undiagnosed rash for me and my 4 year old son

[cindrllie]

My son and I have had this rash for about 3 or 4 weeks now.  I thought it would go away on its own.  Over this past weekend his fingers and palms of his hands began peeling.  It looks painful, with the raw skin showing through. I took him to a dermatologist and his pediatrician.  The pediatrician seemed to think it might be an allergic reaction.  Neither gave me a for sure diagnosis. So I am concerned.  We both have small bumps on our hands, palms, fingers, and feet.  They itch & sting.  A lot of things irritate them, even just driving makes them hurt.  Sometimes a red area will come up out of nowhere, on any part of the body, (ie, face, leg), it will itch and go away within a hour or so.  Also, I have some red dots on my hands...mainly on my fingers and they look like they are under the skin.  Some of them get redder sometimes, look like maybe a dot of blood under the skin. The pediatrician gave me 45g clotimazole and betamethasone dipropionate cream.  There are no other symptoms, no fevers or anything.  About a month ago we had some kind of 24 hr stomache flu, vomiting & diarrhea.  My daughter also had it (the flu), but her and my husband (didn't have flu), don't have this rash.  Any ideas or suggestions?  Thank you!

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Hard to say, though nothing serious comes to mind.  Since both of you have this, a viral infection seems most likely--many of the ones which affect the skin don't produce internal symptoms.  The best approach would be to wait it out.  Viral rashes often peel.  If it worsens in either of you, I suggest seeing s skin doctor.  But I doubt you'll have to.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff

[cindrllie]

I wanted to clarify...the bumps itch when they first appear.  Only the ones on my palms itch/sting sometimes, usually because they were irritated by something.  My son says his don't itch or hurt, just his palms since they peeled.

[Mother Margaret]

I suspect exposure to too much of some kind of chemical.  Rash is one of the things that can happen; also other things like headache, cough, being hoarse

This list:  http://www.valdezlink.com/gwv/symptoms.htm

For myself, I notice a recurring rash when I get too much of a chemical (like a medication I get maxed out on) on my side.  This is where in years prior I had leaned over the bathtub to wash it, & got the cleaning chemical on my blouse.

Anyway, there is something very significant about what you share as to flu-like symptoms.  That is how exposure to 2-butoxyethanol or n-butyl ethers always seems to show up (with acute exposure anyway)

http://home.gci.net/~blessing/pages/flu.htm

http://home.gci.net/~blessing/pages/gwvsymptoms.htm#daughter

http://home.gci.net/~blessing/pages/aerosol.htm#aerosols

If so, what were you doing at that time?
Blood would show up in urine in 15 minutes and in 2-3 days a very elevated retic rate would be obvious from autoimmune hemolytic anemia.  This is the fatigue doctors are looking for in CFS, CFIDS

www.valdezlink.com/check_blood.htm#retic

Was someone painting in the house?
http://www.valdezlink.com/pages/paintingjoints.htm