Infection or Bites?

[reita]

I thought I had been bitten by a spider. I received three bites in one area. Itched alot. Then another one appeared closeby.
And in the next few days I have received several more, but on total other areas of my body. The bites are small and come to a head like a pimple, but they itch alot. They are red all around the area for a few days and then subside and dry up. There are still marks from the first few. I seem to get one more every few days. The bites were on the back of my arm, on my forearm, on my wrist, on my breast, and today on the top of my leg near the edge of my underwear.
What else could this be besides bites? I do live in the mountain area.
Any help would be great.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

It's hard to say.  If they are bites, you must be continuing to get bitten.  This is somewhat unusual (the body usually gets used to being bitten and stops reacting), so looking into bugs in your environment (bedbugs, etc.) may be worth considering.  It is at least possible that this is a rash of some sort rather than bites, so if you can't find the bugs or stop them, you might want to have a doctor take a look.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff

[LaJealle]

Here's my problem:

It started out almost a year ago.  It just looked like a pimple on the tip of my nose, didn't hurt, didn't itch, no head...just one of those darn pimples that turn the tip of your nose a little pink.  After a while I got a little annoyed of it and decided to try bringing up a head by squeezing it.  The next day it looked like I fell on the ground and scraped my nose.  Ever since then it's been changing and never healing.  People keep telling me to put neosporin on it or hydrocortizone.  I've tried all of that.  I finally saw a doctor about 4 months ago.  He gave my bactroban and some antibiotics(Cephylexon?).  Nothing.  So he sent me to a dermatologist.  Dermatologist gave me a different antibiotic, minocyclene.  Nothing.  Then he put me on docycyclene.  I ended up getting a bad sunburn from using it and a huge scab formed around my nose and I got a slight rash on my face, especially on my cheeks.  The scab came off within a week and my nose looked much better...a very light pink, although it looked a little larger than it had.  The rash went away except for a spot on each cheek, which now it looks like the same thing I had on my nose.  So I stopped taking the doryx.  my doc took a skin sample and had a couple of cultures done.  Test's came out negative.  I was completely healthy.  So they did a biopsy.  They just said it was some bacteria and put me back on the doryx and gave me samples of plexion to put on the lesions.  I took it for a few weeks....nothing.  I called my primary doctor because I wanted to see a different dermatologist, but he insisted on seeing me before giving me another referral.  He gave me ANOTHER antibiotic to take...dicloxacill which I have to eat lots of yogurt I was told or I would get a yeast infection.  AND, i'm back on bactroban, but I have a special kind that I put INSIDE my nose.  I'm almost done with my 10-day supply of meds and it still looks the same.

My health insurance plan expires at the end of this month and i'm completely lost.  I have no idea what it is and my fiance and I want to get married THIS NOVEMBER!! But there is no way with my face like this.  Right now my fiance took some emu oil from his mom and i'm going to try that.  I'm not sure if it will work yet.  ANY SUGGESTION?? PLEASE HELP ME!!  It's never really itched or hurt before, but lately it has been slightly tender and itching a little.  But it doesn't look like it's getting any better!!

[cosasa]

I also live in the mountain area and have experienced a similar problem excepet my itchy bumps are only on my hands. They get worse at night since my hands are hot or when I take a warm bath. They started w/ a splinter-looking dark dot and spread into hundreds of itchy bumps all over my palms and outline of my hand. I've been told that I might have dust mites, hives, scabies, eczema, allergies, etc. I'm finally going to the dr. Friday and hope they can solve it. They're so itchy I get woken up by them at night. I'm also pregnant and have had allergies to lotions I'm not normally allergic to with my first pregnancy. I hope yours gets better!