Erythema Nodosum - Rare Disorders Message Board

Butterfly6268 · 07-29-2003, 10:04 AM

I have been recently diagnosed with erythema nodosum. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this disease, how to help prevent the marks on the legs and arms from appearing, or knows a good doctor that can help me out with this disease. Please, this is really depressing me....

projapoti · 07-29-2003, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Butterfly6268:
I have been recently diagnosed with erythema nodosum. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this disease, how to help prevent the marks on the legs and arms from appearing, or knows a good doctor that can help me out with this disease. Please, this is really depressing me....

Wanna know something really cool? Your name, "butterfly" is the same as my name. "Projapoti" is butterfly in Bengali!

Anyway, so you have erythema nodosum...it's surprising that they just diagnosed you with that and didn't look for something else. Do you have problems with your bowels, or have you had any other health problems or infections lately? Erythema nodosum is often associated with inflammatory bowel disease, sarcoidosis and also certain streptococcal infections. It can also come from taking antibiotics like sulfa ones.

Now, I guess I'm going to have to wait 'till you answer that, but one thing is, a lot of the time, treatment for the underlying cause will make the red marks go away. There are also some immunosuppressive treatments that can help the erythema nodosum go away too.

[This message has been edited by projapoti (edited 07-29-2003).]

Butterfly6268 · 07-30-2003, 07:50 AM

Thank you for your reply, we have the same name huh, interesting

Alot of time you say? I am only 21 and I don't even want to show my legs anymore. I had a couple of uti's in which I had to take sulfur for...could this be the reason? I also noticed that it gets worse around certain times of the month. What type of doctor should I go to to treat this? and is there anything that I can do about the marks myself? so I can show off my legs again?

projapoti · 07-30-2003, 09:02 AM

See, the thing with erythema nodosum (and other skin conditions) is that it is hard to tell whether it is primary (i.e. not associated with any other disease) or secondary (erythema nodosum which accompanies something like inflammatory bowel disease). Usually, the person who will treat you will be the specialist for the primary problem you have. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, you'll be treated by a gastroenterologist. If you have sarcoidosis, you would be treated by either a rheumatologist or a respirologist.

As for your legs...honestly, I can't give you a prognosis because, first of all I'm not a doctor yet!

and secondly, I don't know much about your history. It would be best for you to get a full history and physical exam done by your GP and then (s)he can see what to do from there. Make sure that your GP asks questions which relate to things OTHER than skin problems. All too often, I see cases like yours sent to a dermatologist when they should be sent to another specialist.

mistyjoy · 08-17-2003, 01:04 PM

hi there, i have never met anyone with this before. i had erythema nodosum when i was 18. i was out of HS and travelling with a singing team when i got these "knots" on my legs for no reason. at first i thought i ran into something and forgot about it....then i ended up with 30-50 the size of quarters on each leg. they were painful. i went to the doc. not thinking anything of it. i went for my knee actually, and he noticed the spots.who wouldn't? he side-stepped the knee problem and said we better focus on the bumps on my legs. he never saw this before, so he went and got a book! when i went home a month later, he said i had to have many tests run....causes could be pneumonia, pregnancy, TB, leprosy and strept infection. All my tests came back normal. there was one thing. i had a severe iron deficiency. it took a long time on heavy doses of iron to get it back up. i think it may have had something to do with it. it seemed to fade away as my iron came up(3 months). sometimes we don't find an answer. but your doc. should run tests. how long have you had it?