Rash, Blisters and now Scars

About two months ago, I had a small red, itchy rash on my foot. I sometimes get athlete's foot, so I started treating it with antifungal, but no improvement. My mother told me it could be poison ivy. So I simply applied clear Caladryl lotion to get rid of the itchiness. The rash developed into clear blisters, which I unfortunately popped. The blisters came back and turn reddish. One of the bigger ones looked like a lesion, with a bit of blood. They all looked like small islands, with a red dot in the middle. They lasted forever, and scabbed. Now, the surface is flat and healed, but I can still see "scars" which look like printmarks of the old blisters but are flat. There are no symptoms except this scars that are strong in color (reddish brown) that are not going away. I heard this could be a staining of the skin, but I am worried they'll never go away. I've tried my lightening cream for freckles on them, and I saw a little bit of improvement. I wonder what I need to do to get rid of the stain scars, or if I should go to a dermatologist at all.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
These scars can be due to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. The treatment for post inflammatory hyperpigmentation includes various skin creams like hydroquinone, azelaic acid, corticosteroids, tretinoin cream and laser treatment. But they have plenty of side effects and should be used only after consulting a dermatologist.
If it still persists then you can go in for laser treatment, Chemical peeling or microdermabrasion.

I hope it helps. Take care and regards.