small, circular patches....very worried

[logansmomma]

I have always suffered from dry skin and feel as if I could keep Vaseline in business just on my own!  But here lately I have a concern about somethings I have noticed happening with my skin.



My main complaint now is this:  Just the other day, I was getting ready for a bath and I looked down to find about a 6mm circle of dry skin on my right, upper thigh.  The edges were sort of dry looking, but the middle was reddish pink and scaly looking.  One of the edges in particular seemed to have a small pimple on it, which of course I had just to scratch at and try to get off the dry skin, which didn't work and now the whole thing is inflamed.



Fast forward to last night....I was getting ready for bed and going through the ritual of dousing myself in lotion and when I got to my buttocks, I felt the same type of small, dry patch on my left cheek.  Being a large woman, I really couldn't turn all the well and see in the mirror, but what I could see it looked like the one on my thigh.



I remember a month or so ago having 2 other patches like this come up, one on my right breast on areola and on the outer aspect of my right thigh.  I didn't think much of them and obviously they went away.



My questions are these:  What are these things?  I have looked up eczema, psoriasis, etc, but it doesn't seem to be any of these because there are so few of them and they only pop up once in a while.



Also since the one on my thigh is so inflamed, could it be a possible skin cancer?



And lastly, could it be something like herpes?  My husband was unfaithful to me last year even though he says no sexual contact occurred between him and his ex and I am worried now that this could be something so much worse.



I am just really freaked out right now because I have other issues going on like being diagnosed with Lichens Sclerosis and OCD at the same time.....this is just one more thing I don't want to deal with right now.



Should I be worried or should I just slap some 1% hydro on the spots and call it a day?

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I vote for the hydrocortisone.  it sounds like what we call nummular eczema (nummular meaning round and shaped like a coin.)  This is common in the winter and behaves just as you say.  Skin cancer doesn't come and go in different spots.  Have your doctor check it out just so you'll know for sure.



Take care.



Dr. Rockoff

[suthqueen]

I had the same thing at different times in my life. The first time, it was a fungus (ringworm) located on various parts of my body because I had cats taht had it.



The second time was a small circular patch on my chest that grew to become enormous. I was wrongly diagnosed with Granuloma Annulare. It turned out to the a skin infection and Omnicef took care of it.