Hey guys! I'm Karen, 23 years old, from Connecticut.

Here's the scoop:

About a year ago (November/2007) my acne went completely out of control. Before that, I had the occasional zit - here and there - but nothing I ever worried about. But then, out of nowhere, my face bursted with comedonal acne. It felt - and looked - like sandpaper.

- November 2007: I decided to try the Clean and Clear kit. Two months later: no improvement. A friend recommended the Philosophy Acne kit... so I decided to give it a shot. Used that for a couple of months, but my face got progressively worst.

- April 2008: I decided I had to visit a dermatologist. She told me I had mild acne and prescribed me Differin gel 0.1% (PM) and Benzaclin (AM). After the first two weeks I saw an improvement. Went to Maine on vacation. I was soooo happy!! But at the beginning of week 3 I had the IB. It was hell. For the following three weeks my life was miserable. But fortunately by the 2-month mark my face started to recover. For the next 4 months my face was completely clear.

- November 2008: I had a huge breakout. All over my face. Went to my derm, who prescribed me with Retin-a Micro 0.1% and Evoclin. By the end of December, Retin-a Micro had completely destroyed my face. My face was all broken out in a rash! Literally, my acne went from mild to severe in two months.

- January 2009: Derm prescribed a topical steroid, Locoid Lipocream 2x day (2 weeks) to calm down my face. And Minocycline 100mg 2x day. The Locoid helped with the redness, but didn't do anything for the acne at all.

The past month and a half has been living hell for me. I feel sooo bad. I honestly have never felt this bad in my life. Acne has taken control of my life... I don't go out with my friends anymore - in fact I avoid them at all cost. I hate to have to go to work... and know people are staring at my face - so I call out of work as much as possible. I'm so depressed right now!

I hope that with the support of everyone here I'll be able to cope with this, and hopefully, in a few months, this nightmare will finally be over.

UPDATE:

- Added Differin 0.1% cream (PM) to my regimen. (Since 02/19/2009)

DAY 29:

As you can probably tell I'm skipping about 28 days of log. But don't worry, you aren't missing out on anything... cuz nothing has changed since I started Mino.

My biggest problem right now are the closed comedones - aka whiteheads. My forehead and cheeks are completely covered (I mean literally hundreds) with them - making my face look like braille. When I wash my face I feel like I'm rubbing my hands against sand paper. To make things worse, some inflammatory zits - also on my cheeks - have been lingering there for the past couple of weeks. They decided to move in... and won't budge. I have also noted that my face is getting increasingly oily... as if it was possible. One hour after washing (or blotting) and my face is an oily mess again.

Hopefully there will be better days to come. Xoxo.

Hi Karen!
I hope you will have great results with the Minocycline. It was very effective against the inflammatory pimples I got; I was clear on it for about two years. If it makes you feel better, I experienced a really bad initial breakout my first month of Minocycline as well. It was hell! I thought about giving up, but I held on and it gave me the clearest skin of my life. (Unfortunately, as you know, it gave me an autoimmune syndrome as well. But the chances of that happening are super, super slim, as I'm sure your awesome dermatologist told you.) I say stick with it!

It seems our skin has some similarities. I've been breaking out into horrible rashes as well, and I started getting some more severe acne around the same time (October 08). It's been hard on me as well... I've definitely been less social and a bit of a hermit. My mantra has been, "From this point on, it can only get better". Mine has been improving, even though I felt helpless just a week ago. I just had to be patient, and I started seeing improvement. I understand it's hard though; I wish all the time it could go away overnight. So just wait a few more weeks, and I'm sure you'll see the results you very much deserve.

And if that is you in your avatar, you are really beautiful. Great bone structure, like yours, trumps acne any day of the week! You are beautiful with or without it. Hang in there!

Sensitive skin.. thank you sooo much for cheering me up!! I'm sure it will only get better from now on.. for both of us. We deserve it!

DAY 30:

I feel so much better today! I think the mino is finally starting to kick in!! YAY! No drastic results... but definitely better. The active pimples that I had have started to vanish. The whiteheads seem to be going away too - I can finally see clear and smooth areas of skin on my face. I'm also happy that I didn't have to go to work today (cuz of the snow)! Going to work lately has been really hard - when I'm home I don't really care how bad my face looks. But tomorrow I'll have to face it. Well, tomorrow is another day, right?!

Hope you're doing good too!
xoxo......

Hey Karen!

Thanks for posting on my log. I am sorry that RAM ruined your face as well... I really regret starting that stuff as i'm sure you do.

