Pityriasis Rosea

A Latin name meaning essentially, a rash. I have it. Lucky me. It's not life threatening and apparently is only a big problem if you're pregnant. Not likely to have that problem. It showed up about 3 weeks ago about the same time I realized the draggy feeling and painful/slightly scratchy throat I'd had for at least 3 days was probably some kind of cold or virus. Then one morning I woke up to some irregular red spots on my stomach. They seemed to coincided with locations I had removed ticks from earlier this summer. I thought it was kind of odd but didn't think much about it, they weren't the circular rigs associated with Lyme disease.

As I had already scheduled a doctor's appointment with my physician's assistant 10 days later I just ignored them as they didn't really itch. Two days before my appointment however, Hal noticed small bumps all over my back and more little ones had sprouted all over my stomach and seemed to be spreading onto my arms and legs. So though I was still not that concerned I got my appointment moved up to that same day. As soon as my PA saw it she laughed and told me exactly what it was. She apologized for laughing but apparently she was slightly giddy at being able to see such a nice textbook case.

Not a thing I can do about it. If it itches I can apply creams, calamine lotion, take an allergy pill, etc. Supposedly it goes away in 6-8 weeks. I don't know if that is from the onset or after the spots stop appearing. I don't know if they have stopped spreading. I took a couple photos four days apart earlier this week and they seemed to be about the same but I swear there were more yesterday. I guess I'll have to take another photo for comparison. But here's one of the taken on the 25th, just a closeup of a few along my right side. enjoy.