Melissa765
07-11-2006, 03:43 PM
Hi! For the last week or so I've had an itchy rash that started on my hands (between my fingers and on my palms), on the tops of my feet, behind my knees, and a little bit under my breasts. A few days later, I got all the symptoms of a virus (body aches, fever, sore throat, etc.) so my doctor just assumed, without looking at the rashy areas, that the rash was just all a part of the virus.
What I find concerning is the location and intense itching of these rashes, as well as just the generalized itching that's all over my body (with no rash though). I've been paranoid about scabies since the day I knew about it basically, and I go to so many doctors appointments (unrelated to this present illness), that I'm worried I could have picked it up there... like if they didn't change the sheets or pillow on the exam table.
Here's what my questions are:
1. My dermatologist said that the schedule was too full to see me any time soon, and said that it sounds like I have allergic dermatitis. She prescribed a topical steroid cream and said to take Benadryl. This seemed to have helped the itchiness,but once I stop using it, the rash/itching comes back. If I had scabies, would that be the kind of reaction I'd have to that treatment? Temporary improvement, but then a returning of symptoms?
2. Does scabies start really rapidly? What I mean is, if I have scabies, would I KNOW I had it, and right away it would be rashes everywhere, or can it be like it is now -- just the occasional rash here and there, and some itchiness?
3. I live with my parents, and neither of them have rashes. I've even laid in my mother's bed a few times to watch TV, so would that definitely pass scabies to them (if they slept in the bed that night) if I had scabies???
4. Does scabies look at all like eczema? Because this rash that I have doesn't look at all like "allergic dermatitises" that I've had in the past, and it looks really dry and kind of scaly to be honest. :confused:
Thanks if anyone can answer these, because I think I'm making myself more worried!!! :wave:
What I find concerning is the location and intense itching of these rashes, as well as just the generalized itching that's all over my body (with no rash though). I've been paranoid about scabies since the day I knew about it basically, and I go to so many doctors appointments (unrelated to this present illness), that I'm worried I could have picked it up there... like if they didn't change the sheets or pillow on the exam table.
Here's what my questions are:
1. My dermatologist said that the schedule was too full to see me any time soon, and said that it sounds like I have allergic dermatitis. She prescribed a topical steroid cream and said to take Benadryl. This seemed to have helped the itchiness,but once I stop using it, the rash/itching comes back. If I had scabies, would that be the kind of reaction I'd have to that treatment? Temporary improvement, but then a returning of symptoms?
2. Does scabies start really rapidly? What I mean is, if I have scabies, would I KNOW I had it, and right away it would be rashes everywhere, or can it be like it is now -- just the occasional rash here and there, and some itchiness?
3. I live with my parents, and neither of them have rashes. I've even laid in my mother's bed a few times to watch TV, so would that definitely pass scabies to them (if they slept in the bed that night) if I had scabies???
4. Does scabies look at all like eczema? Because this rash that I have doesn't look at all like "allergic dermatitises" that I've had in the past, and it looks really dry and kind of scaly to be honest. :confused:
Thanks if anyone can answer these, because I think I'm making myself more worried!!! :wave:
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BioAdoptMom3
07-11-2006, 11:14 PM
Its hard to say. We had a foster daughter once who came infested with it and it presented itself as a red rash all over her body. My suggestion to you would be to (in addition to what the doctor has told you to do) go swimming several times in a chlorinated pool or soak in a bathtub a couple of times a day with just a capful of bleach. Chlorine or bleach (very close to being the same thing) will cure it if it is scabies or any other type of fungus. We have a pool and when we started swimming it cleared completely up. Even the prescrption cream and recommended baths couldn't accomplish what the pool could.
Nancy
Nancy
mommaboyz
07-11-2006, 11:58 PM
I had scabies 10 years ago. I had them so bad I use to work at a walmart which I know is where I got them. Scabies like warm places between fingers toes ect. But not only those places I had them everywhere. I wanted to die literley. The are small bumps best I can recall in a line. What happens is they are micro scopic bugs and they jump thats why they are in a line. I went to 6 doctors er doc too. Mhy one could tell me what they were. I was pregnant at the time and believe it oir now I gave birth to my son and gave them to him. FINALLY hes doctor tested us and treated us. If you have them it doesnt mean your family will get them it just depends. I did give them to people but I have them for several months. I would tell the dr to do a skin scraping for scabies asap. easy and painless. is your rash in a lone or circles? hope this has helped some.
ozzybug
07-12-2006, 03:34 AM
Melissa-
Another thought just hit me. I don't want to alarm you, but with the outbreak of the rash followed by the viral symptoms, is it at all possible that you have come in to contact with someone who has syphilis? It's just that what you described does sound similar to it- especially with the viarl symptoms.
