any thoughts

[cheri]

I am in sort of a quandry(long) I was treated for folliculitis all summer that was the first problem and I am not sure it is related to what is happending now but I was using cleocin t lotion and then they switched me to erythromycin ointment and triaz as the big pimples kept recurring on one thighs and then another any way about a month ago I developeed a fire red hot rash on the back of both knees and upper inner thighs and the doc said it was eczema it burned like heck and never itched but he insisited it was eczema said  use lidex which I did with no releif frome the burning althought the red color comes and goes and when it is redder it hurts more. This is  flat rash no bumps or anything. I went back to him when the burning did not go away and appeared to be going up the back of my leg to my buttucks he said it was eczema and I went to a new doc becasie i felt this was wrong that this burniong was getting worse and worse behinf the knees feels sort of raw and the back of the legs always feels burny and tingly now and the inner thigh is almost always red. The new doc is an plder guy that is on staff at a local teaching hospital and has an office as welll and he did not know what is was except that it was not eczema and he suggested I go to his hospital at grand rounds for dermatology and have a bunch of derms give an opinion. I did this and the number one thing on there list was Erythromelalgia he did not tell me waht the things lower down on the list were. He said it can be primary or secondary and he was going to have to do some research before he decided that was what is . I have read about this a much as I can find on the internet and for some reason this does not seem to exactly mesh with what I have as this stuff is not relieved by cold at all may even be made worse it and I am wondering if there are otehr things that may look like this but are not and what are they.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Cheri:

I undeerstand your perplexity.  The symptoms don't sound like eczema, but they also don't sound like eryhtromelalgia.  When you are xamined by a whole bunch of dermatologists as you were, and the best they can do is guess (this happens oftener than we like to admit), the best approach is to treat the symptoms as best you can and see what happens.  Sometimes time is the best diagnostic test, and many fascinating but undiagnosable conditions go away with no diagnosis ever established.  At least you should take comfort from the fact that nobody thought this is a serious or systemic condition.  I would work with your doctor, who sounds quite conscientious, to see whether topicals, antihistamines, etc, give you enough relief to get by.  Time, I think, will tell.

Good luck.  I think you will do well.

Dr. Rockoff