Rash, click. Arm, click. Pimple, click.
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By Meri Toivanen
Ever since early adolescence, the outsides of my upper arms have exhibited small, slightly reddish spots.
However, as the tiny spots do not itch, they only cause any concern when people can see them - that is, when they are not covered up by a sleeve.
I have never showed it to a doctor, because there has always been something more important to do.
But now I will try and find something on the Internet to put me in a better position when I actually do visit a doctor.
First I go to Google and look up "rash, upper arm", "skin symptom", and finally simply "rash". The last search gives me thousands of hits, but the articles concern itching, atopic dermatitis, and babies' skin conditions.
Then I tried "skin diseases". I found a web site run by a dermatologist based in Mikkeli, which nearly made me sick.
The site has dozens of close-up photos of skin diseases that I had never heard of or seen.
But it paid off to look. Somewhere between keratoderma and cherry angioma I found something that resembled a more advanced version of what I had on my upper arm. Suddenly I was sure: I suffered from keratosis pilaris.
On a message board I find others who had made the same self-diagnosis on the net. They are happy that the phenomenon finally has a name.
Phenomenon is the word to use, say those who post messages. What we have is not a rash, or a disease. It is simply a skin type.
One young man is depressed by the spots, and he dare not appear on the beach in the company of girls. He has heard that the condition is hereditary. Suddenly I remember having seen spots like that a long time ago on my aunt's arm.
One writer claims to have read somewhere that the symptom exists to some degree among 50 - 80% of people. Now this is going too far.
When I expand my search to English-language sites I find hundreds of American medical pages.
The pages, which at least seem to be professionally-made, say that the spots should not itch.
"It is quite a harmless cosmetic defect, which is worse in winter than in summer." That sounds like me!
The pages recommend dozens of different kinds of ointments. In difficult cases, an ointment containing uric acid is recommended. Ewww!
I need to meet a real doctor. Hospital dermatologist Maria von Willenbrand of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District's Skin and Allergy Hospital knows what I have before I even get the chance to bare my arm.
"This is keratosis pilaris", she says right away.
I knew it!
In the condition keratin obstructs hair follicles, causing redness in the skin. It is a hereditary condition which an estimated one in five Finns have.
Von Willenbrand says that ointments, including those with uric acid, are available without prescription.
I am not the first patient that this doctor has had who studied all available information of the condition before coming to the consulting rooms.
Some had drawn the wrong conclusions, and in that situation it was all she could do to change the patient's mind. But the Internet also has accurate information.
"Doctors have to stay sharp. Otherwise, patients will easily know more than they do", von Willenbrand says.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.4.2005
More on this subject:
 The Internet is a lousy doctor
MERI TOIVANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
meri.toivanen@hs.fi
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