u/RambleOnRoads

I woke up like this on Monday morning. I initially thought that it was bed bugs - for context, I'm a truck driver, I'd recently had a trainee staying in my truck with me who mentioned bedbugs, so that's immediately where my mind went.

An urgent care doctor initially said "yup, it's an infestation of bed bugs", but also gave me permethrin cream just in case it was mites. I saw my regular doctor today and he said it's not likely bedbugs and thinks it's either contact dermatitis or scabies - he said scabies because the rash is partially on my waist line. But I don't have it between my fingers/toes or my chest/back. It's mostly my elbows/forearms and front/back of thighs. It started on my elbows and then spread from there.

Plus, there's no like "point" if that makes sense. Like, there's no pussy/crusty/blistery center, they're mostly very hive-like. And it itches, but not really bad enough to make me scratch.

I treated everything as if it is bedbugs, cleared my truck out and sent it to be treated. Took all my bedding and clothing from truck and home and thoroughly washed everything in high heat. Have sprayed everything with Crossfire and dusted Semexa along the baseboards of my house. Plus have pest control scheduled to do an inspection/treatment at my home.

I slept well last night. No itching. Woke up with no new/spreading rash, so I think it may have just been the environment in my truck. I change my sheets/pillowcases pretty regularly, but my thick comforter i use was definitely overdue for a wash - all of this leads me to think it's just contact dermatitis.

I'm just worried if it's scabies because apparently the treatment is Permethrin cream, and I looked it up and it's fatally toxic for cats to even be around it - I've got two Maine Coon cats and am not willing to risk poisoning them by using that cream while at home, but also can't afford to rent a hotel room until this goes away.

Any insight would help. I'm so freaking stressed out over this that I'm pretty sure it's making the hives worse.

This started a few days ago. Though, last week I had a few spots that I thought were maybe mosquitoe bites. But I woke up 3 days ago with these red "bites" all over my arms - mostly outside of elbows/back of forearms and things. It's steadily gotten worse/expanded. Each morning I wake up with more "bites" and the ones from the previous day have gotten bigger/darker. I also was having weird hives for a bit that were in long squiggly lines, but I think that was just from itching, they flattened and went away within an hour or so.

I'm a truck driver. I recently had a trainee in my truck and am concerned that they brought unwanted guests in the form of bed bugs. I went to urgent care to rule out measels, scabies, etc. The doctor said it looks like an infestation from bed bugs. But, I'm away from my truck, have investigated my house thoroughly (and have pest control coming to treat it regardless, just in case) and while I'm not waking up even itchier each day, I feel like the spots are continuing to spread - i drew a border around some spots just to confirm, but that was only today.

I'm concerned this may be an autoimmune thing, I'm a 44yr old woman currently in perimenopause and also on a ketogenic diet - though, everything I'm seeing shows that "keto rash" occurs on the chest/back, not the limbs, and (so far 🤞) has not spread much past my shoulders and only a bit onto my hips/waist.

I'm just looking for confirmation because I'd hate to go through the headache of treating for bedbugs in my home and truck (though that's happening regardless!) Only to continue to have issues because that's not what's really at the bottom of this. Thanks!

It's not all that fancy, but if anyone is curious, this is how I meal prep - one day a week I cook a very large, easily freezable, meal (or two) and then i split it up into individual serving sizes using sandwich bags. Doing it this way means I can flatten them to stack them in the freezer, and saves space in my truck (which has very limited fridge/freezer space), and they thaw quick and easy.

I often write the name/date of the food in each bag so I remember what it is and how long ago I made it. Then, each week, I just grab a few different kinds of meals before heading out - this keeps me from being forced to eat the same thing all week long, which makes it less likely that I'll get bored and opt for unhealthy options at the truck stop.

*these are all keto friendly chicken meal preps; there's a southwest chicken, Asian chicken stir-fry, and broccoli spinach chicken Alfredo. I'm having to start my stash all over again because I got lazy and wasn't meal prepping for quite awhile. But hopefully next weekend I'll cook up something different to prep, that way I'll have lots of variety.