Sebaceous Cysts...More Almost Daily On My Face..HELP!

i started with one bump on my cheek and that was enough, i was HATING IT. i used to have terrific skin and that is so long gone, that every new thing is beyond devestating. i can't cope any more. the derm refused to do anything, saying it's not large enough and would be a worse scar. it's not his face though. grr! well at least it was just one right? HA.

then it was around nearly 2 yrs mind you, and then i started to get more, and more, and FAST. i now have about 20 of them, (at least. i don't search for them, but when i wash my face i feel them, and put on my makeup, it's very hard to deal with. if they were zits and i knew they were going, FINE, but i know when i see them, they are here to stay, and idk how to stop them or get rid of them.) i CANNOT believe i'm the only one going thru this, and that there is NADA to be done, in this day and age, oh please, oh please tell me!!?? if they are all too small to cut out, or whatever they do, then what do i do? just go on getting disfigured by whatever the BEEP this is happening to me? i feel completely terminal right now.


bad enough when it was one, then two, but a face full and growing, is more then i can handle. my nose, cheeks, are ruined, and oh i just look lovely in my heavy makeup used to conceal other things, now (NOT). NIGHTMARE


any way to stop them from growing, and popping up all the time? any way to heal the other ones? i got so frustrated and i've refrained from picking anything my whole life, on my face, and i picked at one, and now it's widened, and been beet red for days now. ugh, made it look WORSE. can anything go right?

how does one treat these, if surgery is not an option? ways to prevent more? i feel like i'll be a side show freak soon. i'm full of super large pores, and if that couldnt get worse, i didn;t think so, these bumps on top of it. my sanity is shaken here. anyone?

i'm gonna try a heating pad today. i have a blue and red light, but that aint helpin w/ anything.
thanks!

Afraid to Pick Up My Script & Start (hair loss men.) But DESPERATE!

ok..iam in my early 30's, and i have not many breakouts, and i hope there is an end to all acne soon enough for everyone here, people with nice clear skin they just don't appreciate what a great gift they have been given but i hope we all get there someday and soon.

i've been to severeal derms now and after lasers, and a couple levulans, retina, everything they said they could do, my massive pores continue to grow larger, and into eachother forming large scars on my face that i litterally can just wake up to a new one, and it destroys my life. i don't know how i will make it to 40 w/o being one giant hole at this rate, and iam sooo desperate but sooo scared cause i have read so many bad stories about the med, but all the dr's are telling me, skin will be a bit dry, chapped lips, but my skin it will change my life and it will be like porcelin, no breakouts and my biggest concern is my over active oil glands that pump out more oil then any person i've come into contact with, and i've never seen a face of such large holes on anyone else but myself, and since the oil causes the large pores, and now the stretching that is making the scars, i about about to litterally lose my mind over this, and hence why iam here.

i put my script in, did the ipledge and blood work, he said all systems are ago, 5 mo, and at 60mg which i find too much for me to start on w/o any real cystic acne, but i might chop that in half if i decide to start it. i've been excited to start until i freaked myself out reading so much bad...*cry* esp in the hair loss dept.

i know the risks and iam desperate enough to take them all but deathly afraid of one more then the others, and thats because it affects my low self esteem drastically as well. i have chemically induced, permenant hair loss caused by alopecia. my dr assured me if anything some hairs might shed when i brush but not in the brown area which is most important to me, and it wont be noticeable, and it will def. grow back but eventhough he told me to stop reading online, i see sooo many stories of people w/ already lovely thick hair losing alot of it and i have zero to spare or no longer will i be able to cover it up (i use spray on products and alot of hair spray..basically i color my scalp and its dreadfully painful at such a young age to deal with)

those who take it please be brutally honest with me...what were your side effects and was hair loss one of them? i mean cause if i don't get dried out permenantly, and i lose hair permenantly then iam worse off then i started and will likely be in a straight jacket cause i can't handle this...i just really can't. my dr tells me to trust him, but then someone tells me they say things to not scare you cause they get kickbacks but he knows how iam and hes really great and knows iam panickec about all of this, and could have milked me for far more w/ other treatments, so i don't know who to believe. he said in all the thousands of scripts he's written he's seen no dire problems that i read about in the ipledge booklet and online.

i can't help being afraid after reading so much, but the scars and holes and crazy crazy oil production along with some breakouts but squashing the oil and maybe shrinkin pores is my main thing, i just don't know what to do....pick up my script and try it, ot do nothing, get worse, and go crazy anyhow....i have a family i feel for them having to deal with my anxiety and depression over this, i used to be pretty and now i feel like a freak and people look at my face as if iam one, so even w/o cystic acne trust me...i understand what its like to feel that way and have extreme social anxiety because of it. i never picked a pimple or anything, and this is the thanks i get.

