4 year skin battle, whats wrong ?

25 yr old male here



One weekend back in august of 2003 i spent saturday and sunday pulling weeds for a work release program. 3 days later on a wensday

night i was laying down to go to sleep when my hands started iching really bad and little red bumps started to develope. the next night the little red bumps turned into blisters so i went into the ER i was given atarax which didnt help any but i was also refered to the local dermatologist. (ER doctor was clueless). By this time i had rashes all over my chest, little rashes on my face which were leaking fluid and started to crust up (very nasty). spoted rashes on my legs and arms, some parts of arms were also leaking a little and all of this was iching like crazy. So the dermatologist looked kind of puzzled and said it looked like a severe case of poison oak. I was giving prednisone and some antibiotics and was sent home assuming this would take of of the problem, which it did.... for about 2 weeks or so when i ran out of prednisone. so i had to go back and get another refill of prednisone and this went on for about a year (sometimes the prednisone would last longer) and i was also receiving ultra light treatments. i am also alergic to nickle so there were times that my belt buckle, ear rings would give me problems, and the doctor would also get on to me about wearing them. anyways.. around a year later the docotor sent me to a university doctor to go get this patch testing done. i went and since i didnt have any insurance at the time the doctor said the test would be to exspensive and he examined me and told me all the rashes were due from stress. (who knows..) so he sends me on my way with some halbetasol ointment since i had been taken prednisone way to long and at the tiome the prednisone was the only thing to keep the rashes away. well the oinment worked just fine and after a couple of refills i finaly ran out (which lasted almost 2 years) and the rashes were almost completely gone. i mean i would still get a liltle rash here or there on my fingers or legs but no huge flare ups like i used to get. i still kept the cup the oinment was in because there was still a little bit i could scrape up with the tip of my finger or a q-tip and put on the little rashes i would get from time to time. my belt buckle at times also gave me a bunch of crap having to put some of the left over oinment on my lower stomach also. so everything was going ok with my skin, it was under control and i thought maybe there was actually a chance that the major part of this thing had went away. well just a few weeks ago my belt buckle started to react with my stomach again and started to do its thing where i would scrach it raw and it would get dry and flake up and ect.. except this time i didnt have any oinment left. the very very last of what was left from my little cup had ran out in maybe october-november 2006 but like i said i had no worrys because i thought maybe this thing had went away for the better part. well just a few days ago i finaly got fully flared up again and i guess i forgotten how BAD IT SUCKED because i thought i was going to die scratching raw skin. so i went back to the dermatologist (same office different doctor) and one of the first things she asked me is what in the hell did i get into. she said it was definilty something i had got into and she explained why but i got lost somewhere with in them big doctor words. so i was given yet agian more prednisone for 9 days though i was reluctant because since i first started taking it i had gain 30-40 pounds from it but i was given the option to have her write out a script for it or not but i took it anyways because i just want the flaring up to go down. i was also given more oinment and and more anitibotics. i am now starting my sceond day and the flaring up has not gone down as quick as it normaly had the previous times (some times it would start to clear up within 5 hours from taking it). so now i am stuck waiting for it to go down. i would also like to note that some rashes have differed since my first flare up back in 2003. i still get the blisters on my hand. i dont get the rashes on my face or chest anymore. i mostly get them on my elbow which start of as bumps and then turn into very very tiny red zit/blister looking things.. actually almost all my rashes look like a bunch of ingrown hairs all over my body in patches. i get them all around both legs, top and bottom, some on the foot, inner elbow on both arms and my left middle finger is always the one to break out. as far as my stomach it doesnt really get the ingrown blister looking things. it will just simply ich and get scratched raw. over the years i have tried many different thing such as changing laundry soap (using drift) using nothing but dove non-scent bathing soap just to much to list but i have tried everything the docotrs told me to do... it has been almost 4 years now and still dont know what i got into and if it was even poison oak. i wish i could find out very soon because i dont want to live the rest of my life taken prednisone at all!!! maybe i will have to save a couple of grand to get this patch test done and give it a shot. but i mainly posted this because i wanted to share my terrible experience with others and see if any others might have something simular to me and if they have found out their own mystery.

4 year skin battle, whats wrong ?
Sounds like you may have Lichen Planus. My sister has it with the same symptoms. She had a Gastric Bypass done a few years back and recently developed the same symptoms as you. She wasnt taking her daily vitamins like she was supposed to after having the surgery, she was also under a lot of stress at work. It is from a weak immune system and brought on by stress.

Take lots of Vitamins - Use Vitamin E on your skin - Change your diet - and do some research on the causes/prevention.
Reply:i'm sorry your question is way too long i can't even begin to read it next time try to summarise
Reply:Your rash sounds almost like psoraisis. Psoraisis is an auto immune disorder and yes, stress can make it flare up. There are many different kinds of psoraisis and you can have different kinds at the same time. Prednesone and light therapy are one kind of treatment that you already tried but now there are biologics which are available that do a much better job of keeping it under control. Unfortunately, they are very expensive and not a lot of insurance companies cover the drugs. I have heard that soaking in an oatmeal bath can relieve the itching but now cure the disease. Good luck with you rash.
Reply:I am sorry to hear about your skin condition not sure of any cure but I think you may find some help in the field of aromatherapy or even through flower remedies there is a lady somewhere in Texas that specializes in that field. Things I know are that Jojoba Golden Oil %26amp; Sweet Almond Oil are very good for the skin and that there are many essential oils that are great for the skin some of which have healing properties. Most of which are widely used in cosmetics and pharacuiticals. Also if you can find ingreidents to your medicine you were talking that helped there may be a carrier oil or essentail oils that were used to make it that would be of most help to you. All pharacuiticals use essentials, plants, flowers, boticals, resins, fruits, nut, leaf, and bark in there, not all prescribed drugs are made up of all chemicals. Hope some of this has been of some use to you...
Reply:please summerise your question no body in this busy world has such a lot of time to read your problem