OT: Tiny itchy bumps: I have done nothing... - Thyroid UK

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OT: Tiny itchy bumps

puncturedbicycle profile image

I have done nothing different that I can think of except took a taxi to the airport and flew long haul, wore a shirt that has been in the drawer for a long time (but haven't changed washing liquid in ages). When I arrived I was itchy and had about half a dozen tiny blistery bumps scattered on my torso. They're almost invisible initially then I guess when scratched they end up a bit red.

Every morning I have two or three more, similar to a flea bite (but no animals have ever been in the house where I am staying, and I was itchy when I got here). Not a bedbug bite (been there/done that when visiting NYC in 2010), not hives, not a rash as such as these are individual bumps. Five or so on my trunk, one on shoulder, one on forearm, other wrist etc. But they itch like the devil. I keep daubing them w cortisone cream.

Has anyone else had this? I'd be so grateful if I didn't have to google again, you can't unsee what has been seen. :-) And I have ptsd after the bed bug incident!

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puncturedbicycle
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30 Replies
gabkad profile image
gabkad

If where you are now you can get yourself a bar of Dettol soap, get it. Wash with it. Stops the itch and stuff heals fast. When you scratch you make things worse.

bantam12 profile image
bantam12

Sounds very like insect bites of some sort, there don't have to be animals in a house to get fleas as people can carry them in. Possibly picked up on the flight ?

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to bantam12

Urgh, hate to think about it! But to be fair have seen no sign of any bugs, on flight or since.

bantam12 profile image
bantam12 in reply to puncturedbicycle

You probably wouldn't see fleas as they hide until they need to eat, warmth and any vibration such as walking across the floor brings them out to feed.

Flea eggs are sticky so easily transferred from one place to tother on clothes and shoes.

humanbean profile image
humanbean

Scabies?

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to humanbean

Very doubtful (at this stage anyway) as it is just the odd red dot and not a rash (if that makes sense. I was fully covered at all times and if I got it from, say, the blanket or something it would be likely to be on exposed bits. Or at least that is my understanding of what scabies is like. I guess time will tell!

BadHare profile image
BadHare

Might you have left a window open, & biting things flown in, or not rinsed yourself or clothes?

I find whitchazel soothing, or an oat based cream. If the itchy lumps are very bad, try putting a very hot spoon on them. It hurts, & you may need to repeat, but it works on bites as well as those wee zapping gadgets.

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to BadHare

That is clever. :-)

It happened at some stage while I was fully clothed, so I can't imagine it would be bugs, or they'd be in my other clothes. Have seen nothing unusual except another new couple of red dots every day, nowhere near the previous ones, all in disparate places. A mystery!

BadHare profile image
BadHare in reply to puncturedbicycle

It does work on insect bites, & the burning pain is shortlived & preferable to incessant itching! I am unfortunately too familiar with mossie bites, since going veggie.

I once had an urticaria rash, from rubbing & sniffing wild plants in a forest, & it started on my legs, which had been completely covered, & spread everywhere, rather than the contact points on my hands & face. Inflammation is a peculiar thing. Perhaps antihistamine could help on the inside & witchazel on the outside, or an oat compress? Oat milk & witchazel is wonderful!

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to BadHare

I have suffered w urticaria before but those were large hard lumps. Ghastly! Just after I left school I had a job I found very stressful (noisy, lots of people about) and I broke out in the most agonising hives around my middle and was on antihistamines all day which made me very logy. Oh gosh, that was awful.

And that was one of the first things that clued me in that I was allergic to crustacea - massive hard lumpy hives on my face.

BadHare profile image
BadHare in reply to puncturedbicycle

The antihistamines were worse. I only took one, & could bately stamd for 24 hours.

I read recently, it's iodine that causes allergies from crustaceans. I couldn't eat detrital feeders in the first place. :(

Hope you've no mre spots today!

bicimama profile image
bicimama in reply to puncturedbicycle

Hello. I have the same problem; tiny bumps popping up randomly. If I scratch anything that itches, it will usually end up being on of these little red lumps. Tiny. Some look like water blisters, and even come up between my fingers. Have you figured anything out about them? How are you doing now?

silverfox7 profile image
silverfox7

Thanks guys! I now have an itch between my shoulder blades I can't reach!!!

