<human>: My husband has tiny, itchy, red dots that crop up about the same time every year. The first time it came (August 2009), he had a terrible sinus infection blew out a giant blob of reddish material - after that, he got better quickly but the tiny red dots appeared shortly after. It lasted about three weeks then went away. Since then, it appears every beginning of February, last year it last about a week, the year before two weeks. As you can imagine, he has an outbreak now that is going on about four days. To understand what they are - they are not spots, splotches, etc. like I ve been reading about. They look like the pores have turned red, that s how small they are (like someone poked him with a red pen point a bunch of times), and they start in his midsection area randomly and spread to arms, neck, chest, armpits (but not where the main sweat area is oddly, maybe something to do with sweating or deodorant?), and generally NOT below his lower back/ upper buttocks . He itches like crazy. It s not folliculitis , it does not have consistent symptoms with that. There is no raised bump, no crusting, no pus, no indentation, no pustules, no blood, no oozing fluid - they simply look like red sweat pores. Other things suggested that he simply does not have the symptoms of: Scabies , Morgellons , Psoariasis, Grover s Disease, Eczema . Bed bugs and fleas also seem suggested, but we live in a rural mountain region, don t travel often, we have wood floors (no carpet), and absolutely no signs of bed bugs or fleas. Our animals have never had them, and I FrontLine them for ticks. It s too cold right now anyway. Another reason to rule out bug bites is I don t have the spots or itching and these do not look like bites at all. We live rural, we know bites and plants. No one else in our family (four of us) is affected. None of his family has ever had this. We don t have poison ivy (as suggested) in our region, and when he does get poison oak it is very different from this. We have not changed our soap or laundry detergent - his skin is sensitive usually anyway so we keep it always the same. We have not purchased new clothes recently, and he wears cotton, not polyester (another problem suggested). We think it might have something to do with an allergy to the plants waking up, seeing as they generally start that in Feb. here. Regular Benedryl helped slightly, Benedryl Sinus Headache and Allergy did nothing, and what has helped the most is the Benedryl topical gel after he takes a shower. He said it makes the itching turn to a burning, tingly sensation that s better than the itching, and then he has relief for a little while. The gel doesn t make the spots go away though. He does have minor seasonal allergies through spring where he gets typical runny nose/sneezing symptoms. He does have hypertension, but it s controlled with a low dose of Lisinopril and his blood pressure has been normal for a long time now. We eat healthy, lots of fruits and veggies, cook our meals, the last time we had fast food was...four month ago I think? Soda is only a treat once in awhile and it s generally Ginger Ale or Sierra Mist. We are rarely sick, we take our vitamins, we exercise. The point of all of that is that we are healthy. One thing I should mention is right around the first time this popped up (2009), he also got a rash right above his well, butt-crack, and also on his shins (like I said, sensitive skin). This is what you would think a normal rash would be...it s pink/red, irritated, hurts, causes the skin to feel thicker and sort of crack/crust, can also crack and bleed. The doctor prescribed basically the over the counter stuff that you would use for athletes foot, and we ve used antibacterial, antifungal, cortizone, he took antibiotics, etc. It helped at first, but it has never fully gone away and its worse again. He applies the cream after his showers twice a day but it s not helping and we are looking into natural stuff like Cedarwood and Deem oil. It s kind of desperate now. The doctors aren t sure what it is now because nothing has worked like it should have. The butt one is still there, the shin ones cleared up for the most part but on hot days when he sweats a lot pink spots appear but don t bother him or turn into anything worse. The butt one is worse during hot weather, but it s pretty much the same all year. So we don t know if those are related, but we haven t found answers for either. Any ideas on A. the red mystery spots and B. the butt rash and how to help him out with both problems and possible future prevention? We don t have health insurance, so each doctor visit is expensive to be told they are stumped and to be told to do things that we ve already done. It s been more effective to research it on our own online. I thank you in advance for your advice and expertise.
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