Does anyone have excema?

[Boco]

Can it come on suddenly in an adult?

I got a rash weeks ago that started on my tummy, bumpy and really really itchy - then it spread all over. The dr said not excema, but allergic urticaria and gave me antihistamine. It got worse, and then he said it was scabies (eeeek), gave me an all over cream, but it wasn't that.

Now its under my boobs, backs of my legs and arms and around thighs and on the back of my neck and scalp - its soooo itchy it drives me crazy - especially at night.

It looks just like excema now - can it suddenly occur in adults? Any ideas about what might help?

Please don't make me answer my own neurotic health related thread? Surely someone knows something about excema?

Hello? ello llo lo o

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Hi,

I've had eczema all my life and it doesn't usually come on that suddenly unless it's contact dermatitis caused by something such as washing powder.

As yours has come on very extensively and quite violently it sounds to me like some allergy or virus.

Go back to GP if you're not getting better. Good luck

Thanks, i'm going to go back tomorrow, but i've had it since february now, not changed washing powder or anything, and it's not getting any better.

My doctor is so vague, he says each time that he knows exactly what it is, but is wrong! Had to treat my whole family head to toe in an all over 12 hour scabies treatment that burnt like fuckery and it so clearly wasn't scabies, so little faith in him.

Go and see a different GP

I had a weird allergic rash thing last year, started as what looked like insect bites (but weren't) and gradually got worse and worse. I also got treated for scabies - when it wasn't! . Pretty much got rid of it with a combination of lots of antihistamines and a heavy duty steriod cream.

No idea what caused it, and it took about 4 months to clear up. The itching was evil at night, but Piriton knocked me out. I started using and still do, an emoillient (dodgy spelling) shower wash (rather than normal shower gel, as apparently stopping the skin drying out helps.

I had never had excema before (I am 40), so it was a real shock.

Mandymac that sounds very similar! It's so so itchy, even my ears itch! It goes like nettle rash, then gradually looks more and more like excema.

I can't change doctors as i live in the middle of nowhere - there are no more doctors!

Hi Boco, my dd has eczema and food allergies. She gets a nettle rash (hives) when she eats something she is allergic to or becomes in contact with. Usually in her case the extreme itching continues for a few hours and then calms down and the bumps disappear. She always has eczema present though anyway. Itchy ears can be another sign of a food allergy and also eczema can become present in the ear. She has had this also. Have you eaten anything different recently? Do you ever suffer from an itchy mouth/pallet. Your obviously having somesort of reaction to something. Allergies can start at anytime I'm afraid. How about stress? Have also heard on line hives can come on with a virus?

One sign that it is ezcema is that the rash is wierdly symetrical. Can appear suddenly as a reation to stress (this happens to DH - he gets 'wheels' on his back not as bad as the rash you describe). An oatmilk bath can sooth, put some porridge oats in an old sock or tie up in a muslin square and dangle under the hot tap when you run a bath. We also find dream cream from Lush helpful but its pretty pricey
(about £8)

Thanks for the suggestions. Been to the doctors this morning. He still isn't sure, says it could be excema, but isn't in the usual places - and as an allergic reaction to something its been going on for months which is odd.

Got a steroid cream and hope that works. He did think it's due to stress, and i've had lots of stress this year with my dd being ill, but now i'm totally chillaxed, so can't be that!

I'd be careful with the oats in sock thing - I did that (had eczema all my life) and it felt like my skin had burnt and made the flare up worse. That's the problem, what works for someone won't necessarily work for the next so I'm not putting down the previous advice about oats! You could always give it a go.
You can develop allergies suddenly and they can build up and worsen with each reaction.
Did your GP not prescribe steroid creams to reduce the inflammation and itching? If they worked, then it is quite likely to be eczema or dermatitis. It could also be hay fever related eczema (I have this too as well as eczema throughout the year) and the pollen makes my skin go like hives and my eczema becomes extremely itchy and dry and lumpy. The fact that you're breathing in the pollen could translate and show as eczema in your whole body. I'd ask him for skin tests and be referred to a dermatologist.

thanks lucie
Could be pollen as they're growing rapeseed in the fields all round my house for the first time this year.

I got a steroid cream today so will give it a try and if it doesn't work i'll go back.

aha - I bet it's the rape then. At easter at my parents I was in agony due to the rape and my mum, who never gets eczema or asthma, had a wheezing fit on the bus due to rape. It's so potent. Perhaps try taking an antihistamine each day while it's there.

i got excema very suddenley at age 20. it was very severe, from neck to toe, and i tried everything in the book! it was stress related and i was extremely run down at the time. the final solution was chinese herbs in the end - cleared up the whole lot in a month or so £70 a week but soooo worth it!)
you say you were streesed but now not - well it still could be that as it was the same for me - i had split up from my then dp for 6 months and was really down. we got back together and it appeared shortly after. gp said it is the same as when you are perhaps looking after a sick relative - you keep going and going, and afterwards you find you have burnt out.

I guess it could be that too. My dd (2) has been having medical tests and an MRI to check for brain tumours as she has been diagnosed with horners syndrome. That has been really scary. She's seeing an neurologist on Wednesday. It's not that i'm not stressed, just not in such an urgent panicky way, more of an underlying uncertainty way, which i guess also matches up with what you're saying.

Hmmph. I need to live in a bunker.

Thats a lot to be going through! sounds like you must have a lot of anxiety about dd, stress and anxiety will often manifest in your physical wellbeing.