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i have back pain, rash that looks like shingles , stye .. is it an allergy?| From | To | Post |
| djerome 4/29/2006 | . | about a year or so ago i started getting horrible back pain. i am a very healthy man 38 yrs old. bike, yoga, hike, canoe,,, i do everything. proffesional level athlete. i have always been very healthy in terms of lifestyle. nothing in particular happened to cause the pain but it got so bad that i literally couldnt sit up in bed in the morning. and over the past year i have developed a rash and had a stye on and off. until now i have never been sick. and i also am now feeling my equilibrium is a little off balance. one doctor told me he thinks i am allergic to some common product or additive. he gave me some keflix which did little but make me feel very nauseous. a friend thought i might have lyme disease because she had had lyme disease without the obious tick bite..hers was very subtle and took them a while to diagnose it...what other diseases could cause this? thanks! not looking for a diagnosis as much as other possiblities to look into. thank you for your insight. |
| B_Johnson 5/1/2006 C1 | . | Lyme disease is not likely. The rash of lyme disease is a confluent rash called erythema migrans. Rocky mountain spotted fever also caused by a tick is a possibility, especially if you live on the east coast. Both of these conditions would also present with a fever and extensive arthralgias (joint pain) and fatigue. While there are tests to rule out lyme disease, there is not a cost effective nor widely available one for RMSF. Usually treatment with doxycycline is initiated after suspiscion considering the history and presentation of the patient. Keflex unfortunately was the wrong choice and would have only helped if it was a normal staphylococcal skin infection. Have you been outdoors or camping recently where you might have been bit by a tick? I am a bit confused if the back pain you are complaining about is cutaneous (confined to the skin) or muskuloskeletal. Back injuries are not uncommon, especially in those who do heavy work or lift weights. Yoga can also put unecessary stress on the back. If the pain and the rash are unrelated, which is most likely (there is not one condition that i know of that affects the muscles and bones of the back and also presents with a cutaneous skin rash), the rash could be due to an allergic reaction to a detergent or softner that you use in the laundry, especially since you describe that most of the lesion is under the area covered by your shirt. The rash can range from infectious to allergic and they would all look similar. The only way to tell is to have a proper work-up with your doctor. Good Luck | [Thread closed to new comments] |
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