7 replies to this topic

[wineglass]

Hi. I'm a little new here and hope this is the right place for this. A little background: I’ve had moderate to severe acne since around age 12, now 22, with moderate being the norm that once and a while would change in short severe breakouts of cystic acne. Last year I finally caved and went to a derm who prescribed me 200mg of Doxycycline and Epiduo. I was on the antibiotics for 7 months under supervision and then I weaned myself off, and probably a little quickly at that. It stayed clear for 3 months and then it came back horribly. My mother was so upset she hauled me back to the dermatologist…who wanted to stick me right back on doxycycline. I was almost tempted to do it, but something seemed wrong about the way the acne was coming back. I was right. It cleared up a little for a couple of weeks although it was still worse than normal, but with cycling of hormones for girls at the beginning of this month I severely broke out again in cystic acne, worse than I ever had and have been going through that for two weeks now.

The infections have gotten so bad they burrow under the skin leaving dime and penny sized cysts. Sometimes I can’t move half of my face because of the swelling. Yesterday a small spot cropped up, inflammed and went under the skin, and now I can’t breathe out of my right nostril because of its size and the pressure on my sinuses. A lymph node has become irritated and been going up and down all month, swelling under my jaw. Other than this, I’m perfectly healthy and don’t feel ill at all. Although I am insanely stressed by this.

I’m making an appointment with my GP this week because I don’t know what else to do. Throwing a hail mary I’ve severely limited my diet within the last month, eliminating sugar, dairy, eggs, wheat, gluten, soy, processed foods, white/bleached flours, excessive fruit, and preservatives. I tried to avoid spikes in blood sugar. Previously an already health conscious semi-vegetarian who ate fish, I resulted to adding a bit of antibiotic free, vegetarian fed chicken to get enough protein with all the limitation. I’ve been taking zinc, turmeric with black pepper, D, E, probiotics, fish oil, and a multivitamin. Aside from dropping from 110 lbs to 102 lbs in two weeks it has done nothing.

Does anyone have any advice at all about what I should be doing at this point or what I should be asking my doctor when I go in? I have a feeling she is also going to take one look and want to prescribe an antibiotic to clear the infection, and I think I’d rather face Freddy Krueger than that right now.

Edited by wineglass, 08 December 2012 - 06:46 PM.

[Ms18]

I Just went through something almost exactly as you described. I began breaking out this last may and my gp gave me antibiotics my acne just started becoming worse and worse. I went to see a derm and she put me on more antibiotics these didn't seem to help at ALL my acne was getting very severe. Finally i visited my derm and she knew something wasn't right i had Huge cysts, swollen lymph nodes my acne was moving from my cheeks down to under my jaw, i also these giant red "spots" which contained 4 or 5 heads. My Dermatologist took a culture sample from a few of the cysts around my face and they came back saying i had an Infection and i was put on an antibiotic called Keflex. It has been about 3 months since i've been off keflex and the infection is completely gone. I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse. I'm still angry that they didn't do this earlier on because i now have severe scarring. I'm still battling with my acne but its not nearly as bad. If you have any questions message me. I hope you get better!

[wineglass]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry that happened to you, but I'm glad your dermatologist finally looked into it and found out what was going on instead of having it persist longer. However I'd have been angered too having it go on that long already.

I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse.

It would probably be a good idea to ask the doc to check for a few things while I'm in there just in case, so I'll do that with this in mind. Did they ever find out what exactly caused your breakout once they isolated that it was an infection? I'm just curious if you know what precisely caused it.

[Ms18]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry that happened to you, but I'm glad your dermatologist finally looked into it and found out what was going on instead of having it persist longer. However I'd have been angered too having it go on that long already.

I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse.

It would probably be a good idea to ask the doc to check for a few things while I'm in there just in case, so I'll do that with this in mind. Did they ever find out what exactly caused your breakout once they isolated that it was an infection? I'm just curious if you know what precisely caused it.

I asked my Dermatologist she said it was most likely from me picking and scratching my face. Your fingernails can carry alot of bacteria and i guess that just irritated it making it worse and the bacteria just started an infection.

[Michelle Reece]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry that happened to you, but I'm glad your dermatologist finally looked into it and found out what was going on instead of having it persist longer. However I'd have been angered too having it go on that long already.

I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse.

It would probably be a good idea to ask the doc to check for a few things while I'm in there just in case, so I'll do that with this in mind. Did they ever find out what exactly caused your breakout once they isolated that it was an infection? I'm just curious if you know what precisely caused it.

