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[grady]

Alright, here's a little bit of history before I ask my question. I have had acne for as long as I can remember, and have battled it multiple times with Accutane. I got off Accutane in April of 07, and was pretty much completely clear for the whole summer. Around late November, I went to visit my derm after a small amount of blemishes started to appear around my jawline area. Skin was pretty much smooth other than these 4 or 5 minor pustules that were present. He prescribed me Differin Gel .01%. I did a little research and found out about the initial breakout, and started to take it at the beginning of December. For the first few weeks I really didn't notice anything at all, my skin did not seem to be reacting to it at all. But in the last week and half or so, I have noticed all these "closed comedone" type things that have appeared all over my cheeks. There are literally tons of them all over and I have never had any problem with this type of thing before. Before I started Differin there were none of these visible on my face. Some of the ones along my jaw have turned into full blown pimples and right now I probably have 10-15 of them aggravated on my face. I know I shouldn't squeeze but I have tried to extract a few of the whiteheads and what comes out is basically a little worm of white stuff. (EWWW) These bumps are very visible in most lights and they are really getting me down on Differin. From what I have read this doesn't seem to be consistent with most initial breakouts like I was expecting, and most IB's seemed to be in the first week or so rather than a month later.

I unfortunately do not own a camera but I found this picture on the internet which bears a resemblance to these whitehead type things, although mine are not nearly as bad as this picture. I'd say I have about half the comedones that this picture has, as well as the aggravated ones I mentioned earlier:

Similar condition to what I am experiencing

So here is my question, has anyone who has taken Differin experienced this type of thing before? The thing I am worried about is that if all of these whiteheads become aggravated like the first few have, my face is going to be a mess before too long, and I am seriously contemplating stopping with Differin. Is this consistent with most initial breakouts? Should I expect these things to go away if I continue using the gel? Is them turning into pimples the only way for them to go away? How long does it take for them to go away?

Any info at all would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[slightlystoopid111]

This is a long post, but I will get to the point where the * is so skip down there if you don't want to read about my experience.
I had a very similar experience with Tazorac on my body. I had very minor body acne, no pustules or anything moderate to severe. After putting Tazorac on for a week, I decided that my body acne was too mild to be using anything on. A few weeks later, my body is disgustingly covered in acne ranging from pustules to painful cysts.
To be honest, these lesions were going to come up anyway. The reason why the initial breakout occurs in the first place is to bring up the acne that is SUPPOSED to form in the future. So even though my body acne may appear incredibly bad right now, I got rid of a lot of the future crap that was going to be there anyway.
Now, I use Differin .1% cream on my face. Although, my face was moderate when I began so the "initial breakout" didn't seem like anything to me. Nine weeks into treatment now and the lesions are coming up less and when they do they are much smaller.
A big mistake I made was putting Differin on my chin, which had very mild acne. I experienced the same thing as you, it is now covered in pustules when before it had one or two very small ones.

*
The point is that retinoids surface the acne that would have appeared on your face in the future anyway. If I were you, I would continue using Differin through the hard times. In the end (3 months into treatment from what I have read) you will be very pleased with where you've come. If you go on differin.com you can see the before and after pictures which are encouraging. Good luck!