Don't let rashes fool you - TheBody.com's Bulletin Boards

Okay, so about a week ago I was curious about whether I could have been infected with HIV years ago and never knew it. My ultimate scare was a rash that appeared on my outer thigh. When I went to the doctor, he told me it looked like Shingles. He told me I may want to see a dermotologist. I was scared at that point, because I came home and Googled Shingles and it kept saying that the reason why a 24 year old male (like myself) would normally develop that is because of a surpressed immune system. Basically, being gay, I feared HIV. I said the hell with it, and went straight in to get tested. The rapid test came back negative. So, what was the rash? I was still curious, so I went in to see that dermotogolist this morning. She looked at it and said the same thing, that it looked just like Shingles but in one small patch, not a band like they normally form in. She did a skin biopsy, and after looking at it under a microscope, she could easily see the skin PENETRATION WOUNDS! The rash is Swimmer's Itch, caused by a parasite trying to dig into the skin after swimming in infested water. About two weeks ago, I went swimming in a lake, which was obviously the cause. I Googled Swimmer's Itch, and yep, there is my rash!!! Lol. The appearance looks a lot like Shingles though, so I wanted to share this. If anyone might experience just one small rash in a simple patch, it could be this rash caused by a rotten parasite. I have pictures of it too, so if anyone wants to see what it looked like you can send me a private message and I will send it to you in an email.

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