Hello everyone. I hope you are all doing well as I feel your pain and understand how debilitating it can be. This is my first post, I have been reading the forums for a few months now, and decided it couldn't hurt to post my story.

I have suffered from what I believe is sensory neuropathy for the last three years and am looking for some answers. Here is my story.

I am a 23 year old male who graduated from college a little less than 2 years ago and developed my condition (I think) while attending the afore-mentioned college.

I was 20 years old at the time and living with a bunch of college friends when I suddenly broke out with a full body rash. Thinking nothing of it (because I have had some weird rashes in the past) I went to my school's doctor (oh no, a school doctor!) and she diagnosed me with pityriasis rosea, however, she wasn't entirely sure because she couldn't find the 'herald patch.' She basically said there wasn't much I could do and it would go away on its own. I think this rash may have developed from some type of parasite I was exposed to after sleeping on a mattress that had been sitting in our basement for a while.

So after about three months of excruciating pain (I mean worst pain I have ever experienced) the rash finally went away. I thought, cool, it's gone, I'm finally rid of this thing. So I went about my life as usual.

Turns out, I continued experiencing the symptoms I had when I had the rash, however to a lesser extent (but not so much of a lesser extent that I could just forget about them). The symptoms include creepy crawlies, really sharp stings, general skin irritation and the like. I'm like, man, I can not continue living like this, because it was really driving me crazy. This went on for about a year before I said, ok, enough is enough, I really need to do something about this.

So I went to my doctor at the time and he basically told me to use Eucerin cream and use bar soap instead of body wash. Simple enough, I thought. So I did as instructed and found it didn't help in the least.

So I went back to him and he told me the symptoms were in my head and there wasn't anything he could do about it. Great, I thought, this guy thinks I'm nuts, just what I need to hear. So I tried living life like normal again but I could not ignore what I was feeling.

About another year or so later I went to an allergist to see if I was having an allergic reaction to something. Turns out, the only allergy I suffered from was that of dust mites, a very common allergy, so I was told. He tried a few different drugs on me: hydroxyzine, claritin, and gabapentin. The gabapentin seemed to quell the symptoms to some extent so I decided to stay on that.

Fast forward a few months and I'm still suffering these same symptoms only slightly diminished. This wasn't good enough for me so I decided to see a dermatologist. She prescribed some anti-histamines and some topical solutions (tea tree oil and pramoxine) which had little to no effect.

Great, this is getting harder to deal with by the minute and no one seems to have answers. So I decided to try a different doctor. We came to the conclusion that it might be a form of sensory neuropathy. I had my blood tested and everything came back normal. My vitamin D was a little low but not out of normal range. So he put me on Lyrica to see if it had any effect. I was only on it for about two weeks but the positives didn't seem to be outweighing the negatives (I was really tired all the time) so I went back to the Gabapentin.

Meanwhile, about 6 months ago I developed a couple 'trigger points' in my body. One between my left shoulder blade and spine and one right in the middle of my right hamstring. I am not sure if this is related to my skin irritation or not. The pain I am experiencing from these points is different from the constant skin irritation. It feels more like a ball of nerves is wound up and radiating like a deep muscle pain. The point in my back seemed to cause an increase in tingling/numbness in my arms, while the point in my leg seemed to radiate down my leg into my toes. I have been seeing a chiropractor and an acupuncturist for these spots, neither of which are really doing too much good. I am going to see a physical therapist in the next couple weeks to see if he can help.

So basically, right now I am dealing with these two 'trigger points,' but more importantly, this all-over skin irritation that is driving my absolutely crazy. I feel better when I am not wearing any clothes, as anything that touches it just sets it off. It feels the worst when the slightest thing, like a hair, brushes up against it. I can REALLY irritate my skin by lightly brushing my stubble on my face up against it.

I have recently noticed that smoking does quell the symptoms to some extent. I have never been a smoker and do not wish to start so I would like to find some better answers to this problem.

So my question to all of you is have any of you experienced anything like this? Where your skin became super irritable after a full body rash. It seems as if most of you started with tingling/numbness in the feet, which developed into additional symptoms, whereas my symptoms took a hold of my skin first.

I am typically the type of guy to grin and bear it, but this is honestly too much for me to handle. And, God willing I live a long life, I will not be able to take it for another 40 or 50 years; I don't even think I can take it another three years to be honest.

So if anyone has any sort of advice that could help, please do not hesitate to post it here. I am struggling badly with this and will do anything necessary to make these symptoms stop.

tl;dr I developed a full body rash three years ago which was diagnosed as pityriasis rosea. I believe this rash came about by sleeping on a mattress that had been in our basement for some time and perhaps had a parasite on it (bedbugs?). The rash cleared up but I was left with hyper-sensitive skin, creepy crawlies, sharp stings all over my body. Have tried various things to cure symptoms with no luck.

If anyone has any suggestions or answers I will be forever indebted to you!

Thank you for reading and God Bless.

