Driving me mad.

[Workingman]

None M. Appetite is fine, no pain, no sickness or diarrhoea, just the damned itch. There is no rash or discolouring of my skin, except when I scratch.

It is mainly on my scalp, under my chin, then armpits and across my chest, either side of my stomach and down in my groin area, my calves and my forearms and hands. It is not in all the places at once, thankfully, but moves about.

[TheOstrich]

Have you any other symptoms WM ?

Judging by the thread title - irritability!

I do hope you get some relief soon, WM ....

[Diflower]

Oooh horrible Wm, you poor thing
Apart from previous suggestions, can only think of any meds you're on, dig out the info leaflets - or look up online, which can be easier.
I appreciate you may not have had side effects before, but all I can think of

I've just had it myself, had my first mozzie bite of the year and caught it with the hydrocortisone cream, but it was on the 'wrong' arm. By last night, although the bite looked fine the rest of the arm was going red, and with that awful under-the-skin itch.
I took one of the super-strength anti-allergy capsules from the Portuguese pharmacy and it was gone by morning thank goodness.
Really hope you a) get relief from it and b) work out what it is (((xx)))

[meriad]

How are you doing today Frank?

[Workingman]

I didn't have the best night's sleep and have only been up about half-an-hour.

The itching hasn't gone but it is noticeably reduced. I will be off for another lukewarm shower once breakfast has settled, they do work for a while.

[Weka]

If you "write" on your skin with your fingernail, does it come up red in that spot only and stay red for awhile

[Suff]

Just looking at what Weka said reminds me of something I picked up when I joined the Army. The RAF doctor told me that in the latter stages you could actually write on the persons skin by scratching it and it would come up in white blotches which would, eventually, settle down. But the itching would never go away.

I had to have antibiotics for it, antihistamine would not have worked. It sounds just exactly like what you are saying and in pretty much the same places.

[Weka]

My bil has that, dermographic I think is what it's called. He's been itching for years, came on after he got over shingles. Suff, can you remember any more details? I'm sure he would be pleased to hear any.

[Workingman]

Weka, if I draw a line on my skin it turns red and welts come up. At other times it starts as a burning itch in one spot and that grows bigger with purpleish red lumps.

I went back on Thursday and was given extra strong antihistamines and a different lotion. I also has bloods taken.

Yesterday I had my flu jabs and the blood results were back - all normal, but the doc wanted to see me.

I am just back from the surgery. My liver and kidney functions are fine. All the other tests they do as part of the tests - cholesterol, iron, diabetes and so on - are fine.

I have to give a urine sample and more blood so that they can check out blood proteins, and I have an emergency appointment for dermatology.

Everything is pointing to an allergic reaction, but the standard treatments are not working.

Suff, I mentioned ABs but doc said the dermatology people were the ones to see first.

[Suff]

WM, ask the doc to send the blood to microbiology.

Could it hurt?

In my case the doctor had me take my shirt off, scratched my back with one of those wooden pallets, waited a few seconds then told me what it was and prescribed antibiotics. The itching feeling was gone in a day and it took about a week for the full course to do the work.

If it is bacterial, then it has now gone so far that you're probably going to need more than the 7 days of AB's that the doctor will prescribe. I had that when I ignored a urine infection I had for a month and was passing blood for the last 2 weeks of it. I had a good reason which was that I was going to Argentina to see my newly born GrandDaughter and if I had gone to the doctor it would have invalidated my medical insurance.

When I got back they did the samples, gave me 7 days of antibiotics, which worked like a charm, until the seven days ran out and the infection started to come back. Then they put me on 6 weeks of a particularly horrible antibiotic which took far longer to get rid of the infection and had fairly unpleasant side effects for me.

Just some thoughts.