"I avoided the mirror when I undressed so that I didn’t have to notice the growing number of large, protruding bumps." ...

Really pay attention to your skin. Check your body from head to toe once a month for unusual skin changes. A lot of the time it may be nothing to worry about, but some skin changes can be symptoms ...

At first I thought it was one of those under-the-skin pimples that had led to a diagnosis ... It sounded to me like a rare disease that people in the 1600s would have been shunned for.