Patient Zero Searches For A Diagnosis

With two extremely itchy bumps on my right hand fingers, I wracked my brain for what might have caused them. 

Was I allergic to something new? I have a new box of dryer sheets, in a new fragrance. Store brand. I had taken one out using my right hand on Friday.

Was there something in the pocket of my fleece jacket? I pulled the pocket inside out and left it flapping for a day. I rarely take off my fleece jacket. It's so comfortable. It rests on the side of the big triangle tub in the master bathroom while I have my shower and go to town. Then I put it right back on when I get home. At night, I take off the shirt underneath, but put my fleece jacket back on. 

Then I asked Farmer H if he had experienced anything like it.

"A week or two ago, I had one on the side of my hand. I squeezed it open and some clear stuff run out."

Welp! There you go! I had obviously caught something from the secretions of Farmer H!

"Great! Now I've got it. You must have got that stuff on the remote, or on the handle of the water faucets. So I caught it from you!"

"No. No. You didn't get that from me, HM. It's something else."

Nice try. He's always in denial. How else could he explain my malady? Except...

On Monday, I noticed myself scratching my stomach area. The sides of my front-stomach. The area where I sometimes shove up my fleece jacket while under The Pony's fleece throw, and rest my hands there to warm them before putting them back in my jacket pockets.

I took a look before getting in the shower, and saw three little bumps in a line on the right side, and four little bumps in a cluster on the left side. They seemed to have little fluid-filled centers.

Meanwhile, I had put a bandaid with triple antibiotic ointment on my ring finger bump, which stopped most of the itching. The morning after that, my hand did not itch much at all. Not even in the hot water of the shower.

But wait! There's more to this story...