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Skin very sensitive to the touch

I have been experiencing very strange skin sensitivity for the last 3 weeks or so.  It all started with one little spot on my ribcage about the size of a softball.  The skin felt very sensitive and had like a "sunburned" feel to it - it especially bothered me when my shirt would rub up against it a certain way.  Well, it eventually spread around to my whole rib cage area and was very bothersome.  Some days the feeling would be worse than others.  It seemed that each day the feeling would slowly move upwards and eventually the feeling was all around my breasts making it extremely difficult to wear a bra.  It slowly went away for almost 2 days but then the same feeling came back but this time it was on the underside of my forearm.  Same exact feeling, just a different location. It also all of a sudden appeared on one little spot on my foot and also on my pelvic bone area.  Currently, it is bothering me really bad on my lower abdomen and the top of my buttocks, all the way around my body.  The feeling seems to be more intense on the left side of my body though.  Again, it feels very sensitive to the touch, almost like I have been sunburned and it really bothers me when my clothes brush up against it.   There is absolutely no redness, bumps or lesions of any kind.  The pain doesn't feel very deep either, it is just on the skin.  

Now I don't know if this is related to the strange skin sensitivity or not but about 4 days ago I started feeling this really weird sensation behind my left eye.  It almost feels like I have to strain to move my eyeball to the left and when I do, I kind of have a dizzy feeling.  I know this all sounds really weird but I feel like I have started to fall apart since the new year rang in!  I have always been a perfectly healthy individual.  I'm a 31 year old female, have 2 young healthy boys and am married.  I have no stress in my life whatsoever so I know this is not related to stress.  I have a dr's appt tomorrow morning at 8:30 but I wanted to know if anyone has heard of these weird sensations or know what it could possibly be?   Thanks for any help you can provide...

Jamie
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Avatar universal
I know this thread is old and long but reading it helped relieve my concern and I just wanted to let others know that my problem went away.  I started having sensitive skin one Monday after a weekend camping trip.  The skin on my back and sides felt sun burnt but I did not have a sun burn.  I immediately thought of shingles but I had no rash.  I did have chicken pox as a child and I do have fever blisters on my lip from time to time so I have the herpes virus in my body.  But since I had no rash I ruled out shingles.  The sensitivity got worse on Tuesday and I had a bit of a fever that night.  The sensitivity also showed up on the upper and outer part of my right buttock.  The sensitivity was tolerable with clothes but taking a sports bra off was not fun.  I continued jogging and doing my normal routine but my skin continued to feel sun burnt in those areas for about another week and then started subsiding and was completely gone within 2 weeks without intervention, that was 2 months ago.  I did recently find out that I have some mild disc degineration between my C5 and C6 vertebra and this has caused some neck pain from time to time but nothing else.  So from reading everyone's posts, I have several of the things that were suggested could cause this.  1. Herpes virus, 2.Possible spinal nerve issue and 3. I even thought that since I had just been camping it could have been lyme disease but I don't think that goes away on its own so I guess it wasn't that.
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Oh yeah, I did start taking vitamin B12 and D because my annual blood work showed them being a little low.  I also took a multivitamin and L-Lysine for about a week at the suggestion of someone on this thread.  Don't know if it helped and I am no longer taking them, just B12 and D.
Avatar universal
Sounds like shingles.
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Avatar universal
Same experience.. sensitive skins on abdoman and thighs. Seems like Shingles without a rash. BUT I have never had the chickenpox but did get the vaccine for it. Seems like some connection with HSV.. which creeps along the nerves. Anyone know about Shingles without rash or chicken pox? It seems to get better with acyclovir but its not working this time.. grr
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1829048 tn?1318049790
this is not an answer but I have a similar thing going on.  more a nuisance than anything else.   what did you find out at the doctors?   my email ***@**** if you prefer.

