h0peful11

Hello so I have been on this journey to get clear skin for the last six painful months!!! It has truly been a roller coaster ride trying to find the correct medications that are good for my skin to help it stay clear! I have now been on tretinoin for 12 weeks and my skin has cleared up a bit from before, however I still get some breakouts but am hoping that with time this problem will subside. One of my top concerns now though is ACNE SCARS!!! They are a real pain. Even after my ugly inflamed acne has gone, I am left with these horrible scars all over my face! I was hoping the tretinoin would help this but dont know if I am really seeing much of a difference in them. Will tretinoin help them over time? And also does anyone have any suggestions of other ways I could get rid of them? My derm suggested chemical peels, but I dont have the money for that at the time.So if anyone has any other ideas pleaseeeee let me know! I am desperate to get rid of them! Thanks a lot to anyone who replies

Ok so this is now my 6th week of using tretinoin and I heard this is the time that I can expect to see some really positive results. Well....

I first started off using tretinoin every other night, then started to use it every night, but after getting alot of irritation and dryness I cut back my usage to every other day. I don't know if this is going to harm my recovery process but I feel this is best for my skin because otherwise it gets too irritated.

Well anywayy so I think that over time the appearance of my skin has gotten slightly better and maybe a little softer than before the cream. My major problem areas are my cheeks, with my right cheek being far worse than the left. The majority of my acne consists of whiteheads, blackheads and papules.Well over time, my right cheek really started to get a little better. I do have a lot of scarring but overall the amount of pimples I was getting started to go down up until about five days ago. I noticed that I am developing a massive pimple that is under the skin and looks like it may be a developing cyst. Also next to it, I have three large pimples. I also still have many whiteheads and blackheads all over my left cheek with some inflammation. I am at a loss becauseI was under the impression that this was the time in my treatment that I would start to see some noticeable results!! I am hoping that these new pimples will clear up rather quickly but as of now does not seem to look that way. Does anyone have similar experiences? Hoping to get some insight!! When can I expect to see a real difference!

Hello, so I have been battling with really horrible acne for the past couple of months. I started on a regimen of clindamycin wipes and tretinoin cream a month ago to try and combat this problem. Although I feel as though this combination of meds was slowly starting to improve my skin I was experiencing a great amount of dryness. I do not know if this is due to the cold weather or the meds but it seemed that no matter what I would put on my face, it would still feel dry and almost hurt. I made a trip to the derm today and she prescribed me a desonide 0.05% cream and instructed me to add that to my regimen twice a day because of the redness and dryness on my face. She assured me this would help me with the inflammation and improve the overall appearance of my skin. I am not sure about this cream though. I mostly get a lot of whiteheads and blackheads and some inflammation, and also have a ton of red acne scars from previous breakouts on my face, however I researched online and am seeing mixed reviews about this product. Has anyone else been prescribed this by their derm? Do you know if it is helpful?I was not aware of the fact that it was a steroid earlier but now just the thought of that is sort of freaking me out!!

 

Also I was confused as to why she would prescribe this to me when it has only been a month that I have been on my tretinoin regimen. Isnt dryness a normal part of the process? What I do not understand is derms tell you you have to be patient with your treatments and yet only a month in and shes already wanting to add more topicals into my regimen? I am so confused and not sure what to do. Maybe switching to a diff derm would help.

 

Hoping someone could give me some insight on this!

I have battled with acne since I was a teenager. All throughout high school I had terrible skin, but miraculously as I got older it started to get a bit better. I started to get happy that maybe I am finally growing out of it. I am now 23. That all changed until about five months ago. I noticed that I started to develop acne on my cheeks ( a major problem area all throughout my teens, but not an area where I developed acne at all anymore). Initially I did not think anything of it, and tried some OTC products to use, containing benzoyl peroxide, because they had worked for me before. When these products didnt work and only made my skin worse, I decided to try out ProActiv. This was a terrible mistake because as soon as I started to use it my acne started getting muchhh worse and I would wake up in the morning to at least ten new pimples on each cheek every morning, inflamed,itchy and painful.I stopped usingthe proactiv,but my skin just kept getting worse. My pimples became so inflamed and painful and surely enough it got to the point where my entire cheeks were bright red and inflamed with pimples. I felt like a monster. I went to several different derms but was not satisfied with many of them because they did not really look at my skin, mostly just wrote out prescriptions for things such as oral antibiotics which I do not feel comfortable using. I became so depressed and did not want to go anywhere or do anything. I couldnt even look at myself in the mirror. People in my life started making comments about my skin and how bad it had gotten and every comment felt like a slap in the face. I just wanted to hide under a rock. I do not think that people who dont suffer from this problem really understand how badly it can affect the person with the acne. Your whole life gets put on hold because of this horrid skin problem.
Finally I went to a doc a month ago who gave me clindamycin wipes. which slowly started to help with the inflammation a bit. I am left with a ton of scars on my cheeks though. Recently my derm also suggested that I start using tretinoin cream 0.025%. she said in the long run this would make my skin better. Finally after so long my skin was clearing and initally after starting the tretinoin my skin started getting smoother too. I got happy and hopeful. However, now about two weeks in I have noticed that I am starting to break out again. I am developing many pimples all over my cheeks again. I know this is supposed to be part of an inital breakout but I am sooooo traumatized by my previous horrific breakout that I do not think that I can go through this all over again. I do not want to be afraid to look at myself in the mirror again. I am only starting to break out now, so can anyone tell me how long this will last?
And was hoping for some words of encouragement from others that have been through this too....

Hello, so I have been going through a really bad breakout for the past few months. I started taking keflex for a week due to a sinus infection and feel that it actually helped my skin a little bit. I am now on tretinoin cream and am scared of the horrid inital breakout so wanted to speak to my doc about staying on keflex for a few months. Does anyone know if this is a good idea? Do anitbiotics help with the inital breakouts? Any replies or help would be greatly appreciated