For the last few weeks, my DH has had this weird thing going on. One morning he woke up, covered with zits! Not on his face, but on the rest of his body. There were something like 15-20 of them, and they were big. Most of them were on his chest and legs, but he had a couple on his back and on his right arm as well.
Since that time, he’s had a couple more outbreaks of these things. One was mostly concentrated on the back of his right thigh, and then more showed up on his lower right leg and on his stomach. He says they don’t hurt or itch, but it does hurt to drain them, more than it would if it was a “regular” zit.
This guy is 46 years old, so it can’t be a return to adolescence … I am wondering if it’s an allergy or some sort of bug bites, but I’ve never seen an allergic reaction or bug bite that would result in zits.
He has no other known medical problems and doesn’t take any medication other than the occasional aspirin or ibuprofen.
My first reaction was to say “staph infection”, which would require a dermatologist and antibiotics. Although, upon second thought, your mention of “grouping” does sound more like bug bites, specifically bedbugs. People really do have them, you know. Do a Web search. http://www.google.com
Also, there were a couple of GQ threads about bedbugs, a while back. Do a Search in the thread archives (up at the top of the page here where it says Search). Set it for Any Date, General Questions.
Bed bugs sound every bit as gross as ticks. But I don’t think that’s it. For one thing, wouldn’t they bite me too? And these things DH is getting are just exactly like zits … the description of the bed bug bite sounds like they are just red, with no pus, and they itch. These don’t itch.
And while I won’t win any prizes for Housekeeper of the Year, I do wash the linens every week and keep things in good repair. I did just recently change the type of fabric softener I use, and was wondering if that was it, but this just doesn’t look like any allergic reaction I’ve ever seen.
How big are they? If they are quite large (say, dime sized), they’re probably boils. I have no idea what to do about them, but I’d reccommend seeing the doctor the next time they pop up.
NEver heard of bedbugs giving big zits. Probably a staph infection. You must see the doctor asap about it to get the right antibiotics. It’s pretty contagious BTW. My whole family got it once. sigh
Well, these zits are probably a little smaller than the size of a pencil eraser, maybe not big enough to be boils …
Really don’t want to spend money to go to the doctor (it’s about $100 just to walk in the door around here, and our insurance has a deductible that hasn’t been met yet), but I guess we might have to (sigh). They seem to be harmless enough, but if they won’t go away on their own, well, who needs that. I think he’s getting tired of me calling him Zit Boy too.
oh, I thought you said big zits. Well, pencil size isn’t big. Boils are fist size zits. Furnuncles are about the size of a fingernail. Carburnucles are like multiple furnuncles & very messy, puss everywhere, oh this is getting so gross.
But those little ones, I don’t know, maybe his clothes are just dirty.
I get rashes of zits like that all the time. With my health insurance they’re long gone by the time I could get in to see a dermatologist, so they may always remain a mystery. Anyway, it seems to be safe to ignore them.
How clean you keep the linens doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you have bedbugs. They live in the cracks in the bedstead itself. When folks starting using cast iron bedsteads in the late Victorian era, instead of wooden ones, it suddenly got easier to get rid of bedbugs, because there weren’t so many cracks for them to hide in.
Eh, the difference between a really huge pimple and a really small boil is, IMO, merely a matter of semantics. Big pimples/boils are caused by staph germs (that’s staphylococcus when it’s under a microscope), which are always present everywhere, on your skin, up your nose, in your pillowcases (they can live in your bed linens, and the only way to get rid of them is to boil everything). Staph is what causes those infections you get when you’re in the hospital for something else, and this is a chronic problem for hospitals. Staph also causes pinkeye (conjunctivitis) and impetigo, and just all in all, it’s nothing to fool around with. They now have staph strains that are resistant to antibiotics. Do a Google search for staph. http://www.google.com
Yeah, I’ve never heard of an allergic reaction to fabric softener causing pimples with pus in them, either, just red itchy bumps. Think about seeing a dermatologist.
In general, rashes caused by allergic reactions itch. So this doesn’t sound like an allergic reaction. Also, you don’t expect pus with allergic reactions.
Few things cause a whole crop of “zits” to appear suddenly. Shingles is one of them but they generally don’t come in multiple crops.
This is one of the few medical problems posted on this board for which visiting a doctor probably IS worthwhile. Please report back.
The last rash of zits, which appeared a few days ago, is gone. Poof. Healed virtually overnight, it seems.
Duck, I should have mentioned that our bed isn’t on a frame. We have a frame, which is brass and iron, but our old dog had trouble getting on the bed, so we took the frame down and put the box spring and mattress on the floor. The house is fairly new, built in 1994, out of hardboard (that stuff that looks like wood but is really some type of cement product) and we have very little wood in the house. The floor under the carpet is plywood; I guess bugs could hide there, but I’m not sure how they would go in and out.
Handy wrote:
YIKES! :eek:
If these things come around again, I’ll try to get the guy to the doctor. He’s one of those that doesn’t want to go unless he’s bleeding or in pain, but I’ll try.
I’ve also been bleaching all his underwear, which should help if it’s staph, but not sure what to do with the socks, shirts, etc. since I can’t bleach those without ruining them. He doesn’t wear anything more than once before throwing it in the wash anyway so I guess that’s OK.
Please take this for what it’s worth, not as any comment on your personal life, morals or any other sticky subjects.
This relates to your health and well-being ONLY. Have you any reason to think you may want to get an HIV test? I am NOT an epidemiologist, just paranoid, I guess. I’ll preface this by saying that this is JUST a suggestion, and in no way a diagnosis or medical advice of any sort. I have not seen you and have no idea what the rash looked like. I do not know your medical history.
Having said that, sudden occurrence of an unexplained rash, which appears and then just as quickly disappears, is one of the symptoms of HIV seroconversion. (Of course, your rash could’ve been caused by a bunch of other things as well.) I am not trying to scare you, but I thought somebody needed to address that. If you have no reason to think that you should get tested, please disregard my post and forgive me for being a bummer.
Thanks for your concern, and no offense taken! I have no reason at all to believe the husband is at risk for contracting HIV and giving to me, so that doesn’t worry me at all.
It was plenty scary to do a search on Staph infections, though, and coming up with all these news articles on resistant strains, etc.
I think we may actually have found the source for the zits - our bathtub! We have one of those Jacuzzi-type tubs with a lot of plumbing underneath. When we had the house inspected, the inspector mentioned that sometimes these tubs are either designed or installed incorrectly, allowing water to sit in the plumbing underneath - and of course germs can breed there. We don’t use the tub much, and we promptly forgot all about it.
It occurred to me yesterday that the zits outbreaks happened a day or two after DH had taken a bath in the tub - he’d been doing a lot yard cleanup, and spent some time in the tub letting the jets pound on him. There’s actually a skin disease called “hot-tub folliculitis,” and I think that may be just the thing he had. So I guess I’ll be spending the weekend trying to figure out how to flush the plumbing out.
