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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Red bumps, insect bites |
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| bhaloo |
| 07/19/02 at 09:34:51 |
| [slm] About a week ago my right arm felt really itchy, and a few days ago about 6 very large bumps appeared on the upper portion of my arm,, I think I was bitten by ants, but I'm not sure, as I have seen a couple of very large ants in the area. Any ideas on what I should take to make it better? I'd go see a doctor, but currently I don't have medical insurance. |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| jannah |
| 07/19/02 at 10:07:58 |
| [wlm] Ask one of those auntie/uncle doctor people in the community. Same kinda stuff happenned to us while we were at the retreat. A few people got these weird tiny little red bumps on their legs and some rashes and stuff. There was a girl there that took care of all the kids that go up there for summer camps and she had a book on all the different kinds of bites and how to treat them. Do you notice any other unusual symtoms recently? That may be important as well... |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| Kathy |
| 07/19/02 at 11:05:01 |
| [slm] How large is large? Pencil eraser or larger? Sometimes pimple bumps on the arms are caused by stress. A nurse told me this once and I did not believe her. Weird thing is... once I got divorced... they went away... ;) |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| Ruqayyah |
| 07/19/02 at 11:21:20 |
| [slm] You should take a picture of it and put it online, hehe ;D So many things can be diagnosed on just sight alone. Are the bumps raised? red? the same color throughout? do they itch now? Is the bump hot to the touch? have you had any other symptoms, like jannah was saying? like fever, chills, or night sweats? Are these ants the fire ant variety? Geography is important too since some insects and diseases are common to one area. If it's still itchy, you could take an anti-histamine for relief or Calamine lotion. hmm, that's all i can think of now. and you might want to consult someone who actually has a degree :D like brother siddiqui i think is also a doctor, and umm ahmad? I hope you feel better! |
| 07/19/02 at 11:22:29 |
| Ruqayyah |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| mwishka |
| 07/19/02 at 11:22:30 |
| bro bhaloo, if the bumps are really large, as in, say a cm or 2, and the ants you have around are large ones but you never felt a bite, it is doubtful that they are ant bites. those large ants are carpenter ants, and they're interested in chewing up your house - not you. the only time they will bite a person is if someone accidentally squashes them, like one gets in your bed and you roll over on it -- and if they bite you you will not be UNaware of it, the size of their mandibles is HUGE. (after all, they chew wood, to them skin is as easy as biting into water...) i do suggest that you ask someone to just take a quick look at the bumps - there are surely numbers of nurses or doctors in your congregation who would do you this kindness. i would say, though, with no better information to go on, that if the bumps are really big, if they are all together in one area on your arm, if there was no bite felt, and if you cannot see teethmarks or a slit in the tops of them, that it is much more likely that you have hives -- which usually appear as an allergic reaction to a particular food or as an expression of unrelenting stress. if you do see bite marks in the bumps, however, as i told those retreat-goers, any bite should have baking soda paste smeared over it (as should skin exposed to plant toxins). what you can take, which you would take for either a bite or, especially, if they might be hives, is B vitamin complex - which soothes the nervous system by helping it function smoothly. if they are bites, vitamins C and A are needed to fight infection and for healing - but these are of less specific assistance with hives, which is an inflammatory reaction rather than a set-up for infection. those people i've known who get hives, either from food allergies or stress reactions, have said there isn't really a way to treat the bumps, only the system. since i think you would already know if you were allergic to a food that causes hives (strawberries are a common one for some people), maybe a high stress level is taking its toll on you physically. for that, i think you have to be very careful to take special care of all aspects of your well-being. take a mutliple vitamin daily, just for the baseline protection. then, on top of that, eat as well as you can, by choosing foods that are very nutritious, but don't deprive yourself of special foods that you enjoy. rest well - every night get whatever amount of sleep it is that you personally require. relax in whatever way you do that, and find projects to improve yourself and enhance your skills and knowledge in whatever areas of your life help you the most. but, ask someone to look at them - a visual inspection is far better than guesses across the internet....... ;) i wish you the best, both in finding out what the bumps are, and in meeting your own challenges if they've arisen from stress. mwishka |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| bhaloo |
| 07/20/02 at 00:08:31 |
