Cellulitis AND/OR EN?

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Sometimes EN is mistakenly dx as cellulitis. It is possible to have

both--anything is possible. Both may be caused by strep infection. But

cellulitis is a skin infection and EN may be an internal infection

that shows up as red hot painful lumps and bumps usually on the shins

of both legs. So with EN, as far as I understand, there is no real

infection going on at the site of the lumps and pain. Do you see the

distinction I am trying to make?

The few people I know who had cellulitis required IV antibioptics in

the hospital to recover. From your description on your questionnaire,

it sounds like EN to me, unless you possibly also infected the area by

scratching or something like that. Just a guess on my part here. A

good dermy should know the difference between EN and cellulitis by

sight and of course if there was any question he'd do tests to confirm

and look for the underlying trigger in the case of EN. If you have a

non-bacterial trigger going on, taking antibiotics won't help EN.

I understand your frustration of needing to go back to work. I was in

your situation when I had my first EN outbreak at age 21. It took me 5

yrs, to finally find out that I had EN and not the bug bites and

phlibitis I was originally dx with.

Shins up!

Love,

idio. EN '68