Another Do You Think This Sounds Anything Like Dh?

[Emsstacey]

Hey everyone! Thanks in advance for any insight you can give. :-)

I have had a rash on the back of one thigh that comes back every year or two, lasts a few weeks, heals to a hyperpigmented area and then finally fades away months down the road. In the past it has been called shingles and treated with antivirals but the antivirals haven't really made a huge difference. I woke up itching yesterday and lo and behold... it's back. In the past two years, I have had some inconclusive celiac testing (high positive for deamidated gliadin peptides) and this has made me wonder if this recurring area could be dh.

It is a raised, hot, red area that started about the size of a quarter and within 24 hours has gotten a bit bigger. It started with little bumps inside the red area and today has turned to little blisters. It started out itching really bad and today it is more of a stinging sensation with the occasional itch to it.

I needed to find a new family doctor since my last one moved and was lucky enough to get into someone yesterday. He said that he thought there is a very low chance of it being shingles and that unless we biopsied it-- we wouldn't be able to know for sure what it was. He said that Herpes viruses tend to recur in the same area but don't often appear on non-mucous areas. He said that if it were him, since it heals within a couple of weeks and only comes back every year or two-- that he wouldn't really worry about it. He also said there are so many rashes who have overlapping details that it would be hard for him to pinpoint a specific one without a biopsy but he didn't seem interested in biopsying it.

After googling herpes skin rashes, it doesn't really look exactly like those and most of the dh pics I have seen are more widespread with one vesicle per red area and I have maybe 10-15 vesicles on the one red area. Otherwise, it sounds like dh with the exception of being symmetrical. I have been eating more gluten in the past few weeks in preparation for further testing to try to get a conclusive answer to whether I have celiac-- so not sure if that has anything to do with it. It also seems to come back during bad allergy times of the year.

THanks for any insight you guys can give!

[Terrified Mom]

That does sound like shingles. Sadly, because of the chicken pox vaccine, shingles is becoming more and more common. What used to be a disease that affected the older generations is now hitting people in their 20's. There have even been reports of 9 year olds getting shingles. One of my neighbors has had it 4 or 5 times in the 8 years I've known her and I've known 4 20-somethings to come down with it. Been trying like crazy to get my toddler some pox to avoid that (massive mistake of a) shot, but so far he hasn't caught it from any of them.