i've run out of options, what do u all think, and i trust you guys cause u know your stuff and here i know you all have experience so plz help:)

thanks sooooo much!!! prettyhottie...turned pretty ugly...( 1/2bald and full of holes overnight...lucky me) sorry to rant iam mad at the world and God, cause i had such a hard life the least i believe i deserve is some happiness now at this point in my life. forget the broken caps, melasma, and red scars on my face, and rosecaea (mild very mild) all that used to be a bother, but i could deal with that if the oil would stop pumpin and maybe even shrink my pores a bit as my skin will be drier....does that happen, and will the results last long term anyhow? oil wise?

thanks again!

Accutane

so far two dermatologists, 1 very well known here in ny, and i went to him to get a levulan to try and avoid accutane, and i wanted to see if he'd think it drastic for me to be on accutane, and he agreed with the first guy that it would help me tremensously. i could wash and blot my face all day and night, i always look like someone dumped water over my head. i look like a wet sponge all of the time and my poor makeup, looks disgusting but i need the coverage.

i got large pores, VERY large that are starting to go beyond themselves, grow into pores surrounding it, causing ditch like scars. idk what the BEEP is goin on, but i'll tell u iam phsycologically dead over this matter. the one guy said he'd go stright to the accutane and said for a year(long time hey?) eventhough i don't have really acne, i get a couple breakouts wonce in awhile, but not alot and certainly not cystic and u read this is for likt the worst, BUT then this superb picaso of a derm. recommended the same if the levulan didn't help me which i think already 72 hrs later, it is not going to...never get that lucky, that a 5 mo course will make my skin go from an oily mess to much more matte, and more porless which is exactly all i dream of day and night, night and day.

my skin was always oily but even in my teens my oil glands were never this overactive, and for seemingly no reason, dry skin sounds like the biggest blessing alive, but i know it comes with its own problems to, but did u ever get so desperate that you'd gamble with your internal organs and your mind to try and help your skin cause it ruins you that badly and ur quality of life?

welp that is the point iam at, i think if need be and it will, i gotto try the accutane but iam scared about it. you read so much but then my dr's both told me they never had anyone w/ the complications i read i already have hair loss from a botched dye job years back which causes me great anxiety daily, so i can't spare any hair, but they said they never heard of it happening or liver problems, or depression, which i already have....well i wonder why tho??

i just wanna feel NORMAL! its like almost on a daily basis some new ditch of hole appears on my face and makes me flip out so much i can't enjoy any aspects of living, and the greasy face holds me back from so much and i have seen oily skinned people, BUT NOTHING like this... iam just at a loss.....

iam hoping some people on here who have been on it might have some positive things to say about it. i've even put off having a baby cause i feel like i just cannot do it looking and feeling like this, so if this worked and i was on it for 5 mo, then in the spring, we'd try and have a baby, IF my skin is more normal my life will be to, and i'm praying that several months after accutane is more then enough time to not worry about any birth defects, but basically iam posting this, cause iam broken, and defeated, and looking for some positive feedback hopefully lol, so much has scared me reading online, but anyone got good things or real things...i don't wanna be blindsighted eigther....

things about accutane...your experiences... how long u were on it...side effects, good points bad points...


thanks a bunch!, used to be pretty now not lonely girl

Levulan w/ Lasers...almost 48 hrs is this normal? HELP!!

ok....i had a levulen appt a few months back and it was on 1/2 hr used with blue light, and didn't even redden my skin. i have stubborn tough to treat skin, its VERY VERY oily, way more then anyone i have ever met in my life and has only increased with time and age, and extremely HUGE holes in my face, looking worse then spongebob i mean iam a human sponge and they just keep increasing and increasing, and while oddly i don't get much of any acne like one would think, the drs have given me two options, this what i just did the day before yesterday or accutane, iam sure i'll end up on the tane despite my fears and i mean big time fears of it, cause these oil glands destroy my everyday life and make me a worse person, a worse mother and wife, i'm just sad every day looking at these holes growing, no way to stop the oil production its taken its toll on me, and i cannot deal

sooo...i gave it one more try, went to a big wig in manhattan, and for $650 he left it on me nearly 3 hrs, and used a laser all over my face to activate as he said its by far superiour to the blue light for this treatment. well i was red which i expected and was fine with that, today iam not nearly as red, woke up not even a fraction as red, but iam gushing oil like crazy (is that normal or should i already be drying up?) the holes are the same, and though i only now have minimual burning, i have today broken out in a ton of whiteheads, that i have NEVER had or seen before, and my cheeks look so bumpy like they are covered in poison ivy and this distresses me, cause iam clueless as to if this is normal and part of the process? dont wanna end up worse off, cause menatlly i cannot deal with any more on my plate.

