Starting out with the usual disclaimers of you’re not a doc, this isn’t medical advice, yadda, yadda…
Starting on Thursday, my husband noticed a bit of a rash on one of his arms. It ran under his arm, skipped his underarm, and ran onto the area of his chest where his arm would hang if he were standing up straight. It was a pale red, with small bumps. Later in the evening, we noticed it on the other arm and chest in the same areas. Friday, he was complaining that it was itching, it was a little bigger. We figured it was a heat rash - he’d been fencing for longer than usual (fencing gear doesn’t breath very well) on Wednesday and was dehydrated, so we figured it’d go away. He loaded up on hydrocordizone, and took a cool shower.
Well, now we’re on Monday, and it hasn’t gotten better. If anything, it’s growing. We’ve had no changes in shampoos, soaps, or deodorants. No new clothes, he used the same the same fencing gear he usually does. For all those reasons, and the fact that it hasn’t gone away, and is only over certain parts, I doubt it’s an allergy.
I’m trying to convince him to go to the doc if it doesn’t change in the next day or two. In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what it might be. My strongest thought is still a heat rash, but… I’m not convinced. Anyone have any thoughts, or advice? Should I ship him off to a doc, or just not worry about it?
My first step would be to try an oral antihistamine like Benadryl and/or a topical creme like hydrocortisone creme to try and relieve the symptoms. Cold packs can help numb it too, especially before bed when itching always seems to be the worst!
If you’re into natural remedies, lavender and/or chamomile essential oil placed in some neutral carrier oil (like olive or canola oil) and rubbed all over the area may soothe it. Nettles taken internally can act as a natural antihistamine - look for freeze-dried nettle capsules at Whole Foods or your local supplement store.
Itching is nature’s dirtiest trick, IMHO. The more it itches, the more you scratch, and the more you scratch, the more it itches, and repeat. So while I’m not generally a fan of “treat the symptoms, ignore the cause”, itching is one area where I’m willing to relax that stance for a day or so. It may very well be that he just got a bit of heat rash or contact dermatitis and once he can stop scratching, rubbing, etc., the rash will disappear and the itching will stop.
But I’d only give it a day or two, and then I’d seek medical help. Could be heat rash, could be shingles ('though shingles is generally only found on one side of the body at a time), could be a fungal infection, could be scabies, could be excess salts in the skin caused by some metabolic process gone awry…only by actually looking at it, in person, can a doctor do a differential diagnosis and figure out how to treat it.
We noticed last night that it had spread quite a bit - it’s now on both his elbows, down both his arms, the backs of his knees, and spreading on his chest. I couldn’t find any benadryl, so I gave him some OTC zyrtec (not quite the same, but at least the same family), and looked up the address for the nearest clinic for him.
Thanks for the advice - there’s a lot of possibilities, and sending him in to the doc is the best way to figure out which one it is.
How has he been feeling otherwise? If he’s had symptoms common to the flu (fatigue, aches especially in the neck, headaches, fever, chills) within the past month have him see a doctor the sooner the better. I just finished antibiotics for lyme disease today and only discovered three weeks ago that the classic bullseye you’re supposed to look out for occurs in less than half of people. Mostly I ended up with one huge purplish-pink rash on my belly where the bit originated, and a bunch of smaller pink ones all over my body over the two days before I decided to have it looked at despite no bullseye. A couple of the smaller rashes itched, most didn’t.