Not sure where to start

[LadyBean]

Hi all, this is my first post.

My skin is a mess and as the subject line says, I have no idea where to start. I don't have health insurance so seeing a professional is not possible. I do know I suffer from eczema and it is very annoying. At present, I've had patches of it on both hands since last winter and though I can get it to begin healing somewhat, it always flares up and never entirely heals.

My real frustration is over something that started about 2-3 years ago that has never been discussed with a dermatologist. Those that we do have locally are not that good. The main one seems to just specialize in skin cancer and in 2006 when I was covered in painful eczema, it was an asthma and allergy center that really helped me. They did an allergy test and of course the results indicated no allergy.

I keep getting little pimples in various spots all over. There doesn't seem to be a real pattern to it although i can say it tends to correlate with the edges of my clothing and particularly on my legs and rear end. IF I wait too long to shave my legs, it seems like the rubbing of fabric against the hair causes a break out in these pimples along the fronts of my thighs but shaving will cause a new break out, usually of little hairs growing in.

It's the pimples I get on my stomach and arms and make me nuts. I am very paranoid about bugs but let's take that option out of the equation. I have researched scabies and think I'd be itchy and far worse off cause it is said to spread rapidly. My significant other also has random pimples on his body, mainly his back.

I never had this problem before or if I did it wasn't bad enough to be so preoccupied with it. It kind of seems to correlate with when I first got my legs waxed. I tried waxing my own legs a month or two ago for the first time in about a year and by the next day my legs were covered in swollen red bumps. They were very deep into my skin, some about 2 inches in diameter, painful, etc. My legs are still covered in red marks from where this happened and I am waiting for the day they heal over, if they heal over. I used to have nice normal leg skin now I wonder if I will ever be able to model again without wearing Dermablend :(

If anyone has any suggestions or could maybe direct me to a better forum category I'd really appreciate it. Maybe if I was a millionaire and I could hire the world's best doctours to help me they'd find a cause and solution. For now, I feel hopeless and doomed to a life of eternal chicken pox looking skin.

[breonnajackson]

-limit bath
-moisturizing cream that contains retinoids (vitamin A)
-Benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, and antibacterial washes are all made for acne-prone skin
These all will help you.

[Dr.Saiyan]

hi Justine!
First let me welcome you to our forum.You seem to have allergy prone skin which is frustrating most of the time but don't stress yourself too much, as stress may deteriorate the condition.we just have to know the cause and try to eliminate it. A good quality picture of your skin lesion would have been more helpful to give you suggestion but from what you have explained you seemed to develop irritant folliculitis formerly caused by waxing and later developed superimposed infection either by yeast (pityrosporum folliculitis) or bacterial folliculitis which also mimic the acneiform eruption. But doing culture of the pus may help determine the specific microbial organism or fungal testing can also be done under the microscope. After determining the organism specific treatment can be carried accordingly.

Please keep us updated about your condition and do post a pic if possible...

[LadyBean]

Thank you to those who've responded thus far. I feel the need to add that I think the development of this problem also correlates with when I began using one of those exfoliating mitts when I shower. That plus Dove moisturizing soap for sensitive skin. I wish I knew exactly when I started using either but I know before I used that soap and the scrubby mitts, my skin was always itchy and more prone to eczema flare ups. That at first served to slough away the excess dry skin cells and moisturize and it really helped put the flaring up to a minimum but then this condition developed. I never know if the problem is too much moisture maybe? I moisturize with petroleum jelly, especially after shaving. The rest of the time and on the rest of my body I use either a sesame oil or lavender oil from J.R. Watkins which seems to help a lot.

I have read that exfoliation will help with folliculitis so that is where I get confused. Maybe I am scrubbing too hard and bacteria is getting introduced into my skin? Grrrrrr.

I should note that when I had gone to the asthma and allergy center in 2006 they put me on prednisone because the eczema was so bad, they had me take that for about two weeks to get the flare-up down so maybe it is some sort of latent side effect? I also used to take Ortho Evra birth control patch until about September 2010, which is not long after I started having these symptoms. It started on my lower legs, I remember going to Atlantic City and feeling very self conscious at the pool and wondering what the heck is going on.

[Dr.Saiyan]

Dear Justine is it possible to post one good quality picture. There are various possibility, as you mentioned could be steroid induced or OCP induced acneiform eruption as well as infectious folliculitis. Determining the etiology of eruption is very important before continuing with the treatment.

[LadyBean]

Saiyan,

My apologies, I forgot to mention in the last comment that I will get a pic posted as soon as I can. It's not easy because my phone no longer has internet and my webcam isn't very good but I will try.

[Dr.Saiyan]

Dear Justine!
Don't worry take your time, we will be happy to hear from you anytime.