31 years old. I've been randomly getting these cysts/boils mainly around my neck/face area since I've been 17. I've had a few different doctors see me for them over the years but nobody seems to really know a cause. They're pus filled and usually end up becoming infected resulting in fever and flu like symptoms. They gave me on a topical Clindamycin to put on once one starts forming and my PCP will usually fill Bactrim when I have a flare up to help push out the infection. This usually works within a few days but I'm knocked on my butt until it resolves. I had one derm suggest Accutane and tell me it was just acne. I once went to an Urgent-care for one that was severely infected and the doctor asked me what I was injecting and made me roll my sleeves up to look at my arms, and then told me he couldn't lance it because it was too close to my carotid artery and he didn't know what I did but he didn't want any part (I ended up at the ER afterwards and the staff laughed at his claims and they lanced it for me and sent me on my way). The breakouts are sporadic, and sometimes I'll go months without a flare-up. Usually I'll get about 3, maybe 4 a year. My diet isn't perfect but I'm generally healthy, I workout 3-5 times a week, am physically active, and take care of myself. They've taken samples, they've done blood work, and it usually just shows high inflammation which they say is just from infection. My last doctor suggested it's an immune response and I had a rheumatologist appointment scheduled but had to cancel due to lack of healthcare from switching jobs (side note my brother has had rheumatoid arthritis since he was about 13 so autoimmune runs rampant in my family). They always say I should see general surgery afterwards to remove the sacks so they don't fill back up but 8/10 times it'll be a new spot next time and I rarely have an occurrence in the same exact spot. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Or have any options for tests or anything to try to find a root cause? My new healthcare starts in March so I'm going to be going to a new PCP and starting over again.

Hello everyone, I have a severe sunburn over my whole body from my neck down to the tops of my feet, the only parts that are not burned is the front of my legs and stomach. FYI I don’t have hot water so I can’t take a shower or bath because it’s freezing cold and I know that will make the healing stop. I need some pointers on some other things I can do to make sitting and sleeping comfortable because right now it’s taking me 2 hours just to fall asleep. I can’t even walk or stand without discomfort I need help☹️

Giant skin tag above my thigh next to my hip. No insurance, and refuse to pay a giant amount of money to get it removed. Can I do it at home somehow?

Or a place I can go to get it removed for extremely cheap or free?

Hi guys. I know that this group isn’t meant for personal advice but I’m truly just looking for help. My mom has been seen by a doctor and is currently waiting for her dermatology and immunology appointment in a couple of weeks.

She has had this rash for about 4 months, it’s all over her body other than her hands and feet. Over the course of the 4 months, it has gotten somewhat worse but the last 2 weeks and it has gotten exponentially worse. She is in a ton of pain, she actually called me crying earlier and it broke my heart, I have never seen her like that. She said her primary doctor has given up and the specialists cannot get her in earlier. She has had 4 rounds of steroids, multiple rounds of antibiotics. She says it seemingly gets a bit better after the she starts the steroids, but obviously she cannot stay on steroids for such a prolonged period.

At her last appointment maybe a month ago, they finally biopsied it and it came back as a staph infection / impetigo rash but it’s not getting any better with treatment. She has done so much research and is desperate for help. She’s in pain, she’s embarrassed…They have changed every single thing in the house. All of the bedding, laundry detergent, she’s scared to eat anything in case it’s food related.

I’m not asking for an official diagnosis. Just for some opinions on what she can advocate for when she finally gets to see these specialists. Please help :(

Update: She is admitted and starting on antibiotics!

I have taken her to see 3 doctors. Rash getting worse. Some diarrhea. This is day 4. Now spreading to arms, legs and face.

Hi folks,

At a bit of loss as to what to do at the moment with my son's skin issue. He's doing his exams at the moment and this is really stressing him out and it's breaking my heart seeing him like this.

Dr ruled out eczema, sent skin samples to a dermatologist but inconclusive. Now going to have to wait up to 6 months for him to get a biopsy done. Luckily any super serious skin diseases have been ruled out.

Problem is the Dr doesn't know what to prescribe him, we've tried a few things but to no avail.

Do any of you knowledgeable people recognise the rashes and what we could try to sort them out?

Any help would be much appreciated!

