I’m very bugged by something going on that I did ask my doctor about and she was completely stumped. And she’s usually a pretty awesome diagnostician.
I have two spots, one on each shin. They look like bruises. They have been there for well over a year. There used to be a third one, but that seems to have gone away for the most part.
The spots are red, dry, and occasionally itchy. They are mildly uncomfortable, primarily when I stand for awhile I can feel some discomfort centered in those areas, a soreness, not an itchyness. But if I touch them directly I don’t notice any discomfort or sensitivity.
When I first took note of them some time back, I noticed that the flesh under them was unusually hard. This was particularly noticable on the third spot which was on the (usually soft) part of the knee on the inside.
I’m not quite as concerned as I was before simply because there has been some degree of healing and because they didn’t present red flags to my doctor. But I would still like to know what they are and what’s causing them. I feel like there’s information to be had.
I’ve done some searching, but the symptoms, when searched, bring up boatloads of stuff that’s completely unhelpful.
I’m 52 and obese. I think my age and weight almost certainly have some bearing.
Are you diabetic or have blood sugar issues at all? One of my friends is a type one diabetic and gets spots on his legs that sound a bit like what you’re describing. He said they were just something that he got that took a while to go away.
Humm - that answer doesn’t seem very helpful but perhaps a place tostart?
Did you bang into your open dishwasher door, not just once but many, many times?
(If that sounds like I think you’re stupid…well, I did this, until I finally learned to keep the damned thing closed, and I think I have a permanent bruisy thing on my shin because of it.)
I’m not a doctor, so my comments are entirely uninformed.
Your problem has been going on for a year, so it is probably not a consequence of any particular behaviour or habit. You would have noticed the connection by now.
There isn’t any real reason to suspect an infection.
So…eczema or dermititus. You and your doctor must have considered these, but so what? Both of those terms are Doctor-speak for a whole category of skin-crap that medical science does not understand. Medical science has never paid attention to these maladies because they are usually trivial. Trivial to them, but not to you.
If you see bruising, than there are burst capillaries. If you are obese, than sub-cutaneous fat may be involved. When you stand, blood pressure increases in your legs, and aggravates any problems you may be experiencing down there.
The most important factor may be that you are 52 years old, and shit starts to happen. I’m 46, and I get aches and pains.
Continuing the random condition train, I recently read an article on Erythema ab igne, a skin condition caused by prolonged exposure to heat (that is hot enough to significantly raise the temperature of the skin, but not hot enough to cause actual burns). Commonly caused by laptops. Do you tend to sit with a source of heat against your shins?
It’s always hard to tell when it comes to skin things because they present so differently in different people, but judging from some of the pictures I found, the cause, the description…this seems to be the winner so far.
If I think about it for long I really do have to have enormous respect for dermatologists, for exactly what I just said… when I look at dermatology photos (gross gross gross and oh my god how do people exist with some of those conditions???) I’m amazed by how similar different conditions can look AND how DIFFERENT the SAME condition can look.
It’s been my experience that any boo-boo on the leg - anything, a bruise, a cut, a scrape - takes forever to heal. Over a year is a long time, but maybe it has something to do with obesity. My brother is obese and he’s had skin problems on his ankles for ages. Can’t seem to get rid of it, though his doctor pooh-poohs it.