--but this sounds suspicously like a bad attack of shingles followed by post-herpetic neuralgia . . .

Admittedly, most doctors don't look for this in young people--they associate with immune-compromised older adults--but anyone who has had chicken pox at some point in their lives can get it, as the herpes zoster (varicella) virus gets immortalized in the nerves, particularly the dorsal root ganglia, and can "reactivate" or break out under conditionos of stress or other infection:

http://neuromuscular.wustl.edu/nother/infect.htm#hz

You really need a much more thorough work-up and investigation with a doctor who's willing to dig a little deeper, and do much more testing.

I think maybe the original diagnosis may be wrong.

Bed bugs give big red welts... not a rash.

But scabies...now this can be contracted from an old (infected) mattress. The main lesions can be lost in a global body rash that is quite itchy and sometimes painful. (I have seen it in some patients who get it all over themselves).

There are viral exanthems that can cover the whole body in response to a viral illness. If you type "viral exanthem picture" into Google you can find these. My husband had one while he was in the army and came home with it, for a leave. However, he claimed that it did not hurt or itch.

I would make sure you are eating enough foods high in EFAs, like flax oil and salmon (omega-3s). These are the main oils that repair the skin. Also in males, it is common to be zinc deficient. If you do not eat seafood or much chicken or meats, you could be low in zinc. Skin issues often happen in zinc deficient patients. This can be tested for by a blood test called the zinc/copper ratio.
There are vitamins with mixtures of things to improve skin.
One is called ACES with zinc. (by Carlson). But these can only do so much if you do not provide the essential fats for them to work on.

I would question the first diagnosis. Also, if possible, get an ANA and ENA done. Autoimmune disease is not as prevalent in males, but it DOES happen. Also, other infectious disease should be ruled out.

Thank you guys so much for the quick responses. I will contact my doctor tomorrow with the information you have provided me to see if I can make any progress. I will keep you posted. Thanks again!

Ok, just got back from the doctors. He ruled out shingles because the rash covered my entire body and he said shingles only appears on one side of your body. He also ruled out any auto-immune diseases because I had blood work done about a month or so ago testing for all the basic stuff (thyroid, diabetes, white blood cell count, vitamin deficiencies, etc) and everything came back normal.

He was open to the idea of my rash being a viral exanthem. I just had blood work done testing my zinc/copper ratio. I will keep you guys posted on the results!

--shingles can only appear on one side of the body?

The rash does tend to follow the path of nerve dermatomes, as the virus takes up permanent resident in neural ganglia, but it can be in many gnaglia and be quite widespread.

On the other hand, one can do blood tests to see if such a herpes varicella infection has reactivated. If those are negative, shingles is unlikely.

Here are some pictures of when I had my rash. Like I said in my first post, I was diagnosed with pityriasis rosea but I think I may have been misdiagnosed. What do you guys think?

Attached Thumbnails

   

Also looks like tinea versicolor:

http://www.skinsight.com/adult/tineaVersicolor.htm

Click on the 4th picture (second picture down in the right vertical row... looks like yours.

While we cannot diagnose on the net, tinea versicolor does have tests for it.

It is pretty harmless. I had it on my forearms last year. It is fading finally after alot of treatment with an antifungal solution.

On very white skin it is pink and spotty like you have and if you get exposed to sunlight it will darken into tan patches. In darker skinned people, it turns the skin LIGHTER where infected.
It can occur in summer when you perspire more, etc.

I don't know why I had it on my forearms...but that's life!
It does not itch or burn. But I did get mine after a skin reaction from something in the water on vacation. I blistered for about a week, and when that healed, then I had the tinea. why.
The current theory which I called a professor at a university (thinking it was the zebra mussels spawning), and he said it was a photosensitive dermatitis from the algae bloom in the cold water. I only get my reaction during the last week of June and first week of July typically. Other times the water does not react on me. Just this once it turned into tinea versicolor!

If I were hot etc...it would get redder. Then when cool, you can barely see it.

Your rash does not look like scabies. Scabies reactions are much redder and itch so there are scratch marks left on the skin as well. Tinea Versicolor often comes in young people. Adolescents, and young adults. You can Google it to find other
pictures. The patches can be small or merge together ...sort of like a map.

This is just my opinion. The rest of your symptoms do not match to Tinea versicolor. There should not be pain, or any itching.

A viral exanthem is typically redder than your rash. But it does fade lighter and lighter eventually. Also the viral exanthem is not raised like yours is. Yours does resemble a contact dermatitis also. That will not show positive to the KOH test for tinea. People can react to soap residues in clothing (from improper rinsing) or from fabric softeners.
There could have been chemicals on the old mattress and who knows
"what else!"

I think i recognize your skin problem i have something comparable like this only when i have the flue or something
This rash disappears when i am recovering,i only have it on my torso and the upper part of my arms.I my case it stays as long as i am sick and that usally only 2 or 3 days.
I have never been to the doctor with this because,it could be a allergic reaction to something
But unlike you it does not make my skin irritate.