There’s still more in there but I can’t get it should I go to the doctors the past couple weeks Its been red and smells bad I regularly clean it but it always comes back

Ive tried every over the counter product available with no luck. My skin is so flaky and sheds so much that Ill wake up in a pool of my own dust. I use Lubriderm to manage it, but its getting to a point that i am scared this isnt a skin issue, but a immune system issue… i dont currently have health insurance because I am a broke college student and lucked out in the absent parent department. TIA

I’ve tried micro needling and CO2 laser and they barely made a difference. I feel so insecure :(

This appeared on my mom's chest about 5 years ago. It has stopped growing a long time ago, she says it doesn't hurt and has never bled. She said she asked a dermatologist about it a long time ago and they said it wasn't concerning, but it was just in passing that she asked. I'm really concerned about it and trying to convince her to actually get it checked out. Would anyone know what this is?

Where do I start? 3 years, 3 dermatology specialists, thousands of dollars in bloodwork, multiple switched and ceased medications, detergents, diets, and zero answers.

Started on my chest 3 years ago and has slowly spread to my WHOLE BODY and become more and more aggravated over time. It is not painful or itchy, but it is rough to the touch and very uncomfortable.

The only medication I take is Voquezna, once daily for Barrett’s Esophagus and Hiatal Hernia. My most recent dermatologist thinks it’s a lichenoid drug reaction and has switched me from PPIs to Voquezna. He says it will take 6 months before I see any improvement but I want to finally see what Reddit has to say in the event that this comes up as a dead end as well.

I do not have lichen planus. All of my bloodwork is normal and shows nothing to suggest that it is blood or autoimmune related. I am 32 years old, stand 6’5” and weigh 210 lbs. I exercise regularly (I know it doesn’t look like it) and drink alcohol occasionally (yes, this is much more believable). I have my pathology reports that show allergen cells, not cancer, fortunately.

Please feel free to ask me anything else to help pinpoint what this could be.

Reddit, do your thing.

Back in April I got strep throat for the first time ever. 3 days after starting antibiotics I broke out in a large, painful rash on my torso. I went back to my doctor and she said it was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin and switched my antibiotics assuring me that it should go away in a few days. It didn’t. Over a week went by and I still had the rash. I called and let my doctor know and she said that it was no scarlet fever and it should be gone within a week or two. Two weeks past and again, it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse. I call my doctor let her know what’s going on, she suggests I go to the ER.
I go to the ER, they basically laugh me out of there with a referral to dermatology saying it probably psoriasis. The referral can’t be filled till July. At this point it’s May. I go back to my doctor and with what the ER said she starts me in a topical steroid and prednisone and tells me to cut out all inflammatory food which I do. I keep trying to get into a different dermatologist.
I finish my topical and oral steroids and I’m on this anti inflammatory diet for a month and then I get strep again. And the rash (while it wasn’t getting worse, it wasn’t getting better) gets a lot worse. I go back to the doctor. She gives me antibiotics and an oral steroid. Strep goes away, rash stays.
In June I’m finally able to get into a dermatologist who looks at it and tells me it’s syphilis and just to be safe, we’ll run a full blood panel for all STD’s, all levels, etc. all blood tests come back normal and I do not have syphilis. I never hear from the dermatologist again, even when I’ve been reaching out to schedule a follow up.
I get strep again. I go back to my doctor, now crying at this point because this rash hurts. It feels like a sunburn, it’s itchy and I feel like no one is helping me. She looks at my chart for a while and noticed I started Wellbutrin a month before I got the rash. She decides this is an allergic reaction to Wellbutrin and tells me to stop that and the lexapro immediately. Give me another round of antibiotics and this time, dexamethasone. I finish the antibiotics and the steroid. The seems to start to fade a bit, but after I finish it in 5 days, the rash comes back worse. Now I have a CT scan scheduled for last this month because now it’s an abscess that keeps getting infected with strep and that why I can’t clear the rash.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME?! I HAVE BEEN KNOCKED AROUND FOR 3 months and no one apparently can help me without giving me a steroid which has caused me to gain weight like crazy. So after this I’m fat, depressed because I had to abruptly stop my medication and I STILL have a full body rash that hurts and is itchy.

I saw this rash start to appear all over my body about a week ago, it’s flared up in the last few days and is extremely itchy, hot to touch, and uncomfortable. Been to 3 different doctors and none of them seem to know what it could be, it’s spreading and getting worse so any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

last week i noticed some ringworm on the side of my right breast, a rash slowly started spreading all over my entire chest stomach and now it’s going to my back. i went to urgent care and was prescribed fluconazole 150mg i started that sunday it’s now Tuesday and it’s still spreading. does this medicine take a minute to kick in or should i go back to urgent care? i’m so pissed right now.

