# Id this medical rash. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 2, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895 "2010-08-02T15:11:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895/1 "2010-08-02T15:11:04Z")
I’m posting this here instead of GQ, since there can’t possibly be an actual answer, only an informed opinion. Anyway. . . This wasn’t mine, and it was successfully treated, but the patient didn’t ask a lot of questions. Anyway, I have a friend (seriously!) who had a rash that oddly showed up in two unrelated placed: Her face broke out in a rash and actually puffed up a good bit (eyes almost swollen shut), and there was another rashy place on her thigh. Coincidentally, or not, this occurred after she had an unrelated injury working in a restaurant. She had cut her hand or finger, and had first gone to the doctor about that. The rash showed up a day or so later. Doctor said [“spider bite”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2235/my-dads-hospitalized-with-a-big-bump-on-his-arm-could-it-be-a-spider-bite), and that was the end of that as far as my friend was concerned. She got the prescription, and it cleared up pretty quickly. [And I do not know what the medication was.] Since I have no medical or entomological background, I didn’t feel I had any place in pointing out that might not have been accurate–but I personally was skeptical. I was more inclined to believe that she was exposed to some pathogenic bug when she cut her hand in the restaurant. . . but, again, that might have been coincidence. One wild thing about her rash–after the swelling in her face receded, the skin started flaking off exactly the same way it does after a sunburn. A “real” answer to this is obviously elusive, but I would still invite any informed opinions on what might have been the origin of the rash. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895/2 "2010-08-02T16:34:29Z")
Eczema. She was exposed to something she’s allergic to. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895/3 "2010-08-03T16:34:18Z")
Was she cutting limes? You can get a sunburn like rash from lime juice and sun exposure. (photodermatitis) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895/4 "2010-08-03T16:36:54Z")
I would think that if she’d gotten lime juice on her thigh she’d remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-medical-rash/548895/5 "2010-08-03T16:44:28Z")
> [@pudytat72](#): > > Was she cutting limes? Throwing out a plastic garbage bag that contained a broken bottle.