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Thanks for the info - adding it to my file. I did think it could’ve been a fungus way back when it started, many months ago, because it first broke out as a rash on the knuckles of both hands - not long after I had scraped out pumpkins for pie, custards and as fall flower vases.

They were little sugar pumpkins and my hands would scrape across the other side as I used the scraper on the nearside, because it was “close quarters.”

It took about a month for the rash to show up (it started right before Christmas, I think, because I couldn’t cook my holiday meal or treats). I researched online and found that it had been a bad year for pumpkins, fungus-wise, so I started there.

I tried some things from the drug store (I no longer have any money, insurance, car, or my doctor anymore, so couldn’t do much) but nothing “cured” it. Mostly the itching was beyond tolerable. I did what I could to stop that and finally did - but the little spots never did go completely away.

Opinions ranged from thinking it was shingles to scabies (I pretty much think it was mites of some type, which got into my system through the many small scrapes in my skin from the pumpkin stuff - and the 30-day “incubation” cycle matches that).

Then, the least little thing would set it off again and each time was worse, over the past 10 months. Sometimes it goes completely away for 6 weeks or more, then recurs. Each time, the blisters break out in new places where they didn’t before, but just a tiny space different. (There are 1000s of them.)

As it progressed, it eventually started affecting the webs between my fingers, which is indicative of itch mites. Then, they got on the sides of some fingers, which rubbed against each other just in everyday life.

At one point, a blister broke out on the underside of one finger, just a space apart from one of the finger-side blisters, and continued to be irritated because of touching everything. The others were on the top of the hand and not subject to repeated touching.

That one got infected without my even realizing it until it was kind of too late. I mean, I wash my hands constantly, anyway (not OCD-like, tho - but it’s starting to seem like it!) because of how and where I’m having to live now as a poor person. But, because my hands hurt, I was tending to favor them and not wash the rashy part as often, because it hurt.

When I discovered the infection, I got serious about combatting it and stopped it from spreading, but now have a very badly damaged stretch of tissue on the finger (my right-click finger of my mouse hand!) that hasn’t healed.

Then I got a new breakout about 3 weeks ago and it has been hell ever since then. It’s all infected (or looks like it, anyway - the weeping is still clear, tho, not cloudy or yellow) and I think it must be staph or MRSA. So, that’s what I’m treating it as now, as far as I can. I’ve developed a bad reaction to Neosporin (even the new cream I got yesterday, not just the ointment) - and I’ve never used it much or had many antibiotics in my life - could probably count on one hand, from childhood on.

I was very scared 2 days ago and in a lot of pain, expecting that I might be in very serious trouble, healthwise. But I prayed and tried some new things and I feel a little better about it now, tho it hasn’t changed. I “feel” like it’s maybe 2-5% better - can see some lighter-colored skin among the red patches, which wren’t there yesterday or the day before.

Sorry to be a one-note Johnny here, but it has consumed my every waking moment now. I keep hoping someone else has had it and beaten it and I can learn from it by describing it. I don’t talk to anyone on a daily basis - so this is my outlet.

Thanks again for passing that along and I’ll add it in the file for things to consider!