I'm happy to have a chat here Starbright i just didn't want to take away from the original post...

Wow what you describe sounds so similar to what i'm dealing with right now also. For over two months i remember just feeling itchy, it was strange but something i would kind of brush off thinking it was just a figment of my imagination. The itch has been all over from my feet to my scalp.

Then two months ago i got a scaly patch on my breast that was itchy and grew in size. I went to the Dr's and he said dermatitis, prescribed a cream that i should only use for a week but it had no effect.

From then on i went backwards and forwards to the Dr's and unfortunately seeing various Dr's depending on who i could get in with on the day. They really didn't know what they were dealing with, for the breast area they tried treating it as thrush which i now know it clearly wasn't and the thrush treatments made it so much worse .

With following dr's advice i took antibiotics as the bb area became infected (staph just like you described) and not long after that i started getting a pimply rash all over my body that was itching like crazy. I think they thought it was a reaction to the antibiotics but it wasn't. I tried antihistemenes (sp??) which had no effect. I always thought it was too coincidental to not have the bb, the rash and the itch all be related but the dr's seemed to think they were seperate things.

Finally at my 6th appt i got a referral to a dermatologist. He said it was eczema and told me to bath for 20 min each night for a week then smother celestone cream all over my body. I did this, it got the itch and rash under control but with in 4-5 days of stopping the itch was back and now i'm at the stage where the rash is coming back also. I went back again last friday and he wrote a script out for more things but i'm not going to get them until after the nathropath. I'm now bathing again just to keep it all at bay.

Throughout all of this was that i was feeding my DD, I managed to keep doing it and at times i was extrememly uncomfortable. The infection seems to have maybe finally gone from the bb area and it looks the best it has in a long time but it's still itching like crazy.

So i wonder if we're dealing with a similar thing? Although some of what you describe sounds even more severe than mine which i'd hate to imagine. I feel for you immensly. My feet itch like crazy my hands aren't too bad. My rash ended up being visable on my tummy, back, arms, shoulders, neck, chest and tops of my legs.

I have just booked myself into see a natropath so i'll be interested to see the direction she will take and if it has an effect. I just feel like i'm masking the problem with what i've been told to do so far.

So do you have any idea of how or why you got your eczema?
Where you are now with yours you must have tried many different things to have to restort to the steroids and now the methotrexate.
Have you tried a natropath?

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen