[CURIOUS08]

Hi... Question about skin. I have had a patch test done for some allergic reactions on my skin since I have itchy skin. When I take a Zyrtec, the itchiness goes away so my doctor says it is allergy related and I should see an allergist which I have not yet. Anyhow, I started to itch my upper thigh. When I itched there, there were little dots that started to bleed. Like only one or two dots bled. It has been there for a couple of days now. It is still itchy at times and now feels a tad thick in that area. Any idea what it could be? I'm not out in the sun.. I do have dry skin... nothing seems to irritate it (ie: lotions and stuff)... it's just itchy... a patch.

[smoothy]

I recommend seeing an allergist... as your Dr. did.. they will run a battery of tests and find what you are allergic to.. it might be one thing.. it might be many. But the advantage of knowing what... is that you can avoid many of them... or at least know which ones you can't are at fault.

Allergies can begin without warning... and sometimes they will go away as well. Not all are with you for life.

[CURIOUS08]

I know I should see an allergist... problem is that right now I have no health insurance since I was laid off from work and my cobra expired... :( So, I'm looking to see if anyone has any kind of experience with this kind of thing :)

[smoothy]

Short of taking over the counter allergy medicine... there really isn't much you can do.

Until you get a new job and regain coverage... you aren't going to be able to find out what to avoid.

One thing to consider... what have you changed recently? Like have you started using a different brand of laundry detergent? That can sometimes cause sudden skin irritations.. or started eating something you haven't generally ate before? SOmetimes its as easy as looking at what you have done differently to help identify an allergan.

[CURIOUS08]

It might be some time before I go into another job lol.. Funny enough, I am in medical school but for radiology so nothing skin related unfortunately lol... I tend to use a variety of detergent. I never stick to one brand. However, contact allergies like that were detected from the patch test my Dr. already did.. If it doesn't go away, I guess I will have to go and get it checked. I have never had ecema (sp) or psoriasis so I wouldn't even know what that looks like...

[smoothy]

Have you tried making inquireis at your Medical school? If its big enough they have other speicalties or work with a teaching hospital they might have free or steeply discounted services available? I know several that come to mind where I grew up have and do that...