the benefit of the smooth sweet smelling lotion and my hands of course.  Not one drop of lotion made it to the top of my right arm, especially since it was covered with a sleeve!  Wait--Gary bought me a puca shell bracelet which I had worn the rest of the day and evening on the right wrist.  My skin is sensitive to certain metals, so maybe this was an allergic reaction.  But when the welts began to appear on my left arm also, that theory was pitched.  Another thought was the return of shingles, but they didn't itch, they didn't hurt, and they were on both sides of my body.  Forget that (thankfully!).

After we shopped at Tanger Outlets, we stopped at a Walmart in Sevierville.  Gary and I ran in to pick up some Benedryl, a tube of Benedryl cream, and a tube of cortisone cream.  I started taking the tablets and repeatedly smeared cream of one kind or another on the affected areas.  Nothing changed except more welts appeared. This time two were on my right forehead, more on my right leg, and a large red splotch and two smaller red splotches on my left leg.  A couple were on the back of my neck also.

More cream.  More Benedryl.  Some faded a little but most of them stayed the same. 

Last night was our first night home.  Some of the Shingles Rescue Cream that worked so well at healing the swollen areas on my face during shingles might help, right?  So I applied some to my forehead, my right arm, my left arm, and my right leg.  Then I touched a small red area on my left leg and it seemed to explode beneath the surface, right before my eyes.  Today that area became larger, and for the first time since Friday, I could 'feel' the welt.  When Gary came home this afternoon, he took one look at it and said "Change your clothes. We are going to Urgent Care."

Urgent Care was an experience.  The line was to the door, even though there were few cars in the parking lot.  It seemed that as soon as a new patient was registered, the door opened and the nurse called that same patient's name.  The reason for the long line?  The registration person was S. O.  S. L. O. W........  It took her FOREVER to register just one person.  I stood in line behind 5 other people for 40 minutes.   Since Urgent Care is an Arnett facility, I am already 'in the system' so I am not sure why it took her so long.  Lots of clicks.  Lots of flipping my Medicare and Medico cards over, then over again, and over again.

When the nurse called me to the exam room and I told her the reason for my visit, she was not sure what had caused the welts.  We discussed bugs and she said bedbugs were invisible.  So that ruled that theory out, I thought.  She also was concerned about the larger red patch on my leg.  When the doctor came in, she too was confused about the cause.  She said it could be bugs since the welts looked like they started as bug bites, and that we should have been able to see the bugs since bedbugs were visible.  Hmmm....  She was very thorough...she checked my neck, my glands, under my arms, and asked me to lie on the table so she could palpitate my abdomen. She said she could really find nothing that would indicate a cause for the welts and they still looked like bites to her.  She suggested contacting a dermotologist for help.  In the meantime she prescribed a gel type cream to apply 2-3 times as day and an antibiotic to take twice a day.  Then she suggested washing all of our linens with special soap, hot water, and rinsing in vinegar. When we went to CVS to pick up the meds, we also bought new detergent (as she recommended), new body wash for me and new lotion as well.  I hope that all of this helps. 

None of this appeared until after the second night in the condo.  It started on my right arm which I lie on, under the pillow.  I think that there were some type of bugs in the mattress or the sheets or the pillow that were on my side of the bed.  I did flip over to the other side, but when I do that most of my body is in the middle of the bed, except for my legs.  That could be why my left leg was more affected than the right.  The only thing I can't explain is the additional bites that appeared this morning on my face, but that could be not really bites but just some extra oil in my face which causes small welts occasionally.

I am still not convinced that the cause was not bugs in the bed at the condo.  I am hoping, actually praying earnestly, that the gel ointment and the antibiotic do the trick and these things start to disappear quickly and soon!  The word 'biopsy' scares me, and that is what the doctor said would be needed if they didn't disappear.  She also said not to worry (well, she really doesn't KNOW me, does she?), that they could be gone in a few days and never return!  Well, THAT would definitely be great news!