...and Dentist90? SmileWavy
I know I'm not a real doctor, but if I saw this on her lip or gums it would be pathognomic for herpes.

The thing is, we are coming up with a differential diagnosis. As the lesion/symptoms progress we can begin to rule things out. I hope for her sake that this remains isolated and resolves without complication. We'll have a better idea in a day or two no doubt.

And to widebody: I'm not a real doctor, but my advice is to hold her close and caress her affectionately. Doctor's orders!

edit: but don't touch the blisters if you haven't been exposed to chicken pox.

Yes, of course. Sorry! :)

Actually, I was about to post: I AM a doctor and I have no friggin idea.

Hey Markus!
I'm about to sign off for the night. I was actually relieved that one of you MDs agreed with my suspicion. I see a lot of Herpes Simplex, but not much Shingles. Like I said, If it's contact dermatitis (poison oak) it will get better. If it's Herpes Zoster, it will get worse. Gotta be receptive to the progression of the disease to come up with the diagnosis.

I thank the OP for posting pics of his wifes' (fine) skin! Hubba-Hubba! :D


Best wishes to y'all. I'll be waiting to see how this resolves.




Nice job on the Who's Who thread, BTW.

Good job on the diagnose!

Thanks, yes the Who´s who was rather funny.

Shingles does a lot more than itch... personal experience.

When I had shingles the doctor prescribe some medicine that when I went to pay for it the cashier said that will be $42. I said no I want to put that on my insurance. She said that is what your insurance covers, without it it would be 300 something. I think it was Valtrex.

Has it erupted into small whitish pustules yet?

Fire ant stings. Classic semi-circle pattern.




Or lupus. Whatever it takes.

Here's what it looks like tonight

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1314412360.jpg

If it were shingles wouldn't there be more spots along the nerve on one side of the body?

Typically, but not always. This will dry up and start to scab over in a few days. The itching will stop in a few days. Complete resolution in two weeks.

Yea, the coalesence of those vesicles is sure following the progression of a herpes lesion. If it's still solitary that's great. I'm not well versed on herpes simplex of the skin, but I see these regularly on the lips, gums and palate.
And yes, shingles typically follows the dermatome distribution of the nerve affected (infected). The virus lays dormant in the nerve ganglia until the opportunity arises to break out again, often when one is ill or run down. I'm not sure what this means for the possiblity of future recurrences.

How would one get a primary infection on the back anyway, assuming this is herpes?

Pretty easy. And common. Like herpetic whitlow.

Post mortem studies of nerve ganglia estimate the HSV infection rate at nearly 85% of the population. Most are asymptomatic all their lives due to an effective immune response.

try a belt sander

Woke up one morning, started to scratch an itch on my lower rib cage. Hurt like hell, looked down and saw a little patch of that, half the dia. of a dime.

Freaked out, rushed to Kaiser, saw an older doctor (learned later that he was allegedly homeopathic), told me, You have Herpes.

Freaked out, Where'd I get Herpes?! Relax, you've always had it. It's not Herpes Simplex. I said, I thought that's a derailleur? No, and you didn't get it off of a bicycle seat.

Doctor asks, Are you under any kind of stress? Well, I'm in the middle of a divorce. Doctor says, That's probably what brought it on.

Freaked out, said, The divorce is permanent! Is this?! Doctor laughs, says no. Well what's the cure. There isn't one, he says. Relax, don't worry about it and it'll go away.

So I did and it was gone in less than a week as I recall.

Well that leads me to ask a simple, yet potentially embarrassing, question of Mr Widebody:

did you bite your wife's back while you had a cold sore? :D

(No need to answer this, really. I'm just a pervert at heart.)

^ lol...lol

Here's what it looks like this morning.

She had hot yoga and ballet scheduled for today, but she's thinking she should take a break.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1314454866.jpg

Looks like it is healing