Since Sunday, I have been noticing what I thought were two scratch marks on on my right forearm, and what seemed to be vesicles on the scratch lines and a few elsewhere as well.
I felt a few near the inside wrist, two about 5 inches above that, another 4 inches to the left of it, two about two inches higher, the two scrack marks with vesicles on the outside of the arm from that, and one at the elbow.
They both burn and itch. I have not been exposed to poison ivy or oak. I do have a cat that get meds twice per day, and she is not always happy about it. She may have scratched me, I thought, but why the other bumps?
I wear a white lab coat to work in psych so I don't think I got this on the job. I decided to go get it checked at my local walk in clinic thinking infected cat scratches, contact dermatitis or insect bites. I didn't know. I just felt miserable with the burning and itching which I was afraid to spread by touching the area. I also worried that it would be contagious.
So I see a very nice nurse practitioner. She says, "oh, that looks like shingles!"
I'm saying, "no! It's on my arm! How can that be? There's little bumps in different places!"
She says, "OK, let's call in the doc and not tell him what I am thinking"
He says, "Shingles!"
Meanwhile, (I'm not proud of it), but I am literally cursing about the diagnosis, and they are laughing and patting me on the back.
Dang! I am just not believing this. Shingles on my arm?
Can I ask for some good luck this year for a change? Meanwhile, I have to call Employee Health tomorrow to see about working on Friday. I will be on medication for 7 days.
The pharmacist was impressed with my arm as well. He even came out from behind the counter to help me pick out a calmoseptine/benadryl product that I think is clear and not the pink stuff.
I guess I will live, but I am not taking this well at all. It does not help to know
that I am in denial, and it is the other things that can be associated with
shingles that concern me. Time to clean up my act, and get healthier...
For what it's worth, the doc that I work with took a look at my arm this morning, said it did not look like shingles to him but more like an allergic reaction to poison ivy or other plants native to our area. Of course, he is a psychiatrist now, but not a one trick pony (as one of our patients likes to say), and he did other types of medicine in the air force.
I might try your suggestion though for the residual discomfort that I do have with pruritis if it works for that. I never really had pain, another reason why our doc thinks it was not shingles. It's all drying up and peeling like a sunburn now. Wierd...
I'll never know for sure, and I was never truly convinced of that diagnosis.
If it was shingles, and I don't think it was either, L-lysine as a preventative. I take 500 mg qd because I get cold sores at the drop of a hat. If I take it propholactically (sp) they never crop up. It has other bennies too.
Sounds like dyshidrotic eczema on your hands. I had it terribly between my toes years ago when I lived in NC. Too much copper in the diet. Southern Sweet Tea for a Yankee doesn't work LOL.... Valisone cream does the trick. I don't know if you can still get it.
Glad to hear it's clearing up. Might want to try the L-lysine as a preventative against anothe outbreak.
Onekidneynurse
475 Posts
If it was shingles, and I don't think it was either, L-lysine as a preventative. I take 500 mg qd because I get cold sores at the drop of a hat. If I take it propholactically (sp) they never crop up. It has other bennies too.
Sounds like dyshidrotic eczema on your hands. I had it terribly between my toes years ago when I lived in NC. Too much copper in the diet. Southern Sweet Tea for a Yankee doesn't work LOL.... Valisone cream does the trick. I don't know if you can still get it.
Glad to hear it's clearing up. Might want to try the L-lysine as a preventative against anothe outbreak.