Ray
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Same here, I would like to know too. I went to the doc. But didn't  find anything wrong.
Avatar universal
It is mostly likely the herpes virus. L Arginine  feeds herpes and l lysine keeps it in check. You need to take 3000 mg l lysine at the onset and for a couple of days then 1000 mg a day to keep it away. The 1000 mg can be obtained through food sources too. Google lysine-arginine ratio in foods and try to consume more high lysine foods.
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Avatar universal
It is mostly likely the herpes virus. L Arginine  feeds herpes and l lysine keeps it in check. You need to take 3000 mg l lysine at the onset and for a couple of days then 1000 mg a day to keep it away. The 1000 mg can be obtained through food sources too. Google lysine-arginine ratio in foods and try to consume more high lysine foods.
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Avatar universal
What was the name of the vitamin c drink please
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Avatar universal
I may have found a solution for some. I have had the same symptoms as the first people who posted. After a particularly difficult flamenco class, hair flipping, swirling and such. I started to feel 'off'. The next day I had extreme skin sensitivity on my right side between my hip and rib. Pressing on the area did not create more pain. I figured it was just the usual muscle achy stuff, so I iced it for several days. A week later it was still sore and I was sleepy more than usual. I took ibuprofen for two days and the sensitivity went away, so that tells me it is some kind of inflammation. Sugar affects me rather poorly (and is the cause of most inflammation) and I figured the sleepiness was due to my gradually taking in more sugar than usual. On day 8 of the skin sensitive, I cut out all forms of sugar, gluten, lactose, everything. I work for a chiropractor and got adjusted. He also speculated as in the above posts that it could be a pinched nerve or shingles. It's day 12 and I feel a lot better! Less sleepy and I don't require and ice pack for sitting long periods at work. Still no sugar and got adjusted again today. Although, last night the skin sensitivity is also of my forearm. Mild but still sensitive. I will continue to update.....
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Avatar universal
Similar symptoms; extremely sensitive skin across left side of trunk, particularly on my stomach. Sheets brushing over while sleeping would wake me with a sunburn-like spurt of excruciating pain, loose fitting shirts were impossible to wear. Visited physician last week, dude said it is classic vitamin B-6 deficiency. Been taking 100mg daily for four days and symptoms dramatically reduced. Just sayin'.
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Avatar universal
this is so late, but maybe you'll get an email about it. I'd look into CRPS (RSD) if I were you - that happened to me after a fracture, and I had osteopenia. The Cleveland Clinic diagnosed me and it's been sort of in remission for almost 10 years now.
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Avatar universal
Just wanted to let people know the outcome of my tests because some people have been asking. It was peripheral neropathy. I had MRIs with and without contrast, and EEG, and nerve conduction tests. I had all of these in 2007. All tests ruled out MS. They think it was my body's reaction to stress. I started having numbness in one of my legs earlier this year and had the whole MS work up again and again all negative. Said it was stress again. It's unbelievable what stress can do to your body. They told me to start yoga. One of the main symptoms of MS that I didn't have was pain behind the eye. I never had anything like that. I do still get the sunburned skin feeling if I am feeling stressed but it goes away after a couple of days. The first time it happened, it took close to a month or two to go away.
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Avatar universal
Finally someone in my same boat! I am 6 weeks pregnant and last Wednesday, my skin on my rib age started hurting. Then it's started moving to all over my stomach and back. The next day it spread to my thighs and my right arm. It just kept moving around! Finally, a couple days later, I went to urgent care and the doc had never heard of such a thing.  Got blood work done and got the results back of a high white blood cell count, which the doc says means some kind of infection. A week later, the pain is gone, but I'm getting more blood work done. I really need to know what happened, and has it affected my baby:(
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Avatar universal
I have the same problem.
I am 28, 18 weeks pregnant.
I have had this for 3 days, just all of a sudden my thighs started burning/hurting like a bruised sunburn where my pants rubs it really hurts, then next day it moved up to my hips and back of my shoulders so my bra and underware rubbing really bothered me. Then today it has gone down my left leg to my toes and my socks are bothering me.
Reading all of the options is seriously scaring me. I just cant be pregnant and get Shingles or Lyme or MS :'( seeing almost 300 posts and no one seems to be able to put their finger on it. I am going to call my doctor but I am not convinced that he will have anything helpful to say.
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Avatar universal
That is just nuts. I have the same symptoms. Pain and sensitivity on one side of face and scalp. Skin is irritate but no rash. Scalp gets patches of what seems like eczema often. The skin sensitivity doesn't happen all the time, but I've noticed that it usually precedes a sore inside my nose. So strange that you mention all of this.

Please, someone tell me what is going on?!
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Avatar universal
All.  I'm sorry I never replied with the outcome to this.  It turned out to be Multiple Sclerosos (MS). I went on Neurontin for the symptoms and Copaxone injections for the MS progression.  
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Avatar universal
Try the website bacteriality.com or Marshall protocol.  Seems like sarcoidosis and/or chronic lyme for me.   I have similar symptoms and just came across it recently.  Think it may be helpful but haven't had the chance to try it yet.  If anyone has had success/failure with this program, please post.
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Avatar universal
I know the answer.

