I have painful red bumps, about one half inch in diameter, under the skin, just above my ankles, on the back of one leg and on the inside of the other leg. The doctors have said there is no problem with the veins, good circulation. At times edema is present in one ankle and foot. Anti-inflammatories takes away the swelling, but not the bumps. The condition has been present for over a year, sometimes the symptoms worsen. Can anyone tell me what this is and what might help?

rudy55, we can't diagnose and quite frankly it sounds like you have underlying medical conditions and you don't tell us your age. If you have a doctor and you have seen him, I don't know why you are asking us to diagnose when we can't see you, or your condition. The edema would be worrying me. Edema is present in the legs on an ongoing basis when a person has diabetes and kidney complications.

Tick

It sounds very hard to diagnose over the internet. Your may need to consider going to a dermatologist for a biopsy. There are a number of things this could be such as: erythema nodosum, atypical mycobacterial infection, rheumatoid nodules... and others. The problem is that the treatment can be very different and the wrong treatment may actually make things worse. I hope you have insurance. What you describe is likely not very serious, but may take a couple of doctor visits and a biopsy to figure out.Those can really add up for the uninsured.

Dear Rudy55 ~ You may have what I have. I've seen many doctors and specialists and no one has an answer. I've found that following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is the only thing that helps. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet can be found by typing the name into Google or any other search engine on the internet. It was designed to help people with serious digestive problems, which my brother had. I tried it for my legs and it worked. The bumps, swelling, and pain went away. When I went off the diet they came back. There's a book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, that explains how and why this works, and you can get that through the internet, a bookstore or library. I hope this helps. Abbie