Guessed Completely Wrong...

[kitgordon]

I spent the entire fall and early winter trying to cure what I thought was DH. Tried low iodine, went crazy trying to locate hidden gluten in my life... turns out the "rash" was bedbug bites! Just sharing this because they are apparently epidemic, and the bites really looked and felt much like all the descriptions of DH that I have read, so if anyone thinks they have DH when you never have before - it might be worth looking into. Disgusting and embarrassing, but at least treatable. 

 

And you can have them even if your house is very clean (mine is!). They don't like filth - not like roaches - what they like is blood, so if you have blood, you can have bedbugs.

[GFreeMO]

Oh my gosh you poor thing.  That is awful!  

[mommida]

I'm glad you have figured out what the problem is/was!

 

If you are a clean freak, you must have gone ballistic.  What did you have to do to get rid of them?

[bartfull]

If you stay in motels or even go to movie theaters, there is a chance you can bring them home. If you buy anything "soft", such as clothing or bedding at yard sales, you could bring them home. More paranoia on my part? Well, maybe. But this is what I have learned on the internet.

 

I never go anywhere so I haven't stayed in a motel in years. I don't go to the movies because I don't have time anyway. I DO however, shop at yard sales. Anything I buy goes immediately to the laundrymat rather than taking them home to wash them.

[mommida]

They say that what happens in New York is an indicator for what will happen in smaller cities accross the country.  It can play out on average of 3 years.  New York city clothing stores have been closed for business due to bed bug infestation.  Probably every airplane flight is just transporting the little blood suckers.  YUCK

 

This is a growing problem.  How extreme will it get?

[sisterlynr]

Much more prevalent than facilities want people to know.  Just the stigma of being unclean but that is not the case.  My doctor asked me about bed bugs and scabies.  I actually agreed to the medication for scabies.  I was desperate for a cure!   No one in my house had bites or blister/lesions like me, I knew it couldn't be either cause those bugs are not particular when it comes to having a meal of human blood. . . 

 

So glad you found a cure and so glad it wasn't DH . . . whew!

[GFinDC]

Darn buglies are hungry!  It's about time to get some flea treatment ready too. Warm weather brings them out.  My cat likes to go outside and she will find them no mater where they try to hide.  Glad you figured it out!  I think bed bugs are much easier to deal with than DH anyway.

[kitgordon]

Thanks, yes it was rather awful - but also a relief in a sense because there is an obvious (though expensive and annoying) cure for bedbugs. Clean everything out of your bedroom, vacuum thoroughly, run all clothes through a hot wash and dry, send curtains to the dry cleaner, throw away dust ruffle and bedspread, encase the mattress, have the exterminators in, let them apply the freeze treatment and spray, keep your stuff out of the bedroom for a week so they can come back and repeat the treatment, cross your fingers that they got every last bug and egg - and begin to heal.

 

Incidentally, it is possible for only one person in a house (or even a bed) to have the bites. My husband sleeps with me and never had any bites we could see. Apparently some people are just not reactive to the darn things. Or they just thought I was sweeter than him! 

[GFinDC]

Maybe you are just very tasty Kit!    I believe that about one person getting bit more than another.  My ex would get multiple mosquitoes bites  while I would get one or 2.  We were having a little discussion about DE (diatomaceous earth) in another thread.  One of the uses of DE is to kill insects.  You can sprinkle on your carpets and it will kill them naturally.  It is not harmful to people.  It's fairly inexpensive so might be another thing to try.