strange red rash...shingles? (pic)...if it is- natural options?

[ValiantJoy07]

I first noticed this in my leg as a slightly pink bumpy rash last Tuesday or Wednesday... maybe Thursday? :think

Over the weekend it's gotten redder and brighter. It doesn't itch unless there is clothing on it, in which case it burns and itches...

It seems to be getting worse, but it's not spreading.

I have potentially been exposed to poison ivy (lots of garden work)- but I am freakishly sensitive and just a small touch of it and I'm covered head to toe. So that seems unlikely.

Does it look like shingles?

If it's shingles what are my natural and homeopathic options? I want to weight what to do before going on the anti-viral drug.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x158/HJBaby2007/WIN_20140526_181527_zpsf9c00843.jpg



I ...and dh...think it's getting worse

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x158/HJBaby2007/WIN_20140527_205535_zps105a2e0d.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x158/HJBaby2007/WIN_20140527_210540_zps650a9322.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x158/HJBaby2007/WIN_20140527_210558_zpsb5632851.jpg



I am probably going to go to the doctor tomorrow for it. If it is shingles I want blood teats run to be sure isn't some thing weird going on to trigger it. I am a generally healthy person... my autoimmune issues have been well managed and I am not sure what would trigger shingles... or whatever this is. It is a bit swollen underneath it (the area of skin is a bit puffy) feels like a bruise... hurts like it'm raking an open wound when I scratch it.

[mamahammer]

It would be an odd place for shingles to start. And shingles start in the nerves days before any rash appears. I don't know what it is, but I think it's unlikely to be shingles. :hug

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[ValiantJoy07]

My dh had it 3 years ago and it started in almost the exact spot on his leg. So it has me :nails.

I had a weird little virus weds/Thursday so maybe this is just a leftover rash from it. :think

[ValiantJoy07]

:bump

[Hopetobe]

Looks like it could be shingles...or bed bugs! When I had shingles about 5 years ago, I had convinced myself that it was bed bug bites. Google said they look similar.

I took an anti-viral, but I had waited to get it checked out and it had just gotten super sore and I didn't know what else to do at the time. The anti-viral worked pretty quickly if I remember right, fortunately. I had some lingering shoulder pain though because I didn't get it treated as quickly as I should have. I think that is a big thing to think about - however you treat it, do it early! I'm trying to think about all the things I found after taking the anti-viral when I still had pain and itchiness from it, and when I wanted to prevent future shingles. The one thing I took later that helped a lot with mostly getting rid of the rest of it was an EO mix I think, something called Shingles Be Gone or Shingles No More. I'll try to find the exact name. I think Lysine is supposed to be helpful and/or preventative. I'll try to see if I can find/remember anything else.

I got shingles when I started P90X. I say this because working out can lower your immune system. I didn't prepare enough for the long and almost every day workouts. I think I saw in another thread that you had been exercising a lot more the last few days than you intended or wanted? Could that have strained your immune system to allow for shingles to pop up maybe?


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[ValiantJoy07]

I've been super busy the last 2 weeks with projects outside and in. I could have pushed the limit-especially with the pollen counts so high. :think I do have some auto immune disorders- well managed with diet...

I certainly hope it isn't bed bugs. :nails but no one else has any marks and I haven't been any where strange and it's just the one spot on my right leg. :nails

I think it might be a mild case of shingles. Especially since I had that random "I am getting the flu" feeling and fever the night before it popped up. It isn't terribly painful like dh complained of. That muscle on my leg is throbbing tonight... but it could just be all the cleaning I did today. :doh

I just have so much to do. Well actually I am at a good pausing point. :giggle

[Pragmatist]

It doesn't look like the rash I had when I had shingles. And mine was seriously painful and burning all the time.

[Hopetobe]

Looked it up - pretty sure I used Shingles No More by Forces of Nature (not sure if it was reg or the extra strength version).


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[ValiantJoy07]

We'll see what the doctor says. I feel a little silly -it is small, but it does burn/itch. I do have a pretty high tolerance for itching though, after years of dealing with dermatitis herpetiformis :shiver all over my rib cage :yuck this is far less annoying and painful than that-as long as I don't touch it. It hurts way worse to touch than DH rash.

[deena]

Shingles can only be on half your body. (Weird I know) so if it spreads to the other side, that's "good news"

[ReedleBeetle]

It looks like shingles is likely to me. :yes I had shingles a couple of months before our wedding and they HURT SO BAD when my clothes touched them or anything!!!!!! SO bad. I just put iodine on them twice a day and they went away in about 10 days?

[ValiantJoy07]

I would think it was poison ivy except I've taken zero precautions or care with touching and it hasn't spread at all. Poison ivy hates me, last time I got it I had it in my mouth, nose, eyes, eeeeeverywhere. :shiver

That said, my immune system isn't freaking out like it was then. :think it's still this little streak on my leg. It was hurting last night but really not like the pain others describe. Just tender and itchy if anything is against it. I don't want to waste $30 +dh's vacation time on a doctor trip. I'm going to give it one more day if it starts to crust like dh's did then i'll go in. I'm probably past the medicating part since I've had the rash for almost a week.

[Hopetobe]

I'm probably past the medicating part since I've had the rash for almost a week.

Just an fyi - I think it was a week or more before I started the med for shingles. However, it was the same dr that told me if I had gotten shingles (not chkn pox but shingles) while pregnant that my baby would have major birth defects...scary, but not true from what I've read, etc. after. So, I'm not sure if it's normal practice to prescribe that med after a week or not....but, it seems like it helped anyway. He might have prescribed a steroid for the pain as well.


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[Hopetobe]

How's your leg doing?


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[ValiantJoy07]

How's your leg doing?


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rash is still there but not itching/burning anymore. I've been putting TTO on it. Thanks for asking. :)

[emerald]

I had shingles on my forehead, and didn't know it until a holistic MD diagnosed it. I thought it was infected acne or something. (I'm not acne prone, but it looked like it). I thought shingles was always very painful, and the pain was pretty mild, going down my hairline on one side, only noticeable when I pressed on it.

He told me to take engystol, rhus tox (both homeopathic), lysine, vitamin C. It cleared up very quickly. Vitamin D too.