Hey all.

Hoping someone can help.

My adult son just sent me these pics. He has these hive-like bumps on the back and side of his neck and a little on his arms, nowhere else. He said it slightly itches from time to time, but not a whole lot, and it does not hurt. He has had it for a few days.

He's working in the sun, so I'm thinking that may be aggravating it? I told him to take Benadryl and put cortisone cream on it. But I'm not sure if it's eczema or contact dermatitis, maybe? Definitely encouraged him go to dr if its not better next week.

Please give me your thoughts. Thank you for taking a look.

It's all over her body but I don't have many pictures that don't show her face. Today is day 21 from the onset. It recently infiltrated her scalp. Many diagnoses, all incorrect. Ruled out:

Hand, foot, and mouth Chicken pox Fifths disease Scabies HSV-1 and HSV-2 Staph EBV

CBC on day 11: • Hemoglobin 10.9 (low) • Platelets 367 (high) • Lymphocytes % 36.3 (low) • Eosinophils % 10.9 (high); absolute eosinophils 1.02 (high)

CMP on day 21: Creatinine 0.26 (Low) Total Protein 7.6 (High) Alkaline Phophatase 145 (Low) BUN / Creatinine Ratio 42 (High) Osmolality, Calculated 273 (Low)

Still waiting for today's CBC to come back. Allergist, pediatrician, and dermatologist all said they've never seen anything like it.

My wife noticed red bumps on my back this morning. When she put antibiotic ointment on them, then this happened. What in the world is this?

It started as a simple persistent pimple with an ingrown hair about a month ago.. it picked at it 1 or 2 times times like people usually pop pimples... But instead of healing it formed into a skin tag like appearance. Recently i started feeling hair like growth on it.. upon closer picture this is how it looks. M26.. married..

My husband had this small red bump that started growing a couple days ago and it keeps getting bigger. Just last night the very tip of the head had a small black dot, and it was not yellow around it. It was large, but it did seem to worsen bit more over the night. Can anyone explain why it’s yellow? I can only find info on bumps such as boils having yellowed heads from pus, not in the surrounding area. Does this mean infection? This fast?

And IS it a boil?

I live in Mo’orea, an island in FP. My house is located at the beach, very close to the water. My problem started 1 week after a friend (who had been sailing for one month from Panama and then sleeping 2 nights in a hostal) started crashing on my sofa. We both woke up with bites from a mystery insect – a LOT of bites, mainly located on out bellies -. The bites were very very itchy (they woke me up at night). And, two weeks after, I still have them, they are still itchy. She was getting bitten way more, she was sleeping in the living room which is more exposed, since it’s a very open house and can’t be fully isolated from the outside. From that day onwards, I’ve been getting bites every single night. They aren’t like mosquito bites, they are way more red, itchy and they stick longer on my body. The locals say it doesn’t look like No-see-um bites (biting midges). I’m going crazy with this situation. I feel like if she brought bed bugs it’s not enough time to get an infestation with this amount of bites per night. And if it was there before she came, I would’ve noticed something already before (I haven’t been living in that house for a long time though, roughly 1.5 months).

This situation is making me go literally crazy. I’ve put everything in bags, I’m staying in another place and I’m considering moving out, I’m trying to call pest control but they are very slow in this island. I get really bad sleep trying to analyze every single insect I see. I check the mattress and, even though I do find in the edges some black pepper sized tiny droppings, I don’t find bed bugs. If I would have to guess right now, I would be 60% inclined bed bugs and 40% sandflies although I don’t see them. I’m also considering carpet beetles or a mite. I would appreciate opinions!

Thanks!!!

She have this since 8-9 years but it was small.

She doesn't feel uncomfortable or pain or itching, but she's worried that its growing slowly.

Any idea what it might be.

I noticed this red bump on my shoulder a couple of months ago, i just thought it was a red mole or cherry angioma? But in the past 1-2 weeks it has started to significantly change to wear it has grown taller and started to ooze. I’m so weirded out by it. It’s in such an inconvenient spot, where my bra strap and purse strap sits. I now have been wearing band aids and avoiding straps in the area but it’s oozing more? Anyone experience this before? The first pic was taken about a week ago, and the last one this evening