Long-term antibiotic use, especially tetracycline derivatives like doxycycline, can result in Gram-negative folliculitis. Like Ms18 said, ask for a culture to rule out Gram-negative folliculitis or another acne-like disease.

If the GP doesn't listen to you/treat you properly or not refer you to a dermatologist, go to a dermatologist.

Please, wineglass, stop starving yourself. The blood sugar/acne connection, as well as taking all those supplements and removing milk, sugar, wheat, gluten, etc., is based only on speculation. Being paranoid about food won't help you in the long run.

[DC-girl]

I Just went through something almost exactly as you described. I began breaking out this last may and my gp gave me antibiotics my acne just started becoming worse and worse. I went to see a derm and she put me on more antibiotics these didn't seem to help at ALL my acne was getting very severe. Finally i visited my derm and she knew something wasn't right i had Huge cysts, swollen lymph nodes my acne was moving from my cheeks down to under my jaw, i also these giant red "spots" which contained 4 or 5 heads. My Dermatologist took a culture sample from a few of the cysts around my face and they came back saying i had an Infection and i was put on an antibiotic called Keflex. It has been about 3 months since i've been off keflex and the infection is completely gone. I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse. I'm still angry that they didn't do this earlier on because i now have severe scarring. I'm still battling with my acne but its not nearly as bad. If you have any questions message me. I hope you get better!

How do they take a culture from a cyst?
I have 2 but they don't have a head and are deep and my derm doesn't want to lance or drain them......................just wondering if I could get him to take a culture but I don't know how that would work without puncturing the skin.......

[Ms18]

I Just went through something almost exactly as you described. I began breaking out this last may and my gp gave me antibiotics my acne just started becoming worse and worse. I went to see a derm and she put me on more antibiotics these didn't seem to help at ALL my acne was getting very severe. Finally i visited my derm and she knew something wasn't right i had Huge cysts, swollen lymph nodes my acne was moving from my cheeks down to under my jaw, i also these giant red "spots" which contained 4 or 5 heads. My Dermatologist took a culture sample from a few of the cysts around my face and they came back saying i had an Infection and i was put on an antibiotic called Keflex. It has been about 3 months since i've been off keflex and the infection is completely gone. I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse. I'm still angry that they didn't do this earlier on because i now have severe scarring. I'm still battling with my acne but its not nearly as bad. If you have any questions message me. I hope you get better!

How do they take a culture from a cyst?
I have 2 but they don't have a head and are deep and my derm doesn't want to lance or drain them......................just wondering if I could get him to take a culture but I don't know how that would work without puncturing the skin.......

It Doesn't sound like your situation isn't as severe if you only have 1 or 2 then i don't think its a problem. You must puncture the skin i had these huge bumps that didn't have a head and she had to poke them with a needle to get something to come out it was probably one of the worst pains i've had.

[DC-girl]

I Just went through something almost exactly as you described. I began breaking out this last may and my gp gave me antibiotics my acne just started becoming worse and worse. I went to see a derm and she put me on more antibiotics these didn't seem to help at ALL my acne was getting very severe. Finally i visited my derm and she knew something wasn't right i had Huge cysts, swollen lymph nodes my acne was moving from my cheeks down to under my jaw, i also these giant red "spots" which contained 4 or 5 heads. My Dermatologist took a culture sample from a few of the cysts around my face and they came back saying i had an Infection and i was put on an antibiotic called Keflex. It has been about 3 months since i've been off keflex and the infection is completely gone. I highly recommend you ask for a culture to be done before it gets worse. I'm still angry that they didn't do this earlier on because i now have severe scarring. I'm still battling with my acne but its not nearly as bad. If you have any questions message me. I hope you get better!

How do they take a culture from a cyst?
I have 2 but they don't have a head and are deep and my derm doesn't want to lance or drain them......................just wondering if I could get him to take a culture but I don't know how that would work without puncturing the skin.......

It Doesn't sound like your situation isn't as severe if you only have 1 or 2 then i don't think its a problem. You must puncture the skin i had these huge bumps that didn't have a head and she had to poke them with a needle to get something to come out it was probably one of the worst pains i've had.

But that is exactly what I have; huge bumps with no head;
1 is like the size of a dime and protrudes out; has been there for a month and I've cortisone shots and that didn't even take it down.

And how long did it take for the Keflex to make a difference in swelling and size? That's what my derm gave me today; 250mg 2x a day......

Edited by DC-girl, 13 December 2012 - 08:22 PM.