I hope that what you have going on is something very easily cured, but I would make that doctor look at the rash and do further testing. Whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon. I know it's got to be miserable itching and that's compounded by worrying about scabies.
Please keep us posted.
Lezlee
Another thought just hit me. I don't want to alarm you, but with the outbreak of the rash followed by the viral symptoms, is it at all possible that you have come in to contact with someone who has syphilis? It's just that what you described does sound similar to it- especially with the viarl symptoms.
I hope that what you have going on is something very easily cured, but I would make that doctor look at the rash and do further testing. Whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon. I know it's got to be miserable itching and that's compounded by worrying about scabies.
Please keep us posted.
Lezlee
Melissa765
07-12-2006, 11:38 AM
I DID end up finally getting into the doctor though, and when I asked him if he thought it could be scabies, hand food and mouth, and then a few other things I threw in there (just so that he didn't think I was crazy), he said, "No--not hand foot and mouth, and it doesn't really look like scabies either..." ... he then walked over to my hand again and held it really close to the light... "Well, it looks like a little patch of eczema here. Nah, it doesn't really look like scabies. I mean, I don't see any burrows yet."
My mother : "Well, you you test her anyway?"
Him: "There isn't anything to test though. Maybe in 3 weeks if this hadn't gone away we'd think 'maybe scabies', but her skin is REALLY dry, and it looks a lot like eczema. "
Can that be true? Can there really be "not enough to test" or was he just saying that because I was the last patient of the day, and they were already open an hour past scheduled closing???
Anyway, he then gave me an RX for a really strong antihisthamine, a topical steroid ointment, and said to use eucerine for my entire body. He also said that if it doesn't go away by the weekend, they'll give me a cortisone shot, but he wants to wait as long as possible because I just got over an infection.
BioAdoptMom3: That sounds good... and easy!!! We don't have a pool, but my grandparents do, so it's literally 5 minutes away.
mommaboyz: that was very helpful! Mine aren't little bumps in a line or a circle -- they're really random and not really "bumps." It's like little patches of reddness/itchiness (that turned into white and dry skin... I think from the topical steriod). I still get the occassional hive-like thing on my palm, but it goes away within a 1/2 hour... even if I don't put anything on! It's like the case of the vanishing rash! I'm glad you're okay now though; that sounds like absolute hell to go through.
ozzybug: I don't think I did!!! I don't know how contagious it is, but I haven't even so much as held hands with anyone in the past few years. Perhaps this is a good time to throw in that I have a germ and dirt/grime/gross-things phobia, and I don't come in close contact with people for just this reason! I used to think that I was going to catch headlice at school, but that hails in comparison to how crazy I'm going about this. And it's not just "in my mind" because there's definitely a rash--and the doctor "doesn't really think" it could be scabies... so that's always a looming possibility that I may have to face in 3 weeks, if this isn't resolved! It's just the grossest thing in the world because although I'm extremely clean (I clean my house top to bottom 3X weekly... taking 4-5 hours each time, and I bathe twice daily), I don't care who you are, when you think "scabies," you think "dirty"! And if I have it, which I don't know how I'd get it, I want to get rid of it NOW and not have to later worry about telling people "oh by the way, I have scabies so you have to be treated too." *shudders* GROSS!!!
Well, any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated as well! :wave:
My mother : "Well, you you test her anyway?"
Him: "There isn't anything to test though. Maybe in 3 weeks if this hadn't gone away we'd think 'maybe scabies', but her skin is REALLY dry, and it looks a lot like eczema. "
Can that be true? Can there really be "not enough to test" or was he just saying that because I was the last patient of the day, and they were already open an hour past scheduled closing???
Anyway, he then gave me an RX for a really strong antihisthamine, a topical steroid ointment, and said to use eucerine for my entire body. He also said that if it doesn't go away by the weekend, they'll give me a cortisone shot, but he wants to wait as long as possible because I just got over an infection.
