Hi Doc, My wife has had a pesistent medical condition for about 5 month (since Oct. 2011 to be precise). We haven t go a diagnosis yet. She was about 7 weeks pregnant at the time and she developed an oral sore ( cold sore ) which did not seem unusual at the time. She informed the doctor and she was asked to placed on a vitamin C supplement drug a week. Rather than improve, it got much worse and the cold sores multiplied and became really painful and bleedy as her entire mucus membrane was affected. So the doctor took a swab to test but also placed her on poerful antibiotics for a week. During this time, it got much much worse and she basically could not eat anymore. She lost weight rapidly, and her lips became swollen and sore as well as he tongue and the inside of her mouth. It was scary. The result of the culturing came back with nothing cultured. So the doctors recomended a barage of test, ranging from HIV test to fungus tests to test for the presence of Herpes (HSV1 & 2). Everything came back negative still she got worse. So the doctors decided to administer a steroid injection on her. It worked like magic. within 10 days all the oral lessions healed except for a single spot beneath her tongue. But about one week later, the lession beneath her mouth began to expand and within a few days her mouth was covered with sores again. The doctors had to redo all the tests again just in case they missed something (by this time she had lost the pregnancy but she still didnt get better as some doctors suspected she might because it all started during her pregnancy and she had no history of this before) but it all came back negative...then they placed her on steroid tablets again and then she started getting better. But as soon as she stoped taking the steroid, it came right back but this time we noticed it had been comming with mild non-itchy rashes on her knees, elbows, palms and feet (we had seen these at the beginning of the disease but they were verry mild and we did not associate them with the ailment because they only lasted a couple of days). We informed the doctors who started trying to do add the information to their diagnosis. I also started researching online, and I found that the symptoms exhibited by my wife matches hand foot and mouth disease to a tee except that my wife s case is persistednt (been on for five months now) while HFM abates after a few weeks generally. Right now, we manage the oral symtoms by a special oral rinse (Therabreath) which we found helps the oral sores to heal and prevents them from degenerating into a flourid oral sore case. It also prevents the lessions from bleeding. But the problem is they dissapear for a week and come right back and she keeps up using the rinse and then it all heals and then returns again. The mild rashes on her knees and elbows have stayed mild and have not been much of a problem but it appears we are now starting to see them on her chest and lower jaw (in small numbers though). We have no idea what it is and are simply managing the symptoms for now. I wonder if anyone has any experience with anything like this. please help! She s 29 years old and weighs 130lbs. She s 5f 10 tall.