Have I got Pityriasis Rosea?!

Many thanks for your reply. I appreciate your advice but I have seen my GP twice - the last time on Thursday. I am guessing you are not in the UK? Our health care here is very different in that you would basically have to see your GP until they felt they had exhausted all diagnosis they could give and only then would you be referred to a dermatologist. I appreciate the mention of Lyme but i really don't think i have that. It was not a bite on my arm - it started as a tiny - what i thought was a fungal patch and then gradually grew out into a ring with the centre scaling slightly and healing. Then pretty much exactly two weeks later i started with this rash. However - on Thursday - the rash was at its tiny pimple stage and my GP said allergic reaction but now the pimples are more blotchy and are drying out and healing with new ones popping up elsewhere - a bit like chicken pox and the itching is driving me mad. Yesterday i went to the pharmacist and had a consultation and they didn't think the ring and the rash/spots were connected whereas i think it's too much of a co-incidence. However - the pharmacist couldn't tell whether they were bites or blisters but i am now ruling out bites because since i have seen him - the spots are blistering slightly and drying out. That is actually why i came on here because i figured you guys would know more having had it yourselves and i would not dream of holding anyone to a diagnosis. I am afraid i don't really trust doctors because so many times in the past i have been misdiagnosed and always had to end up diagnosing myself. I appreciate what you say about ringworm as that was my first thought and even yesterday i was unsure. However, i am the member of a mother and baby forum and people are always asking for advice on health related matters and as soon as i posted up the pics several people were saying ringworm or PR and those that had PR had been misdiagnosed as having ringworm. In my case though, Canestan had no effect on the main ring and these spots are drying out and starting to fade on their own so i am now 99.9% certain PR is what i have.I can deal with anything as long as i know what it is!

Thanks for the in depth explanation. If the Canestan did not put a dent in it, then certainly not tinea. I just had a hard time putting together a dip in a bog- lots of bugs and crawlies with PR. You are correct, I am not in the UK.Can't a GP do a scrape biopsy? 

I was also misdiagnosed with ringworm, and treated for that for 6 months when what I had was PR. My PR lasted for over a year. Unusual, but there are a lot of things about PR that are unusual.

Hopefully, yours will leave sooner.

Hi - no thanks for replying. I didn't want you to think i was being ungrateful for or dismissing the advice. Not everyone researches their own skin condition or has heard about Lyme so everything you said could have been very relevant and now i think i have diagnosed it i guess i am - i can't stand the fact it might be something else! (I suffer with anxiety and HATE uncertainty!). I think the fall in the nature reserve has clouded the issue because i too thought - oh - ringworm even though i had been fully covered and my arm didn't get wet. No - it didn't budge with anti fungal so the doc said try hydrocortisone and at first i thought it was working because it took a lot of the redness out of it but the ring was still growing and then when i got the spots i thought - this MUST be connected but both my doctor and the pharmacist were like no - it's two separate conditions and the spots are allergy related. I went home panicking it was the new fish tank i had or i had suddenly become allergic to my dogs but then when the spots grew, got redder and then blistered and a few other people said pityriasis - i was pretty sure but just wanted to check out other sufferers symptoms.

That was rough being treated for 6 months for the wrong thing! I should think i could get a skin scrape if i got referred to a dermatologist but unless you break a bone or taken into hopsital with something acute the health care service is sooooooo slow in the UK. You literally have to keep showing up at the doctors office until they decide they can't treat you and only then do you get referred. One thing it does say is that usually you don't feel unwell. I definitely feel off colour - headache, sensitivity to light, not as much appetite, swollen glands last week - all things i had explained away but now makes sense. Bought some clinical strength head and shoulders today so will see how that goes. I have read of possible links to stress and herpes virus. I do have the cold sore virus and have been under mega stress for 3 years so need to find ways to relax more! Thanks again for the replies x