What do you reckon measles, rubella or allergic reaction?

[KarmaNoMore]

Posting in chat for traffic, I have gone into NHS 111, and waiting for a call from the nurse but the site says that they may call but... may not if too busy.

Teen DS woke up with a rash on Thursday, he has acne so we thought it was just spreading but now is covering his face and his torso. He had a bad headache on Thursday night and Friday morning, but other than that and the rash he is ok.

He has only been out for a Lateral Flow test last Wednesday, went for a walk on Friday last week. He is fully vaccinated (and prone to allergies)

He has another LFT at 3pm, shall He miss it just in case?

@KarmaNoMore

Why have you jumped straight to (now) rare diseases which he is immunised against, rather than other non-specific viral infections which cause rashes?

Erm, probably because I am not a doctor? but I have had measles, rubella and mumps as a child even I had all my vaccines. It is uncommon in this country (and thankfully in most of the developed world these days) but being vaccinated doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get the disease but you can still get a milder form (Unless the vaccines have improved a lot in the last 20 years). So yes, if I mentioned measles it is because unfortunately, when I was growing up years ago, there were plenty of mild cases around to get familiar with how it looks. In fact, I am partially deaf thanks to it.

I wanted trying to be difficult, it was a genuine question and was wandering whether you knew he had specific exposure/risk to these rarer diseases. But sure get snappy with me that's fine too.

My son has just had this his was itchy though and he was tearing himself to pieces after seeing two pharmacists the doctors finally let us speak to a doctor who prescribed menthol cream its all but cleared up he had a massive histamine reaction but no one knows what too or why especially as it cant be what I wash his clothing in he has literally sat around in his underpants since Christmas

So we went for the test first thing this morning. Couldn’t go to the pharmacy as they asked us to isolate until we get the test results im 1-3 days.

He has been sleeping a lot again today, his neck is getting more stiff but the face looks less inflamed. The rash every where else is still red but not raised anymore.

He seems ok though, eating well and acting normally when he is awake. I have been wondering if it is an allergic reaction but he had a fever overnight which doesn’t make sense. I’ll try to get a GP appointment for him again tomorrow.

For all those thinking us scarlet fever, how did the illness evolve? I honestly don’t know if he is getting better or worse.

Thanks (much luck) again

My Ds had a full body rash identical to this last year. I went into full in panic mood thinking the worst 🙈 we got him checked out and it turned out to an allergic reaction brought in by a walk. They think it was something in the grass/airborne pollen or something. Cleared up pretty quickly with piriton and staying inside - never had it since.

Have you tried the glass test again as his rash has changed a bit.

I'm sure on You Tube or meningitis trust website it shows you what a meningitis rash looks like.
Meningitis would be my main concern with the stiff neck but there's lots of things it could be.
Definitely sounds viral more than allergic due to the temperature and no change with antihistamines.
Hope he feels better soon.

Rash is now considered a symptom for Covid.
DD had v mild covid at Christmas (positive test) and four weeks later a rash suddenly appeared all over her face and neck. Looked exactly like rubella (which she has been vaccinated against) too - took her to the GP. They were pretty helpful but said that the after effects of Covid are not fully understand. Suggested piriton, gentle moisturiser and pain relief. It was quite sore too. Took about 5 days to subside. Has occurred again, approx every 4 weeks with reducing severity each time.

Thanks again for your comments, they do really help to try to elucidate what on Earth is happening here.

Just got the results of the COVID test, they came up as negative. The rash seems less inflamed but still red, doesn’t feel like sandpaper or “pricky” at points as yesterday, the skin is soft, glass test done again and the rash gets white when rolling the glass on it.

He has been on Piriton every four hours since yesterday. But he had a fever this morning so despite the negative test I am keeping him off school tomorrow in case this is infectious. I really hope that with a negative test in hand the GP agrees to have a proper look at the rash and neck tomorrow! (One may hope!)

Hop

If the GP won't do anything ask for a different dr. They should at the very least look at the rash for goodness sake.

Hope he's on the mend soon.

Just an update, he woke up on Monday with the rash almost gone so there was not much to show to the pharmacist by then. Kept him at home just in case it was contagious while also trying to get the massively elusive check from a GP.

No luck, they wouldn’t see him because it was not urgent even when his neck was still hurting. They asked me to ring after 10 again for non urgent appointments booking to open (5 minutes later). Rang again... and got straight to a message saying all appointments for the day were taken already by emergency appointments, ring again on 3 days and blah blah blah.

Ended up taking him to the pharmacist with the photo I posted in this thread. She said it must have been a viral thing but to keep him at home for an extra day just in case it returned.

Wonderful non service, blame the tories... we didn’t have to get into a pandemic, my GP service was that bad 2-3 years before Covid arrived.

Glad he seems to be on the mend. But I'd change GPs if I were you. Our surgery is bad but not that bad!

I wish I could, but it seems all are pretty much the same in my area 😕

Well... we are at it again! His skin is peeling and his face feels like sandpaper. But he is finally going to be seen by a GP today... I guess the magic words were not I have been trying to get a doctor to have a look at the rash since Saturday, or he has lost 2 days o school but “it looks like scarlet fever so just wanted to know if he is still contagious before he goes to school in an hour”. The GP called within 10 minutes, checked the photos and he is being seen this afternoon (hallelujah!)

How did it go with the gp?

Well... the Gp that saw him said that with the rash gone (and the photo on hand) it was difficult to know and probably he was ok to go to school today, he didn’t do the testing the other GP had asked for. So I thought, fuck it, we really tried, if there is an outbreak of scarlet fever in school next week I know well who to point my finger to.

2 hrs later the GP that sent him for the test called and said she had talked to her colleague about the case and that it was better not to risk it, so would I mind picking up the antibiotics in the next hour before they close the pharmacy and keep him at home for 24 hours after he started the antibiotics?

I’m fuming, he has missed almost a week of school, he could have been back on Monday if somebody had bothered to check him on the day we called.

What a horrible ordeal. The GP's you have seen sound terrible!! Hope your ds is better soon op

Th doctors are the same here. Its all covid.

You can't even speak to a gp anymore, its all nurses.

They don't ring you back even when you fill in a n online form as we can't even ring up it all has to be done on line.

You have to omit mentioning certain things that are concerning because the form refuses to engage if you have certain symptoms even though its not an emergency.

We try to treat stuff at home now, my dp has had chest pains that we think are indigestion related, he is very gassy but we can't see a doctor because they tell him to go immediately to hospital..its not that type of chestpain.

I've treated rashes, stitched things together myself with butterfly stitches and glue and I've ignored certain gynae problems because I just can't get an appointment

Bloody hell OP what an ordeal. My DD had Scarlett fever, rash similar to that and really high temp and she felt so poorly. We just though it was viral but she ended up in the walk in when the rash spread to her face. (Pre-COVID) they told us it was Scarlett fever and I must admit I didn’t think kids even got that any more! Anyway antibiotics kicked in really quick and she felt better in a day or so. I hope they work for him and he feels better soon. You deserve a large glass of wine after all that!

Thank you, he is fine now but angry about missing so much of the first week at school and getting the antibiotics after the rash, the fever and headaches had been gone for days. I’m trying to cheer him up telling him that even if it is not scarlet fever (we will never know) the antibiotics are doing wonders for his acne. He seemed to like that .

And agree about curing everything at home due to impossibility of getting an appointment. I confess I have sorted 2 dental abscess myself after the impossibility of getting a dentist appointment.