Ever just ignore a rash and expect nature to take its course? I maybe shouldn’t have done that.
I’ve had this rash for 3 years. It started as nickel sized blotch of red discoloration on my skin and spread rather rapidly, filling a space about the size of a baseball in red rings, between a dime and a nickel’s sized in about a week, then it stopped. I got it looked at and treated it, but the rash never went away, but it did stop growing and the affected region darkened so I kinda forgot about it. Cut forward to this past summer when I just happened to look in the mirror and noticed the once base-ball sized area was now half my abdomen, spreading across my belly button and as far back as below my shoulder blade. Anyway, it still doesn’t itch, but it’s spreading quite a bit, now my entire abdomen, so I’m concerned. Is this CIU typical?
Posted Mar 22, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC
Have you found that the rash is concentrated in one area and has just gradually spread out over time? From my experience and personal research, CIU tends to flare up and calm back down again often in the space of a few hours and moves around your body e.g. I often get it on my legs, sometimes arms, on my abdomen and back etc. but it changes every day, sometimes multiple times a day. The severity changes randomly too. Is the rash raised (like bumps) and then flattens and the redness goes down? This is quite typical of urticaria and it tends to be very very itchy. From what I can tell, what you have sounds a bit different but it’s definitely worth going to a doctor/dermatologist and getting it checked out. Do you have any other symptoms?
It all seems to be stemming from one area, but it’s hard to tell because that area is all over my lower abdomen and slightly across my back, it has not spread below my waist, but now there’s another spot on my shoulder. I do not have any other symptoms.
Did they give you a diagnosis when you first had it checked out? It’s quite common for skin conditions to be misdiagnosed/mistaken for each other. In the early days of my CIU one doctor thought I had something called erythema multiforme which is quite similar to hives. If the rash looks like a bullseye, this can be a way that the hives present themselves. At least if it is urticaria, it’s not something that will seriously harm you, even though it can be a really frustrating condition. Best to get it looked at and get a second opinion.