Hello everyone,
I am a 20 year old female, and I am I college student. I'm 156 lbs, 5'2," and I am in good health. I work out every day, eat clean and healthy (example: in the morning, I eat toast with avocado, smoothie or sandwich for lunch, and chicken breast with brown rice and/or salad for dinner), and have had no complications at all until now.
I have had a severe rash starting since September 24th, 2014 until now, and it has been over 3 weeks now. I have seen 4 doctors, and nothing they have given me has helped.
I was sitting in my apartment and started itching at my knees, to which I tried to relieve with Hydrocortisone 1%, claritin, and Banophen (diphenhydramine), which didn't help at all.
I went home and initially, I went to an acupuncturist (because my family believes in alternative medicine), who gave me Chinese medicine and acupuncture, but of course, that did not help.
I then went to my doctor, who prescribed 10 mg Atarax and 2 days worth of prednisone (4 pills, 1 taken in the morning, and 1 taken at night). The prednisone did help, but I went back to school and the rash came back even worse.
After that, I went to the hospital because it had gotten so bad. The doctor had ruled out any possibilities of scabies, bed bugs, etc. and told me it wasn't an internal problem with my kidneys either, or else I would have shown other symptoms first. She told me to change my shampoo, bed sheets, soap, detergent, etc--to which I did, and that didn't help either. I had switched to non-fragrance, organic shampoo and soap (brand name Ology) from Pantene, washed my bed sheets, cleaned everything in my room, and nothing has helped at all. I was also prescribed Atarax (25 mg), Famotidine, and the Medrol dosepak (methylprednisolone), and that didn't work either.
I have also showered in cold water, used topical diphenhydramine and Fluocinonide. Nothing.
One week later (I had to go to school so it was difficult being at home), I went to see a dermatologist. The dermatologist had ruled that it was an allergic reaction due to something I had eaten and told me to exclude beef, chocolate, fried foods, soda, coffee, strawberries, papayas, persimmons, durians, mushrooms, spicy foods, and seafood from my diet, which was easy, since I didn't eat most of the things on that list anyways. I was given Topicort (Desoximetasone) in the form of the 5 mg cream and 25 mg spray. Nope. Nothing. That didn't work either. It got better, but then worsened after about 3 days.
Then, I went to see my doctor again, and he prescribed to me more 25 mg atarax and gave me a steroid shot (I'm not sure what it's called... it started with a D). I took a blood test, even though he told me I won't be able to find the allergen through that and I'm also doing a stool culture test for 3 days.
I have tried almost everything, and nothing has worked at all. I would definitely appreciate any suggestions on how to treat this or even any knowledge on WHAT I have, because I haven't been diagnosed with anything yet.
Thank you very much!