Please Help...unusual skin rash?

[ash703]

First of all, I would like to say I am probably a hypochondriac, but I would really appreciate someone's input on my situation. I apologize this is so long but I really wanted to include all details.  Started off like this: Two weeks ago on a Monday between 6-7 p.m. I grabbed a pair of pants off the floor right next to my laundry basket. I put them on and was headed to my universities comuter lab. Not long after I arrived at the lab, I had a "crawling" itching feeling on my legs, abdomen, and under my arms. It's the feeling you have when you might think something (mosquito, etc) has gotten into your clothing. After i left the lab I went to the grocery store. I was so convinced something was in my pants now that I was shaking the leg of my pants right there in the store. As soon as I got home, I took off all my clothes and took a shower. The next morning when I woke, everwhere I was itching there were red bumps..looked like normal bites to me. Well, I didn't itch them because since childhood I've trained myself to never scratch anything (poison oak victim). Anywho, the next day (Wednesday) some of the bumps had turned to blisters so I was freaked out and went to the walk in clinic. I told the dr. or assistant whatever he was that I thought they were bites. He said he didn't think they were bites but something viral. At first he said some big long word that started with a "M" (Molluscum Contagiosum??) Well, he continued to ask me a series of questions. Nothing was out of the ordinary. No recent illness, no surgery, I wasn't particularly stressed or anything...well, he went to grab a derm specialist at the clinic to take a look. The first thing she asked me was if I had ever had chicken pox..i told her I don't remember ever having them. She never said one way for sure then went back to get the other doctor. When he came back in I made some kind of comment about chicken pox and he said he wasn't sure if it was chicken pox because they were usually more red..(but I was later thinking maybe they were not as red because I had not been scratching them??)..Anyways, he prescribed 800 mg Acyclovir...and said to call him back in a week to let him know how I was doing. Well, I continued to get a couple of more red bumps after that and a day or so they too turned to blisters like the rest, and then began to heal... the extent of the bumps/blisters:  ONE on my toe on my left foot, on both sides of my thighs and knees, a few on buttocks and hips and a few on my abdomen and ONE under my arm. Now, the reason I am so paranoid is because when I got home I looked at the paper work that was given to me with the medicine and it said for chicken pox, shingles, and HERPES!! It freaked me out...if he wasn't sure it was chicken pox did he think it was herpes or something?!  Wouldn't he probably say something if that is what he thought it was??!!  Although, when I was later doing research on the internet (which is probably a bad idea) I read in several spots that it can be hard to diagnose chicken pox until day 3 or so. But, later after the blisters had healed they did look more red than when they first began. I might add also that the bumps were interestingly (for the most part) close to an inch or so apart. Because  the doctor never said one way for sure he's left me super paranoid. I have been with the same guy for over 5 years now and neither one of us have been with anyone else. The dr. did tell me there are all kinds of viruses out there even some with no names...the big reason I am worried that it was not chicken pox was because in a lot of my web research it said it usually started on the face and chest and I never got bumps there..now I have looked at a chicken pox sore online at pictures and the blisters did in fact look like that...it seems like it could be so many things, bites, allergic reaction, virus? I guess I would just like to know another doctors input. thank you very much.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From the symptoms it is likely that the infection is a viral infection and molluscum, herpes and shingles are all viral infections. Molluscum presents as multiple, small, dome-shaped papules, often with a central depression or plug.

Herpes also presents with red itchy blisters which scab over. Shingles occurs in people who have had chickenpox and represents a reactivation of the dormant varicella-zoster virus. The first sign is usually a tingling feeling, itchiness, or stabbing pain on the skin. After a few days, a rash appears as a band or patch of raised dots on the side of the trunk or face. The rash develops into small, fluid-filled blisters which begin to dry out and crust over within several days

The only way of ruling it out is by getting yourself tested. Laboratory tests include: culture of the virus, direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) studies to detect virus, skin biopsy, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to test for presence of viral DNA. I sincerely advise you to consult a dermatologist and get it ruled out.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[ash703]

I also forgot to mention that he busted open with a some sort of needle or something one of the blisters and was looking for some sort of seed which he said he did NOT see so I dont' think he thought it was that big M word..also forgot to mention when i went I had a slight fever of 99.7...it's been a little over a week since my doctor's appt and all of the blisters have turned to little red spots which have tiny scabs and are healing..not itching or anything..