The Mysterious Leg Rash … Persists

In my last post, I had a strong hypothesis that two persistent rashes on my right leg were some form of heat rash (aka milaria rubra) from neoprene knee sleeves that I was wearing 2-3x a week when weightlifting.

That post was exactly 2 weeks ago, I haven’t touched the neoprene since then, and the rash …. well, the rash is about the same if not a little worse.

It’s not as annoyingly itchy as it has been in the past, it’s not really weeping or oozing, both of which are good, but the part on my shin is persistently dry, red, and flaky.  It sometimes almost resembles a healing scar or a burn, but it never completely heals.

I’m starting to wonder if maybe it’s some kind of mild infection – especially since this has been lurking on my skin in some form since about October.  I am in a gym setting a lot with other sweaty bodies, and though I try to keep very clean, don’t sit around in my sweaty clothes, etc., I could see where it’s definitely possible that germs entered my system.  It also kind of resembles psoriasis with being scaly and flaky, and very clearly delineated.

The fact that removing the neoprene from my environment didn’t help now strongly makes me think it’s something else.  Because, with my CAPB allergy, once I removed that from my environment, I saw pretty rapid improvement and the skin around my eyes was back to normal in a few weeks.

I actually mentioned the leg rash as an aside at my allergist appointment a few months ago with the patch testing and CAPB allergy diagnosis, but I had leggings on at the time and couldn’t really pull them up to show him the extent of the rash.

So, I have a dermatologist appointment this Monday at an office nearby that is highly rated.  My first impression of them was good, as the person taking my info over the phone seemed to totally understand that a months-long rash that is not responding to steroid creams is indeed very perplexing!  We shall see what occurs!