I went to see my PCP two weeks ago for a rash on my neck. I called at the last minute on a Thursday and he was not available. Had to see a Nurse Practitioner at his office instead. No problem.
The rash was about 1” x 2” and had hard lumps about the size of a pea in it. Very itchy and felt like a bad sunburn. It is on the right side, a couple of inches from my larynx. So, the NP looks at it and says it cant be shingles (I thought it was) because there are no blisters and it is a little small. She says its contact dermatitis. She wrote me a prescription for some cream to put on it. She says if its not better in a week, call her.
The next Tuesday I saw my Neurology Oncologist. Showed it to him and he was a little more concerned about what he saw and made an appointment for me to to see the Oncology Dermatologist and my regular Oncologist. That appointment was this last Monday. Dermo Doc and a resident checked me out. Said it was not Shingles. But, since I am a high risk patient for other infections (I had a bone marrow transplant little over a year ago) they decided that It would be a good idea to do a biopsy on one of the lumps. No problem. Worst part was the lidocaine that they numbed me up with. I got one stitch.
The said they would call in a few days to a week whenever the result came in.
Now there are all kinds of possibilities as to what this area could be. Best case would be contact dermatitis. Worst case would be a relapse of my lymphoma.
Got a call a little while ago. Guess what? I have shingles and couldn't be happier. Doc said that they had never seen a case of shingles that presented itself like this. Just my luck. Got some antivirals to take for a week and then I have a checkup and get my stitch out.
In other news, Neurologist upped my nortriptyline to 100mg/day to see if I can better handle the neuropathy in my feet. It is going OK, I guess. Still get dizzy when I first stand up.
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Originally Posted by Gunfixr
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