Rash on leg...

[fisherdvm]

All right. Laugh at me... Stinking dermatologist and physician, and can't diagnose his own rash!!

Heck, the only way we learn is from others, our patients, and our colleages...

Anyhow, went to cozumel in Jan. Wearing shorts, and just right under the shorts, about 3 inches above the knees, a curvilinear group of itchy red papules. Just like a row of mosquito bites.

My guess is it is either an insect bite I got on dryland (spider) or some aquatic insects.

Anyhow, I do not think it is sea lice, as the attack seems to be from one organism (bite, move, bite, move, bite, move), rather than a linear stinging colony (man of war).

Anyhow, it itched like mad the first 2 weeks and responded well to a strong topical steroid.

But it is 3 months later, and they are still there, although alot smaller.

My diagnosis is persistant insect bite reaction, likely to an arthropod (spider?). But willing to take input from anyone, physician or non-physicians. As a dermatologist, I definitely can tell you a biopsy will not help - it would just come back as suggestive of hypersensitivity or insect bite reaction.

 

[Spratman]

I had a similar rash/bites when I was in Cancun. We were diving at the cross on Machones Reef and I was taking some pictures. Decent current and surge that day and it banged me in to the cross. Immediately, I felt like someone stabbed me with a soldering iron. WOW!! That hurt!

Didn't think much about it, but the following day I was catching some rays by the pool reading, and I was laying face down. I suddenly noticed a sizeable pool of blood. I thought maybe my nose started bleeding. It turned out the blood was running out of those bites(?). I put some bacitracin on it, and a bandage and was good as new.

Those thing itched like crazy for two or three months. Looked like small pimples and they finally went away. I posted up here, when someone was talking about aquatic baddies that start growing inside your body.

I still don't know what it was, but I'll make sure I stay away from that cross next time...Hope maybe you can figure it out.

 

[fisherdvm]

These little red bumps itch, but I can ignore it. But when I scratch, they get supersized and itches more. It is almost like there is something living in there. Like parasites!

 

[TSandM]

Were you diving in the shorts? This sounds a lot like how people describe fire coral envenomation.

 

[Hillmorton Scubie]

We stayed Cozumel Palace in Dec 2006. I got the same little red things-literally hundreds of them. They weeped plasma when scratched. A lot of other people there had them too. They were tiny and not like a mosquito bite at all. My only clue is they were on my hands and legs below the knee. Not where my shortie wet suit covered.

 

[Spratman]

Fire coral was my guess as well. I do have some scarring from it, but man...did it burn! It certainly peaked my interest in delving more into marine creatures that may indeed be parasites or actual animals that grow beneath the skin....

Hillmorton, it's possible that it could have been sand fleas as well, since it was on exposed areas. I hear that down in Roatan, they are really bad.

 

[BKP]

Hotel bedbugs?

Fits the bite 'n move pattern... They're also very persistant irritations if you're sensitive to them as an allergen. The bites can also turn from an initial mosquito-type reaction, to smaller, tougher, postule-like presentation over time (and they do take a while to finally disappear).

Been there, done that... (and couldn't figure out the culprit until I caught one of the buggers in the act).

 

[Spratman]

buggers=bedbug?! Understandable, if the rooms are kept up to speed....I wouldn't have thought of that.

Also, it could have been jelly fish stingers (cnidoblasts). I had that happen to me swimming on the Jersey shore, particularly after a storm. It felt like a million needles all over my body. I'm not sure of a rational explaination for this though.

 

[fisherdvm]

Hotel bedbugs?

Fits the bite 'n move pattern... They're also very persistant irritations if you're sensitive to them as an allergen. The bites can also turn from an initial mosquito-type reaction, to smaller, tougher, postule-like presentation over time (and they do take a while to finally disappear).

Been there, done that... (and couldn't figure out the culprit until I caught one of the buggers in the act).

I diagnosed one case of bed bug. They are quite typical in the bright red painful bumps that follow the length of an extremity. This is not bed bug as it is localized in an area about 3 inches - and was a group of bumps about 1/3 inch apart. This was proven later by the owner of the apartment and the patient by finding their droppings.

I thought of sea lice, but I would expect it to be more widespread over area with tight fabric. It perhaps could have been only one sea louse polyp caught under my short? Coral sting certainly can be a possibility as we did a few swim through. It is easy to blame it on a land living creature like spider, but you guys are right, it certainly could've been aquatic.

 

[Spratman]

I used to think that diving in Mexico with a shorty or full suit was for wussies. (Except for cenotes and caves)

However, after that bout I decided I was diving a full suit to keep the baddies off of me, or me off of them...

Plus the water was 76 degrees the entire week and on the night dive, there was actually a thermalcline! The quarry I dive in up in PA was that warm when I left, but much colder below the thermalcline...