At the site of an old carpal tunnel repair, I developed what I thought was scar tissue. It started to itch extremely bad a few days ago. As I scratched it, hives started to appear and spread
around my forearm. Took a Benedryl and it ceased.
The next day the site again felt hard and started to itch, this session of scratching again produced localized hives and a hard hive on my forehead. Ive also started to experience cold clamy skin around the forearm ONLY when it itches.
I just came off a course of Bactrim for an anti-biotic resistant staph infection from a deep laceration (caught it at a hospital).
My former history includes Masters disease (once
called Lyme-like illness from Missouri) tick borne, contracted while doing cave research.
Q: could this be a residual effect of that spirocete infection (first contracted in 1994) or is this a whole different ball game?
Reason I suspected it was infectious, bactrerial or possibly parasitic was the immeadiate allergic reaction once I started scratching and the relief with the antihistamine tablets. The localized cold clamy skin, was alarming, but since it ONLY
appears WITH the itchy skin, Im assuming its related.
Any help would be appreciated. thanks so much
Bob
Comments
Good news and bad news: Bob,
Good news and bad news: Bob, I don't know what caused your itching and hives that were relieved by Benadryl (though it does sound like an allergic reaction - perhaps to an infection, perhaps to something else). Does sound like it's worth getting checked out in person.
I can tell you, though, that Master's disease is not known to cause any long-term problems or recurrence after treatment.
Master's disease, which has gone by several names since the 1980s, is now usually called STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness) - at least a little misleading since it also occurs in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.
It's been linked to bites from the Lone Star tick, which is a known host to a spirochete called Borrelia lonestari. We know these organisms are related to the spirochetes that cause Lyme disease, that they live in these ticks and also in the blood of the deer that they bite, but it's been difficult to prove that they get transmitted to humans - so far.
Which means there is no blood test for this disease - it's diagnosed by having the right symptoms after a bite from this type of tick. Which means we still have a lot to learn about the illness and how it behaves, but the cases we do know about are probably on the worse end of the actual spectrum.
Durring the periods between