iam greasy as hell, full of whiteheads, and bumps, some that are itchy, i avoided all light sources yesterday, and have my monitor really low lit right now, and a cover over my face, all except my eyes....now question, shouldn't my skin be drying out and peeling the dead skin off, like some reviews i have read? i really wanna peel off this skin but it looks like that isn't going to happen. like i said 48 hrs later, is this all normal what i described or was this yet again alot of money tossed out the window? for the amount of time i had it on i expected to burn for days and stay red awhile and peel like a lizard but nope....

plz help i dont have a big acne problem, but they still suggest accutane if this does not work..2 derms have, and iam scared of it, i need some hope to cling to, and this seems like the best place to ask if there is hope that this might help with my oil still and pores, eventhough all looks the same as of now, except pimples that were never there before. thanks for your time and experience.

((hugs for helping me try and keep my sanity))

CAN'T HANDLE IT ANY MORE. NE1 LIKE ME OUT THERE?

noone out there like me...if there is please tell! i feel so extreme at my breaking point, i don't know where else to turn:( **sorry so long**

i've had a really really hard and stressful life. too much to possibly mention here, iam barely 30, going on 180, but the last few years have been the only quote on quote 'normalcy' i have ever known, finding a soul mate and living out a normal life, as far as the surface can see, but things have gotten perplexing, distressing, depressing, and downright making me ready to leave this world, and its all because of this ever changing for the worse, awful facial skin i was cursed with. i can find noone anywhere that can relate to my plight, as extreme as it is. acne alone would be a pleasure, its not even my biggest woe, iam lucky enough to have a face covered in a mess, that was NOT like this years ago. i had acne as a teen like a lot of people, then grew out of it, and developed more oily skin over time, i developed melasma, and my pores just seemed to explode in size. i developed over the last few years a humongous amount of broken cappilaries on both sides of my nose, nostrils, i look like an old whino, i have developed dark under eyes dented rings, and circles, facial redness (just diagnosed with roasea last year my skin is blotchy gets red, and stings sometimes), i have red marks from acne i never touched, and even some from acne that never existed, i have a bumpy skin appearance , that is never smooth or close to it, i guess under the skin something is going on. i do all i can to cleanse, exfoliate, i steam, i do it all and nothing helps, but the plight that makes me wanna crawl under a rock and die, it totally messed up my life, is my HUMONGOUS PORES. many people might think they'd like to trade one of their imperfections for another, but this is the worst one of all and i have many, but i cannot live like this.

i was a teased and called ugly child and teen, with zero self esteem, and distraught girl, who had freckles and hated my skin for that, but i did not have pores that one could see, not as a teen, and not into my early twenties, these beauties started showing up slowly, and now i can't recognize myself. my face is covered in flaws, there is not one flaw free part of it, and zillions of huge, unstoppable pores, that have gotten so bad, it deters my life. i have thought of divorce to free the man i married from talking about my skin, being depressed over it, trying to fix it, all the money squandered the poor guy, like he just deserves someone normal, like i have fallen apart so bad i don't want anyone to see me, just living with someone is an extremely uncomfortable situation for me,. i want kids, and a normal life like the other women i see, but i cannot have it, all because of my skin!

i came to two conculsions 1) try to get normal skin, and calm the imperfections, get rid of the caps, shirnk pores, fight acne, so i got lasered to death and watsed more money then i can count of my hubbys, as i cannot work even cause my skin, and self esteem is so poor, and lasers never helped in any way shape or form. i will NEVER be able to achieve the normal skin, i wear a mask of makeup daily which is distressing, but even i could try and deal with having to cover up so much for the rest of my life, if #2 could happen, since clearing all the flaws is impossible #2 is shrinking the pores away so my makeup could last through a half hour. right now my whole life is dictated on my makeup, oily skin shelf life. some days i get a couple hours where i can get out quick and do what i must, i will look a bit shiney and porey no matter what, but there comes a quick point, which sometimes i reach after only a half hour, where my make up is so disgusting and skin so holey and shiny, that i cannot go out, i shy away from anything i had to do, my mood gets totally screwed up, i lash out, when i was always such a nice person, i just feel robbed and cheated of life and normalcy, and i have tried everything i can think of, to adjust i mean first of course i wanted clear normal skin, with just an occassional blemish like most it seems, so i didn't have to be jealous and comparing myself constantly to everyone else, and the skin i wished i could have, the invisable pores i see all day long, but am such a freak that i look like a sponge, it gets very distressing to be me. i almost didn't marry over my skin, my hubby can't look at me w/o makeup and when it gets to shiney and gross, i gotto come home, and i try and stay as dark as possible. no makeups have staying power for the kind of oil i produce and the incredible size pores that i have.