I also know that I'm about three years too late in giving you that answer.  
Not that it would matter, since it happens to be a problem that no one in this Godforsaken world knows how to fix.

It would surprise me, though, if you and so many other "victims" in this forum, haven't found the answer yourselves by now. I can assure you an answer will not come from a doctor!  

You mentioned having taken antibiotics.  If one of those antibiotics was a fluoroquinolone, such as Ciprofloxacin, Levaquin, Avelox, et al, you have your answer.  

ALL of the problems you describe and THEN some, can be, and probably are, attributal to a fluoroquinolone.

This awful poison, designed to kill anthrax and also used as a chemotherapy drug, wreaks havoc with your system, destroying it at the molecular level.  The ramifications of what it does to our health is unimaginable, as is the number of people suffering because of it.

But it's all right here on the web, where thousands of sufferers can tell their stories.  And they do....in droves. They call themselves floxies, and they will tell you how once they were healthy men and women, then fluoroquinolones changed their lives forever.

I HATE being the messenger of such bad news; but because I am a victim of fluoroquinone toxicity as well, I just feel the need to warn others.  

One more thing:  Beware of having any procedure done in which you are anesthetized, as hospitals give fluoroquinolones intravenously, routinely, during operations.  

Veterinarians also give fluoroquinolones to pets.
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Avatar universal
I heard just the opposite.  My friend's father had shingles, and as soon as he was well, she had to get him in for a shot to prevent another outbreak.
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Avatar universal
I have the same sensitivity to the touch, but on the right side shoulder, to the back, around neck area too.  But along with the sensitivity, I have soreness in the muscles, and I have numbness and tingling down the right arm, and constant numbness in the thumb, and forefinger. This has gone on for over a week now. Help!!
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Avatar universal
Hope you see this response although it's been over 3 yrs since you posted.  I read your post this a.m. about the vitamin C.  I just happened to have 2 packets of EmergenC in my desk at work.  I mixed both in aprox 12 oz of water and drank it down really quick.  Within 20 minutes the pain was gone.  but 3 hrs has passed and now its starting back up.  You are on to something with this vitamin c thing, but I'm not sure I can take it every 3 hrs.  Any suggestions????
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1 Comments
Oh sure you can, Lefty. Vitamin C is the safest molecule known to man. I take 25-30,000 mg per day. never had a cold or flu or illness in 2 years since starting this. No allergies either. Yes, that other poster was DEFINITELY on to something. Vitamin C is exactly what is needed here, for many reasons.  
Avatar universal
I am a 35 year old healthy male and had the sensitive skin from my back, around my rib cage, to my chest.  I am a bit of a hypochondriac so I found this very concerning.  I tried to pay attention to my symptoms in an attempt to figure out what may be the cause.  Here is what I noticed:

1) I had one of the worst sinus infections that I can recall 3 days prior to my symptoms
2) I had a deep knot which felt like a pinched nerve in my back

Other than those 2 things, everything else was normal.  The pain lasted for about the same amount of time as the pain in my back.  I believe that it was either some viral infection or caused by a deep pinched nerve.  I never went to my primary care, but I did go to the chiropractor for 2 weeks, 5 sessions.  After 3 weeks, the burning skin sensation finally went away.  

I do not think it is caused by anything serious, but at the time of the initial symptoms it really freaked me out.  I hope by me letting you know that it will go away, that it will help ease other peoples minds.
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Avatar universal
Do you have fibromyalgia? This can cause it. I have sensitive skin on different parts of my body when mine flares up. Talk to your doctor.
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Avatar universal
I have dealt with the same symptoms for years.  My Dr. has no idea as to what it is.  Have you figured it out?  I don't know of anyone who deals with this sensitivity.  If you know what it is and what we can do about it, please share the info. with me.
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Avatar universal
Herpes? Lyme? MS? MRIs? Neurological tests? Come on people! Everyone needs to be rational about this.  Some very good suggestions were made early in this thread suggesting vitamin/mineral imbalance. I've had this condition for three years in my left elbow.  After reading these hysterical responses I decided to take a cheap popular men's multi vitamin. (I'm not going to say which one lest everyone will think I rep the company).  I felt better within 12 hours.  After two days it's gone.  I don't know if it's a magnesium issue, calcium, b12, iron or Vit C but they are all contained in my multi.  Please try the simple, easy and cheap solutions first before resorting to expensive testing.
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