| [slm] A picture? Hmmm, I'll see if I can do that, I just don't want people looking, laughing, and pointing. :) About the ants, last year there was a huge story in the paper saying that there are fire ants out in my area, but I don't know what they look like, and the article said they have big ant hills, I haven't seen any big ant hills. I haven't heard of carpenter ants before, maybe they don't exist out here? These ants were red. As for an allergic reaction, well, that might be a possibility, because the other day I was drinking a pepsi, the new ones with the girly light blue can, and after about half an hour my arm felt al little itchy. I had one the other day as well. And today I had one, but I didn't start to feel itchy until maybe 3 or 4 hours later. The bumps are about half the size of a pencil eraser, basically the size of mosquito bites, and they are in the upper part of my arm, 8 of them in that area. So maybe its hives? Thanks everyone for your help. I'll see if I can try some of these remedies. As for stress I didn't have any until yesterday afternoon at this new place I started to work at about a month ago, when they layed off 40 people there, and a few more today, they just kicked the people out, gave them 2 weeks of pay, and no severance package. I thought that was pretty mean. |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| mwishka |
| 07/20/02 at 12:53:00 |
| bro bhaloo, um let's see...two things i want to tell you about: ants and reactions to pepsi. first, carpenter ants are black, and i meant, um big - as in ~1.5cm long. (ok, so they're not as big as velvet ants, but that's a different story....) second, fire ants are red, but they're tiny. but even as i write that i remember once hearing someone describe a very small ant as "big", so maybe size should be clarified..... i class ant size and type this way: (ant "hills" are kind of like outside basement entrances, but with armed guards. ;) the entrances just indicate that an ant colony lives beneath that location, and the ant city could spread across your whole yard though all you see are scattered entrances.) "sugar" ants are black, or sometimes golden, come into your home as a community, love kitchens, can often be seen traveling along an established path, and are about oh 2mm in length. so tiny they're more likely to suffer accidental death themselves than to hurt humans. "regular" ants can be black or red, are more likely to be found outside, are about 3-5 mm in length. these ants may have small hills (3-4cm diam.) spread across your yard, or they may mass a conglomeration of small hills in one area, with some larger hills - this depends on the soil type and rock content of the land. either red or black ants of this size may also come into your home, and if there in small numbers they're just scouting food or water sources. fire ants are red ants this regular size - they are NOT "regular", though. they are absolutely fearless, single-minded, and extremely aggressive. scouts may attack you if you just wander into their territory. unlike regular ants, their hills are neither small nor flat - they can become huge tall mounds. they will attack intruders in full force, all members of the community coming to the fight - their goal is to inject a large amount of venom by sheer massive numbers of otherwise tiny injections. even one bite by one fire ant on your ankle can cause a very painful red swelling and make you feel ill. people have been hospitalized from such attacks, but mostly i think in texas, less in other warmer, wetter states. i believe children and animals have died from such massed attacks. (but not a worry to you!) ......so i don't think a fire ant bit you either. BUT, bro bhaloo, your possible connection of any reaction to drinking pepsi IS of concern. if by girly light blue can you mean a DIET version (i'm sorry, i don't even know what any of those cans look like except that coca-cola has a red can) AND that you may have had some reaction to it, you DO have reason to be concerned about the nature of that reaction. IF the pepsi you drank contained ASPARTAME, you need to check with a doctor about the possiblity of phenylketonuria, which is a heritable deficiency in the body's ability to produce a key enzyme which allows the breakdown of phenylalanine (an amino acid). besides having read about this disorder, i'm familiar with it because it's in my family. the results, over time, can be devastating neurologically. (sorry sorry sorry- i don't mean to scare you! for all i know it wasn't diet....but i felt i should at least make you aware of this possibility...) one of my uncles drank diet pepsi, noticed he felt funny, thought it was something else. kept drinking it over almost a year. he gradually developed neurological problems which were confounding his doctor - who send him to neurologists, who tested everything under the sun, and found nothing. his own general practitioner, unwilling to give up on him or let him suffer so, perservered until he found for himself the connection, by detailed questioning of my uncle. he recovered completely, and remains fine, now that he learned how dangerous aspartame is to him. i don't know that he ever got bumps of any kind, though. AND, this genetic deficiency is most prevalent in celtic bloodlines. ayyyyy...but the ottomans ruled the warrior celts (just barely..he he), and we all know the pathways of bi-directional migration of populations and knowledge up out of