i had such a rough time being called ugly, and then i was called a pretty hottie, and complimented on so much for a few short years, and now iam back worse then ever, how can all of these things just happen to your skin, the changes are never ending? why in my late twenties would i get soooo many broken caps, and enlarged pores, then breakouts, and so much oil my face looks like it has water thrown on it within minutes to an hour, i cannot deal with it anymore, seems noone else has to, noone else understands, it isn't vanity its survival, just trying to survive, i feel like a freak! noone i have ever seen has pores like me, and skin woes like me at my age. my 83 yr old mother in law, iam jealous of her skin, i cannot imagien where i will be when iam 40 and not sure i wanna be anywhere by then. iam so distraught every day, without my skin suddenly viola magically changing to normal, or them coming out with a breathrough that can rid me of these pores so my mask of makeup can last a normal day so i can FUNCTION, and be like everyone else, even if i gotto look like a clown, i will compromise, but these things just ain't happening so what can i do?

i've tried v-beams, iraderm, yag, retina, my last resort for pores and super oily skin, to try and kill those oil glands, is levlun (sp?) iam getting this done with blue light in a week, and iam very nervous, but iam trying to have alittle hope for my pores, and oil sake that maybe this will help, cause iam at the end of my rope more then i can explain. i have lived a hell life, and i sware, if it were not for my skin, i would be a happy human being, and my skin makes me wanna fade away and die, and its very sad that something so many take for granted and get to have, can destroy my life so badly. i pty my husband, i fear having kids cause of my skin and its limits and it isn't fair. i gotto keep my house, and car as cold as possible for my makeup and pores sake, to try and get alittle extra time. i don't go to vacations cause a plane ride, i would land looking like a monster, in my makeup, i used to say i had cramps cause i have ibs, just to get into a bathroom wash my face in a stall any way i could, and re-do my makeup re-appearing 45 minutes later, i can't tell you how many times i did that on my honeymoon just to get through it. i finally now am able to be honest with my husband, and he knows my plight, i don't gotto keep it all locked inside anymore, but hes powerless, he tries to help me, but no matter what i try and how many treatments they all fail me w/o removing one mark or tightening one pore. i use ice cubes on my face, i steam my face, i bought some blue red light handheld unit online, it isn't helping and it won't i know, all i got left i feel is to try luvelen, and i do get thoughts of a face lift simply to try and tighten the skin, or even fillers in each and every hole in my face which would take an eternity and i know its impossible but it's just random thoughts out of desperation. i know noone else dealing with so many skin woes, and especially noone of any age with the pore problem to such an extreme as i have.

i used to wear a mask of makeup and go out for the day or work, or go to school and come home looking a bit shiney but human, and now iam so holey, i can't get through any time at all before looking totally monstrous and inhuman, and it just gets worse and worse. over the last few days pores around my nose, and on one of my cheeks, have actually started coming together, forming lines, and on my cheek, forming bigger holes then the constant alittle larger then pin hole holes, now they are combinging and looking like pitted scars, and iam FREAKING out, cause here iam trying to help whats already been going on and things are just getting worse, and i cannot handle it. iam not so strong anymore. people can call caring so much about your skin vain, but they don't live my life, they are normal skinned, and i know no skin is perfect i realize i'll never have that, it is my #1 dream if i ever meet a genie in a bottle, but i gotto stare at my refection and live my life, i gotto deal with teh stars, and the pain of it all, what can i do??? especially the pores i mean is there ANYTHING that actually works, no matter what i do it just doesn't help and now i am fading as i watch things get worse.

i know people here have skin woes, which is comforting to read the stories and feel less alone, but to find little to no info on large pores like mine, and not ever see photos or a person with pores as huge and gross as mine, makes me feel like the only one out there, and i really need support before i lose it. i feel utterly cursed, i just wanna be able to have a normal life, so sick of hiding, not living, crying inside, stressing, hoping, getting dissapointed, and just plain hating myself cause of my skin that i don't know how much longer i can stand it. i went from an ugly duckling to a supposed pretty hottie, and then to what iam today and iam still so young, i cannot handle it, i just can't any advice help, anything much appreciated.

hugs, sorry-sad-sap (me for now)