Does this look like shingles[image]?

I broke out with this yesterday… it itches like crazy!
I am under alot of stress… so I thought it could be shingles?
I had a c-section 7 days ago to have my first baby, and I haven’t been sleeping well in addition to all the stress a newborn brings! I can’t remember if the doctors put anything on me I might have been allergic to…?
I’m not taking any medication that would cause this.
It doesn’t quite look like pictures of shingles on the internet as they aren’t fluid-filled, but they do have white heads on them, like an ant bite.
If it isn’t shingles, what could it be, and is it contagious to the baby?
I have had chicken pox.
It is not so uncomfortable that I feel the need to go to a doctor before morning… I put some anti-itch cream on it, and it’s not that bad.

Best Answer

The photo looks like a photo of your belly and the rash in on the left and right side. If this is true it’s not shingles, as shingles doesn’t pass the midline, secondly shingles doesn’t itch, it hurts, most often described as a burn.

Possible causes are…
1) allergy to something for example, cosmetic, hygiene product, medication, food.
2) insect bite: flees, chiggers, scabies
3 plant contact: poison ivy, poison oak
4) bacterial infection

The history of new exposure to something would suggests 1
The history of pets, exposure to pine straw or another person with similar rash would suggests 2
The history of plant contact the day before or wearing clothes that someone else wore who worked with plants, would suggest 3
Tenderness or swollen glands would suggest 4

You can use benadryl over the counter or calamine lotion topically but if you plan on seeing the doctor tomorrow, I wouldn’t use a topical as it will interfere with the exam and any scraping study the doctor might do. One patient of mine told me that she got relief from an itching rash by rubbing the rash with the inner surface of a banana peal, no joke.