BioAdoptMom3: That sounds good... and easy!!! We don't have a pool, but my grandparents do, so it's literally 5 minutes away.
mommaboyz: that was very helpful! Mine aren't little bumps in a line or a circle -- they're really random and not really "bumps." It's like little patches of reddness/itchiness (that turned into white and dry skin... I think from the topical steriod). I still get the occassional hive-like thing on my palm, but it goes away within a 1/2 hour... even if I don't put anything on! It's like the case of the vanishing rash! I'm glad you're okay now though; that sounds like absolute hell to go through.
ozzybug: I don't think I did!!! I don't know how contagious it is, but I haven't even so much as held hands with anyone in the past few years. Perhaps this is a good time to throw in that I have a germ and dirt/grime/gross-things phobia, and I don't come in close contact with people for just this reason! I used to think that I was going to catch headlice at school, but that hails in comparison to how crazy I'm going about this. And it's not just "in my mind" because there's definitely a rash--and the doctor "doesn't really think" it could be scabies... so that's always a looming possibility that I may have to face in 3 weeks, if this isn't resolved! It's just the grossest thing in the world because although I'm extremely clean (I clean my house top to bottom 3X weekly... taking 4-5 hours each time, and I bathe twice daily), I don't care who you are, when you think "scabies," you think "dirty"! And if I have it, which I don't know how I'd get it, I want to get rid of it NOW and not have to later worry about telling people "oh by the way, I have scabies so you have to be treated too." *shudders* GROSS!!!
Well, any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated as well! :wave:
ladysoth
07-12-2006, 02:04 PM
Scabies are a mite, not a fungus. They burrow under the skin, which is why they are hard to diagnose. The doc could do a skin scraping but they won't always show up in the scraping even if you do have them.
Scabies are not all that easy to transmit - casual contact usually won't spread them, but intimate contact will.
Scabies are not all that easy to transmit - casual contact usually won't spread them, but intimate contact will.
Melissa765
07-18-2006, 10:40 AM
Hello again! :wave: The problem is that the doctor WON'T do a skin scraping! Even when I asked him to, he said "there's not really anything to test," yet right before that, he said that it "doesn't reaaaaaaally look like scabies, but it doesn't really look like classic eczema either." :confused: And he seemed pretty concerned with the location of the rashes. I personally think he refused to test my for it because they were running late that day, and were open over an hour past their closing time already...
Just yesterday I started getting a red rash with tiny bumps all over my neck, shoulders, upper back, and chest! It went away after rubbing some steroid cream on it, but I'm still itchy all over my body. When I tried to get an appointment, they just said to use "Sarna" anti-itch cream, which smells like kitty-litter and does NOT work. Since this has been going on for quite a while, and the rash between my fingers hasn't gotten any worse (or better), and there's not any new rashes really (or ones that last anyway), does that make it unlikely that it's scabies? Does scabies start all at once, or can it slowly get worse and worse, for weeks/months? Thanks so much! The advice you've all given so far has been really helpful!
Just yesterday I started getting a red rash with tiny bumps all over my neck, shoulders, upper back, and chest! It went away after rubbing some steroid cream on it, but I'm still itchy all over my body. When I tried to get an appointment, they just said to use "Sarna" anti-itch cream, which smells like kitty-litter and does NOT work. Since this has been going on for quite a while, and the rash between my fingers hasn't gotten any worse (or better), and there's not any new rashes really (or ones that last anyway), does that make it unlikely that it's scabies? Does scabies start all at once, or can it slowly get worse and worse, for weeks/months? Thanks so much! The advice you've all given so far has been really helpful!
GeoffB
07-18-2006, 11:07 AM
Scabies takes about four to six weeks to get itchy after infection. The mite protein is so foregin to the body that it takes a while for you to get sensitized to it. I was volunteering once in a youth shelter where one of the kids had scabies. I felt itchy afterwards but I realised later it was all in my head, because it was too soon for me to be experiencing symptoms. It would be almost impossible to catch it from a doctor's office and obviously the rash is not severe enough, if it was scabies, to be able to scrape mites for a diagnosis. The doctor is unable to do a scabies test at the stage your rash is at.
Geoff
Geoff
Geoff
Geoff