I actually took Mino before I went on RAM. That stuff is great! After two months there was a steady improvement in my skin, and by three I was completely clear!! Just be careful with Mino because you will eventually become resistant to the antibiotic (and sometimes your acne will come back even worse then before :wave:), so make sure that you come up with a good regimen while your on it that will outstand your acne once the mino stops working.

But seriously Mino made my skin the clearest its ever been... for about a year... and it was fabulous! I hope accutane can do the same, but be permanent this time.

Also something thats helpful to know about Mino (which my doctor never told me) is that you have to wean yourself off! After you have been clear start to take the pills every other day- every third day-once a week.. ect.

And most important! Get excited for the clear skin that is just around the corner

Thanks Brit!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully it will work for me as well. At this point even a short-term solution would be good. Just to get a break from all this. Sigh. But I'm starting to get anxious... it's been a month and still no results. I guess I have to be patient, right?!

DAY 31:

I'm back to feeling down. My skin decided not to cooperate today. Got a bunch of new whiteheads overnight. When I went to wash my face this morning I noticed that my forehead was all red and irritated. Wanted to stay home and hide under my blanket, but there was no way I could've called out from work again. To make things worse there are mirrors everywhere at work... so I had to look at my face all day - and everytime I looked it seemed worse. When will this end???? I'm just so worn out from all of this. =(

I pray and hope for better days to come.

I know how you feel about not wanting to be around people. When I go out, even if I wear really good makeup or concealer, I always think people are just staring at how gross my face is! It is so annoying because it's a texture, not just redness, etc. It will get better for you, minocycline is really helpful for clearing up skin. It might not be permanent, but at least when it's totally clear for a while on Mino you can figure out what you wanna do from there to keep it that way. It ALWAYS gets worse before it gets better, so just hang in there!

I've Tried the Benzaclyn. It really worked for me but I had to stop using it when my insurance didn't cover, and not enough money to afford it. My acne had also taken control of my life too.
-------------

My Regimen
-Neutrogena Acne Kit

-Minocyclene (idk how to spell)

-Sometimes I use t benzoyl peroxide.

DAY 34:

I'm starting to loose hope. I should be seeing some improvement by now... but nothing.
I don't know what to do anymore. I'm so sad.

don't give up quite yet! I remember that exact feeling when I was about a month in. Give it another month! When the antibiotic kicks in- it really kicks in

Thanks Brit!! I hope you're right. I have one more month until my follow-up appointment with the derm, on March 2nd. Hopefully I'll see some sort of improvement by then. Otherwise I'll have to beg her for accutane. I'm determined to be clear by summer... either way.

DAY 36:

So, when I looked in the mirror this morning, I noticed that some new whiteheads joined the club... there must be like 40 all together - I don't even want to count, 'cuz it will probably make me feel worse if I find out there's more than that (which there probably are). Some of them are inflamed and have heads. Red marks are everywhere. Sigh. Uneven skin tone and sandpaperish skin texture are the icing on the cake. Its a bottomless pit. Just when you think it can't get any worse... it can.

I've been trying to get the courage to take some close-up shots of my face... so we could see my actual progress (or lack of). But I can't do it! I'm afraid that my face will look worse than I think it does. And right now I could not take that... I would probably quit my job and not leave my house ever again. Seriously. So I guess we should wait a bit... in the meantime I'll just pretend it doesn't look that bad.

isn't comedonal acne fun!?

At least with cystic acne you can count how many blemishes you have. Try your hardest not to stare at them too long in the mirror or you will drive yourself nuts. I guess this is easier said then done, because I have the same problem. When ever I do start to count I get angry and frustrated.

The nice thing about comedonal acne is that as soon as you clear and your redmarks fade you will be left with minimal scaring and a smooth face!

And you can always take picture of yourself weekly and just keep them private. You don't have to feel obligated to post them on this website. Then as your improve it will be liberating to look at your skin when it was it's worst.

DAY 39:

Things have gotten really bad since my last post. My face is entirely covered with these tiny little red bumps. And I mean completely covered. At first I thought they were whiteheads, but now I'm almost positive they aren't. It can't be. I'm thinking its either some sort of allergic rash or maybe an yeast infection caused by the antibiotic. Either way I called my derm and set up an appointment for Tuesday.

I'm so pissed right now! Whenever I think that the worst is over... something awful happens. I just hope that my derm won't try to bullshit me into trying some other antibiotic or topical. I want accutane.

DAY 41:

Things haven't gotten any better. My face is still red, irritated and bumpy. I stopped using the CeraVe cleanser, even though I don't really think it's the culprit for my recent breakout. But, just to be safe I went back to using the Olay Foaming Face Wash for Sensitive Skin that I was using last year.