Zephyrbear profile image
Zephyrbear in reply to silverfox7

I usually find one of the long kitchen forks down the back of the shirt works wonders for back itches you can't reach... 😂

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to Zephyrbear

Back in the fraught days of his eczema I caught my partner using a coat hanger.

Dddark1 profile image
Dddark1

Hi there, I too get these tiny itchy bumps. I thought nobody else had it. I get an itch first then notice the tiny blistery bump, either single or small cluster which stays then dries out leaving skin that comes off but the dried bump looks as if was rooted. Sometimes it reappears in the same spot or breaks out in new locations. More annoying then anything else!

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to Dddark1

Ah, yes, this sounds like it, but no clusters for me. Mine are individual tiny blisters.

bicimama profile image
bicimama in reply to Dddark1

Hello Dddark1. Did you figure out a solution? I have the same thing now. Driving me crazy.

Clemmi profile image
Clemmi

Could it be shingles?

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to Clemmi

Not from what I know of shingles. I believe that appears in a large, angry cluster and is painful. This is not painful at all and barely visible, but itchy.

Elisabetho profile image
Elisabetho

I also have these little itchy blisters, mostly on my torso, but sometimes on my inner arm. They are not bites, because they go away when my meds are optimal. Could be shingels. I will have to google that. Thanks Clemmi.

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to Elisabetho

That's interesting re meds. I got this thing just before I raised my t3/reduced levo, but a week later I don't think it is changing.

When undermedicated (or maybe when I was just on levo) I used to get horribly itchy (legs, feet, torso mostly) at bedtime but no rash. In the morning there would be no trace of it, but would be itchy at bedtime again.

LAHs profile image
LAHs

I picked up something undefined but possibly scabies after house sitting (at a perfectly nice house!). It was not possible to see them with the naked eye but I had a "Loupe" (little magnifier) and a regular old magnifying glass and with the alignment of both of them I could see them. I had to dab sticky tape over an itch and then look at it under my magnifying arrangement, didn't always catch one. Although the doc gave me some pills I did not take them. I got rid of them by showering three times a day and changing my sheets everyday for a week. That is the physical removal of them. I think the pill approach makes your skin exude a nasty smell (to "them") and they drop off because they no longer like that environment - I guess that would be the chemical approach.

It's embarrassing telling the doc though! I sent him a very carefully worded e-mail with specimens through the regular mail, then picked up the pills.

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to LAHs

Apparently the oral medication paralyses the mite that causes scabies. I didn't know you could get a pill for it, it used to be that you used a topical lotion (my gran got them in a nursing home and then my mum got them, this was many years ago). Glad you got rid, it is an awful thing and very contagious.

Have you tried anthisan cream from chemist? Red dots an be a sign of Scarlett fever with

throat infection - calamine lotion is helpful with bites, and cools down the itch. Medicated honey

wound gel can stop bacterial infection and aid healing - Antibiotic creams might help.

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to

No, that's a good point though, have used steroid cream because I have it in the house.

It isn't the kind of rash you'd get w scarlet fever (and I'm otherwise well). It is literally a single red dot like a pinhead (scattered around my body) which sometimes itches like the devil.

The ones on my trunk are old now and have stopped itching, though I had a new one on my wrist that was itching last night. It is not 'spreading' in the way a rash might start w one dot then become a solid red area, it is one dot at a time, like mosquito bites but tiny. It is most peculiar.

If I was home I'd assume my dogs had picked up fleas (though after three years I know they've had the odd flea but I've never been bitten).

PS bog myrtle soap and nettle stops itching from bites and stings Myrtles Midge Lather

handmade in Scotland and has antimicrobial properties and anti wrinle aging properties - very good Isle of Seil Argyll PA 34 4RD WWW.midgefactory.co.uk

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to

What a brilliant-sounding product! I would buy it for the name alone. :-)

goodo!

Niklew profile image
Niklew

I have just had the same thing and put it down to heat rash- used some anti histamines which helped

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