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Not convinced it's eczema

Skin Health | Last Active: May 28, 2023 | Replies (17)

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@gardeningjunkie

I've dealt with 3 types of eczema and as rashida mentioned it doesn't look like eczema to me. Also the fact that it isn't painful and doesn't itch, common symptoms of eczema makes me doubt the eczema diagnosis.
If you were told it was eczema, don't just settle for a doctor identifying it as eczema without a specific eczema diagnosis as there are a dozen eczema types and many are treated differently. If your doctor told you that it was cancer, wouldn't you ask for the type of cancer?
It looks nothing like any of my types: Grover's Disease or Perioral or even the Allergic Contact Dermatitis when they were active.
If your papules were clustered, itchy, painful and more rash like I would suggest the 5 Day Extended Patch Test to identify allergic contacts.
What you should do is keep searching, go to dermnetnz.org and look though their skin site at their collection of photos for each type of eczema and all other skin diseases. In fact, that is how I identified my Perioral Dermatitis which my doctors were treating incorrectly as Allergic Contact Dermatitis.

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Replies to "I've dealt with 3 types of eczema and as rashida mentioned it doesn't look like eczema..."

Thank you so much for the that website. I will definitely dig into that, especially knowing that helped you straighten things out.

Yes, eczema seemed to be the default diagnosis when the lab found nothing.

I had had a second derm appointment last fall, but cancelled due to this temporarily getting better. Once it flared substantially (and has shown no sign of letting up, though it may have leveled-off for the moment), I knew I needed to be more proactive. Fortunately, my PCP is very onboard with me making suggestions for possible causes.

I had contact dermatitis a lot growing up on the farm. Some of those things no longer bother me, some I've not intentionally tried to touch. And yes, this is nothing like that both in symptoms and in treatment.

I've wanted to get allergy tested, but they only seem to want to see me if I could go into anaphylactic shock. My PCP may be amenable to making a reference if progress can't be made in figuring out what this is.