5 replies to this topic

[Jmpayne]

PICTURES

Face Current
Old Pic (Back same, arms worse)

Background

Hey, I'm 18 years old and I've had acne since back when I was in middle school. When in middle school, it was mild-moderate for the face, and mild for the back. At the end of the middle school, the face got more on the side of moderate, and the back stayed the same. At around 16 years of age, the acne on the face completely disappeared because I started growing facial hair; the back acne stayed the same. Now when I'm 18, the face is still clear, and the back acne has gone away almost completely, I never got a single spot on my chest. But the one thing that has really been annoying me is this lingering upper arm/shoulder acne. It's odd because whatever I do to it, and whatever I treat it with, it's so damn stubborn that it practically refuses to ever leave, even for a moment. There are about 2 cysts on each upper arm (not enormous or anything) and a few pimples here and there. Mind you, I have very light skin and I am prone to redness and scarring very easily it seems, which sucks extremely badly. I don't play any sports because I would prefer to be doing other things such as reading. So I know it can't possibly be because of irritation or tight clothing because I don't use a backpack or anything that rubs against my skin a lot.

Lifestyle Changes

During the summer when I decided to really crack down on it and try to get rid of the whole problem once and for all, I made quite a few lifestyle changes. Doing a lot of research on some of the probable causes of acne I came up with a variety of solutions that I could go ahead and try. The first thing I did was analyze what I eat all of the time, I concluded that it was mainly chocolate milk, tons of sandwiches which sugary white bread that was pumped full of carbohydrates, barely any water and an excess of soda and energy drinks, also tons of fast-food such as McDonalds. I completely changed it all the way around 360 degrees and avoided all of the things I had been eating, I started drinking mass quantities of water and eating a lot of fruit. I tried my best to steer clear of a lot of the junk and dairy food such as ice cream or fast food, pizza hut, etc. This seemed to make a difference and all, but it wasn't really that noticeable as far as I was concerned; I couldn’t just combat this with diet alone, so I took things a bit further.

Treatments

Acne treatments were what I was really needing, so I bought the strongest over-the-counter stuff I could get my hands on, and that was both the Panoxyl 10% bar and spot treatment. Every day I would take a cool shower and wash with the bar soap, I would sometimes let it soak in and what not... until I got a really bad under-arm rash which turned out to hurt like hell and shed dead skin until it later disappeared. After the shower I would put on huge globs of this spot treatment, which kind of seemed like a good idea at the time, which I later found out differently. After a month or so of doing this, I was tired of taking the damn showers like a mad man, and I cut it down to somewhere like a few times a week. So during the few "off-days" of not showering I would be packing on this spot treatment on top of old spot treatment without washing it off. Essentially the treatment was hovering over my skin probably not even doing anything (correct me if I'm wrong about this). I hadn't of washed for a week (lazy/tired, various other reasons) and when I finally did this damn spot treatment was so caked on there because of the accumulations throughout the week it was a big pain in the ass to get off. Turns out the acne seemed like it had gotten worse, I was pretty bummed about it. Nothing seemed to be working and there were many points in time where I believed that I should just give up and let it run it’s course. Doing so would probably leave me with some potential scarring that I could very well prevent, had I the knowledge to understand what exactly was going on.

Future

After the shower I talked to my dad and he ends up getting a dermatologist appointment for me when I will be going to sometime before the end of the month. This morning I decided that I should probably be showering once a day like I had been, just to wash the spot treatment off and start over treating it again. I did that this morning with a rather hot shower (which felt very good by the way)... I had heard from quite a few reliable sources that taking a hot shower is rather good for you because it opens the pores and what not. I get out, treat it... and I feel much better. It feels like this is what I should be doing.

So when I go to see the dermatologist is there anything I should be looking out for in particular, any sort of certain medicines or antibiotics. The dermatologists generally know more than you guys probably do, but yeah know it could never hurt especially since large majorities of you have first hand experience with this stuff. One thing I am certain of is that I know that it's not so serious that I would have to resort to something like Accutane for example, because my parents sure as hell would never let me touch that stuff, especially my mom. Due to some of the horror stories they have heard about it (people committing suicide, etc).

[emperornext]

Barely any pimples on the face and back, never any on the chest... but I have some weird cystic acne on my upper arms/shoulders... like 6 cysts on each arm. It hurts like hell to sleep on my side, which is the only way I can fall asleep. I've tried everything for it, and every possible combination, NOTHING works.

Every Panoxyl, Oxy, Proactiv, product... NOTHING WORKS! Eliminating/changing diet and lifestyle... still no effect. This is ludicrous, it's the most stubborn acne i've ever come across.

What do I need to ask for at the dermatologist? I'm up for ANYTHING.

Edit: My parents refuse to take me to the dermatologist.

When you say changing diet and lifestyle, what EXACTLY have you done? How old are you? What physical activites do you participate in? ETC??

[acne_battle]

Ever since I switched to Aqua Glycolic Cleanser, I havent been getting cystic pimples anymore. I used to get them a lot. You may want to try that. That sounds very painful. I also sleep on my sides and I dont know how Id sleep with cysts on my arms.

P.S. please change your avatar. That clown avatar scares me

[missypooh]

Maybe your arm/shoulder sores aren't acne; they could be boils or a staph infection.

I'd definitely get to a dermatologist; they'll want to check them out - and maybe even culture what's in them.... Tell your parents you're in pain and are worried about your arms... have they seen them?!

The only reason I say they may not be acne is b/c you said they're not responding AT ALL to the acne products you've tried.....

You didn't say - but do you wear shoulder pads for sports? Or any kind of synthetic materials on your shoulder areas (like a school uniform that's not breathable/cotton?!!) Just curious...

Good luck - - and get to a doctor!

[Jmpayne]

Maybe your arm/shoulder sores aren't acne; they could be boils or a staph infection.

I'd definitely get to a dermatologist; they'll want to check them out - and maybe even culture what's in them.... Tell your parents you're in pain and are worried about your arms... have they seen them?!

Yeah my parents have seen them, they are always so nonchallant about things, and they don't want to get me bummed about it because they are probably afraid i'll freak out if they say something that I wouldn't want to hear.. I'm not exactly sure what their approach is about it. But I told my dad and he said that he had no problem talking to the dermatologist and getting me an appointment. At first over the phone he seemed like he didn't want to take me, not because he doesn't care, but because he doesn't necessarily have a lot of free time on his hand to go take me, and i'm 18 years old anyways which is why I should be going by myself.

[Wynne]

Since you're getting a derm appointment, s/he'll help you out.