Can a bug bite that has not healed in 3 years cause a blood infection?

[katherine145]

I was running through a grassy area in Texas, USA in 2014 and felt over 10 painful bites all over my right foot at the same time. They were very painful and I kept running and smacking whatever it was off of my leg. I did not see what it was but if you google fire ant bites that is what it looked like when I went inside to examine the bites and most likely was.

Since then my health has declined. The bites never healed on my foot. They have itched every single day horribly since 2014 and it is now 2017. I can hardly wear shoes at work because I always have to run to the bathroom to remove the shoe and itch. Of course itching is bad, but this is insanely itchy and there is no way not to. It is painfully itchy every single day. It is hard to live like this.

For the last two years I have started having the same issues with my blood work and it may jeopardize my career soon. I have too many white cells and a high red platelet count every single time I have my blood-work taken and this has been happening for over a year.

The bite area is extremely sensitive to temperature changes going from cool to warm. If I turn off my air conditioning the bite area becomes inflamed blisters and so so so itchy within 20 minutes of me turning off the AC. I haven't been working but when I did I had to take off my shoes multiple times throughout the day to itch. I can't really wear shoes anymore because of how itchy it gets.

What do I do? The dermatologists are clueless. I have seen many and tried steroid creams that occasionally relieved symptoms but never cured the issue. My skin thinned from using the creams for too long and it is discolored and purple or red every day in a 3" x 1" strip on top of my foot where my toes meet my foot. That is the location where there are always itchy bumps. Sometimes new itchy bumps show up on all 5 toes around the area and go away but there are always itchy bumps in that 3" x 1" strip on top of my foot near my toes. It is common for a perfectly curved semi circle of itchy bumps to form on that strip sometimes. Sometimes the skin is dry and cracks around the area too. The bumps are lumpy and the largest one is never larger than a pea. Usually in clusters.

If I can't get this issue resolved which I believe is causing my bloodwork problems I will lose my job.