india through the middle east into spain and further into celt dominated lands. so, for whatever any of this is worth to you, i hope it helps. but please take it with a grain of salt. if you do eat or drink that particular artificial sweetener, just pay attention to anything you can relate specifically ONLY back to having consumed it - you know, control the conditions of your experiment.... any advice i give is merely practical - i am NOT a medical practitioner, as you know. you can read about the consequences of this condition in any biochemistry textbook, or can go to medical websites, or go to the registry of heritable disorders (i forget the address). (which is just one more reason i try not to eat or drink stuff that's been messed with... :)) mwishka (whose lineage deadends six generations of americans ago, and will never know her warrior ancestry.... :'() |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| Kathy |
| 07/21/02 at 19:29:59 |
| My little mouse.... How can you be so smart and still not accept Allah swt existance?.... |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| BroHanif |
| 07/22/02 at 18:25:48 |
| [slm] I was reading your post and this line made me think [quote]I'd go see a doctor, but currently I don't have medical insurance. [/quote] What kind of society do we now live in where if somebody is ill then they need medical insurance. I don't know about you but I feel kinda sad and slightly upset that if the worlds biggest super power can't even look after its own citizens when it comes to health how dare they become the bully boy of the world. In fact the more I think of it the more I feel that America is nothing but full of venture capitalists intent on greed and filling the stomachs of copper coins regardless of whether one may be in need or not. Who gives a damm if the accounts tally up, as long as some pure sucker keeps the stock market afloat. Who gives a damn if we have to spend billions on R+D when we know fully well that its better to forge peace than to threaten others with war. And now the bully boy wants to rule the world, where it sneezes it demands a change whether or not the masses like it or not. America should sort its own mess out before they begin to poke noses into others affairs. salaams Hanif p.s. sorry bhaloo for going off on a tangent and changing the thread. p.p.s. NHS is still the best!. |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| se7en |
| 07/23/02 at 01:29:53 |
| as salaamu alaykum, bro, I think it's definitely the pepsi.. maybe you should send the rest of the cans to me? ;D [] Hope you feel better soon inshaAllah. wasalaam |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| bhaloo |
| 07/24/02 at 00:09:29 |
| [slm] I was falling asleep at work today, and I said, I gotta wake up, so I went to the vending machine and had a []. :( My back and arm still hurt, the bumps are still there, although just a little smaller and not as itchy, actually they aren't itching now. I've definitely had an allergic reaction to something, just got to figure out what. Bro. Hanif, your right. Insurance in this country is outrageous. When I was let go from my former employers, they told me how much I would have to pay if I wanted insurance. It was from $8,000 to $11,000 a year. That's nuts. And that isn't for free medicine or free office visits either, you still have to pay some fee, like $10 each visit plust $5 for every medication prescribed. In this respect, Canada and the UK are much better with their free medical services. |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| Ruqayyah |
| 07/24/02 at 01:50:13 |
| [slm] Bro bhaloo, i hope since the red bumps are starting to go away that you are feeling better! You mentioned your back hurts also? Is that in connection to the red bumps or completely separate? I was also wondering if there was a free clinic in your area that you may be able to go to that may be more affordable for you. Inshallah i hope you can figure out what it is exactly that you're allergic to! Good luck and i hope you get better soon :) [wlm] Ruqayyah |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| bismilla |
| 07/24/02 at 02:52:52 |
| [slm] [font=comic SANS ms][sub]bsm[/sub] Brother, you should try a natural product called BEESWAX. It's natural and excellent as a "cure-all" for everything from scarred tissue to snake bites! [/font] |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| jannah |
| 07/24/02 at 15:34:18 |
| [quote]My back and arm still hurt, the bumps are still there, although just a little smaller and not as itchy, actually they aren't itching now. I've definitely had an allergic reaction to something, just got to figure out what. [/quote] dude that sounds serious... go see someone!!!!!!!!!!1 |
| Re: Red bumps, insect bites |
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| AyeshaZ |
| 07/25/02 at 14:02:05 |
Asalamu Alykum, Insha'Allah i hope by now you are feeling better. bro my father had red bumps all over him recently and we thought he might have gotten them from excessive gardening or staying out in sun for tooo long. And my dad procrastinated and didn't see a doctor and than we finally had to force him to see one. He is still taking all these pills cause it ended up being something serious. So inshaAllah I hope you'll do something about it ASAP. JazakumAllahu khair |
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