I'm feeling so anxious about my upcoming derm appointment. Don't really know what will happen. I think she'll agree to accutane. I'm afraid though. I mean, I want it so bad... but I don't know if I'm strong enough to endure the torturous six month treatment. The IB, the dryness, and all that. Plus the fact that I'll have to wait one month to be able start. What will I do until then?.. if my face just keeps getting worse?!

DAY 43:

Ok, just came back from my derm appointment. She examined my face and agreed it had gotten a lot worse since my last visit on January 5th. I told her I was worried that the small bumps that I've been getting all over my face were a fungus *gross*. She said it was probably comedonal acne, but couldn't be sure.. so she had me do a skin biopsy just to be safe. The lab results will take a week. Until then she prescribed me an antifungal gel - Naftin (Naftifine HCI 1%) to use 2x day. She told me to continue the minocycline and that 6 weeks were too soon to expect any noticeable results from it. If the lab results come up negative, she wants me back on a tretinoin topical - likely Differin, since I had a bad reaction to the Retin-A - she said it's the only thing that will get rid of the comedonal acne. I did beg her for accutane... but she swore to me that in my case it would do more harm than good.

Needless to say that I'm extremely pissed off. I just hope to God that this is a fungus.. as it goes away in about two weeks with treatment. I don't want to go back to Differin... I was on it and it doesn't work for me. Just looked in the mirror and my face looks like crap right now. I'm so upset!!!!!!!!!!

Hi karen! I'm sorry your derm appointment didn't go like you thought it would. Try to sit tight until your results come in, and still take the meds like she says. You never know, it could totally be a fungus and you might need a totally different treatment that might work immediately! Or, it could just be a matter of time for the mino to work, like she said too. I know it's frustrating, I've been there. *hug*

Thanks pup!

DAY 45 (Mino) - DAY 1 (Differin):

Ok... so I'm scared to death about starting Differin again!!! But I honestly feel I don't really have another option. My derm said that even when/if the minocycline kicks in, it won't be able to get rid of my comedonal acne on its own. I know I've used differin before and back then it was pretty mild (after the IB), at least compared to Retin-A. But then again, my skin wasn't the wreck it is now. I'm afraid my skin won't be able to tolerate all the irritation caused by a retinoid and will be permanently damaged or something. I don't know. But I'm gonna ignore my gut feeling on this and follow my derm's (and my mom's) advice and give it a shot. I just hope they're right.

P.S.: Yesterday I became totally paranoid that maybe the cleanser I was using was aggravating my acne... so just to be safe I went back to using Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser for Normal to Oily Skin (even though it has SLS...)

Do you wear foundation, or any other makeup on your skin? If so, the Cetaphil might not be removing all of it (at least it wasn't for me). I switched to Nutrogena's Fresh Foaming Cleanser and it removes all my makeup and my skin has been better since I switched. Just an idea you might want to try.

Hi pupcake. Thanks for reading my log and being so supportive!!!! I don't wear makeup anymore... except for mascara and lip gloss. I'm afraid that using foundation or concealer will make my skin worse. It sucks... specially since I've always LOVED wearing makeup. I don't really like Cetaphil, but it's the least irritating of all the face washes I've tried so far. But I'm going to look into that Neutrogena cleanser you mentioned, maybe it will work for me as well. I hope that you're making some progress with the Doryx. Keep me posted!!

DAY 47:

My face looks basically the same as it did in the beginning of the week. Skin is very rough and extremely oily. Uneven skintone. A few active zits on both cheeks. Whiteheads everywhere (especially on forehead).

I keep getting the feeling that the minocycline is what's causing me to breakout so bad. Since I started taking this crap my face has gone from bad to worse. Yesterday I was so pissed... I wanted to flush the pills down the toilet. I almost did. But I kept thinking to myself "maybe it will get better from now on... just give it two more weeks". I'm also afraid that if I stop now it could get worse, and then I would've wasted 6 weeks of treatment.

I've been using the Differin every other night. I plan on doing that for the next two weeks... so hopefully this way my skin will adapt smoothly without too much irritation. *maybe I'll be able to avoid an IB *

Yesterday I was feeling really impatient, so I decided to give my former derm a call. I managed to schedule an appointment to see her on March 3rd (I might be able to get in sooner if there are any cancellations). I really just want a second opinion... and accutane. *wink* Let's see how it goes.


P.S.: I forgot to mention that I got laid-off. As you can see I'm soooo sad. lol.

Good idea calling your old derm. Getting more opinions definitely can't hurt! I just quit my job and enrolled back into college (after 7 years- yikes!), yay for us!