Anyone recognise this rash/welts around navel?

[Skippa]

I've got 3 or 4 red welts or blotches in a cluster about an inch away from my navel.

It's as if a biting bug lives in my belly button, and creeps out at night to munch 3 or 4 times and then goes back into hiding. (No, I don't actually believe there's a biting bug in my belly button).

I can't see any entry/exit or puncture wounds. They are blotches that are almost circular but not quite, they are not at present uncomfortable. They look like a larger red blotch in the mirror.

I used to get these when I attempted to start running (a couple of months' endeavour that ended in a huge crash). I thought it was some kind of exercise intolerance 'cos I would get a burning throat too. These ones would hurt in a painful pain/itchy mix.

The doctor said it was friction burns and to add vaseline or something or wear looser clothing. So, to test this I did my next run in the nude (don't worry, I stayed indoors!). Still got the rashes. They take 3 - 5 days to subside.

Don't know what's caused them this time, although I have been gardening and may have overdone it without realising (been using opiates to mask the PEM).

Also. I have a painful similar welt on the tip of my left thumb. Not sure if it's related, but it's like a bite or area of inflammation underneath the skin at the tip of the thumb.

Any thoughts?

 

[roller]

metronidazole perhaps

 

[taniaaust1]

hard to comment with no picture. Heat rash?? seeing you say it happens after exercise, I used to get blotches with heat rash. Or maybe it could be a mast cell reaction thing as those too can be triggered by exercise

 

[Deltrus]

I used to get a heat rash in that spot and my upper chest.

 

[waiting]

I would wonder if it could be shingles, except I think it would be painful if it was. Might consider trying some B1 & see if it decreases.

 

[parabola]

Do you wear jeans with a metal button, back of which may be causing an allergic reaction? Any pics?

 

[roller]

instead of the vaseline, you could try permethrine (topical)
its otc in most countries, i think.
just to see, if the rash disappears.

 

[geraldt52]

I would immediately suspect a drug or supplement.

I've had some of the most bizarre skin reactions over the years that I would eventually trace to either a drug or supplement. The oddest thing is how they appear in just a certain area. I developed a problem with Bactrim, after more than a year of taking it repeatedly, and the rash was exclusively on my stomach under my rib cage, on just one side. I must have had the exact rash a dozen times before I made the connection

I'd stop everything you're taking for a few days, then restart one by one.

 

[TigerLilea]

It does sound like it could be a heat rash. They affect everyone differently.

 

[Skippa]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll look into heat rashes, and go over what I've been taking.

 

[Skippa]

Eek the "boil" on my thumb tip has developed a white head (like a regular boil I guess) and is slightly tender and still painful.

The only thing is, I can't see any puncture wound and there are no hair follicles on thumb tips?

 

[Paralee]

@Skippa, I had a red rash around my naval about three years ago. I looked it up (something else was a problem, too, but can't remember what off hand), and it said if red rash and (whatever it was) see a doctor YESTERDAY! That was a shocker, I went through some of my med records and an image report said something about a hernia in that area. So guess what else I had to get an op for. Don't know if this could help, but had to tell you. Good luck.

 

[Skippa]

@Skippa, I had a red rash around my naval about three years ago. I looked it up (something else was a problem, too, but can't remember what off hand), and it said if red rash and (whatever it was) see a doctor YESTERDAY! That was a shocker, I went through some of my med records and an image report said something about a hernia in that area. So guess what else I had to get an op for. Don't know if this could help, but had to tell you. Good luck.

Ah thanks that's v interesting, I have got some prostate trouble at the moment, but I just put that down to opiate use... Hmmm

 

[Skippa]

Eek it has spread to my legs and arms.

All individual clusters of blotches.

Some of them look like mini bullseye rashes (pale in the middle, red around the outside, but no hard edge. None bigger than a golf ball.

How do I upload pics from ipad please?

Doc says they are probably insect bites, but I'm sure I haven't been bitten, and some are in areas I don't reckon bugs have been...

Doesn't look like allergy rashes on google, doesn't look like phase 1 lyme, doesn't look like heat rash.

And they don't itch or hurt.

 

[Skippa]

Found on google:

Leg looks a bit like that, but with no "pimple" in the centre.

Or a less angry version of this:

But with no scabs in the centre.

All apart from the original stomach one, which is similar but has no central pale area.

 

[Valentijn]

Don't know what's caused them this time, although I have been gardening and may have overdone it without realising (been using opiates to mask the PEM).

Contact dermatitis is possible too. I'm usually not allergic to strawberries, but at random times I'll get a rash from being in contact with their leaves in the garden. Other times, no rash

Doesn't look like allergy rashes on google, doesn't look like phase 1 lyme, doesn't look like heat rash.

Allergy rashes can vary quite a lot, I think. An allergy (or other immune reaction to something touched or consumed) does seem likely.

 

[Paralee]

Strange the way they're shaped and a "whatever" in the middle.

Was there a "square" bug running around there somewhere? Unusual, I've never seen patterns like that before, but Valentijn is most probably right. I'm going to hit the search for a square (rectangle) rash.

How big are they, @Skippa ? Never mind, I missed the golf ball part of your post.

 

[Skippa]

Help still got the rash.

Finally figured out how to upload on ipad.

Got some fresh ones too, on my elbow a double bullseye rash, I can't find the photo, I have here uploaded one from 2 weeks ago on leg that is still there.

They keep appearing to fade, but then get bigger!

 

[Skippa]

Here is my inner elbow yesterday:

 

[Skippa]

They are bigger than golf balls now, more like large fried eggs.

Dafuq is wrong with me?