I've been so lucky that the regime I've been following (below) has kept me basically clear for 9 months now. I've had a wonderful summer and I'm finally able to look forward to life without fear of a major outbreak. My problem is that the copay on one of my meds, Oracea, has skyrocketed from $10 to almost $90 a month and I simply can't afford it anymore. So I'm stopping it. I'm so scared and anxious about this. My hope is that everything else I'm doing will keep my skin clear.

The other thought I'm clinging to is that when I took Oracea in the past, it never really seemed to help much. My derm added Oracea to my current regime last Feb along with everything else so there's no way to determine what's actually been keeping my skin clear. I guess stopping Oracea will be part of figuring this out. Although I hate the thought of returning to awful skin...

I need help to stay positive. I've struggled with acne for soooooo long that there is some bad emotional scarring and fears!

Thanks...

 

Have you looked into probiotics? Some people have success going off an antibiotic when they restore their natural immune system through heavy probiotics. I know that Oracea is "for inflammation only", but it still kills your good gut bacteria to some extent. The trials that the company itself funds of course conveniently place the antimicrobial line at 1000...not 1000.73 or 989.57...and how often does a medication just happen to fall under a perfectly even number. Thus they can say that Oracea is submicrobial. But trials not run by the Oracea company show that it can have antimicrobial activity, though not quite as much as normal doxy since it is time-released.

The only thing I would say is that you should taper off rather than stopping dead.

Back when I used to take antibiotics, I used to stop dead when the course finished as I didn't know any different and my acne would always go crazy.

Last time, following advice I received on these boards, I tapered off gradually and it didn't freak my skin out. For the last month, once a day became every other day, then every two, then every three.At the end of the last month, I was taking it once every four or five days. So if you've got the chance to taper of, even if it's not as gradual as I did over four or five weeks, it's bound to be better than stopping dead.

I was clear of acne before the course actually finished. In the months leading up to that, I had changed my diet and was taking supplements. So the logical part of me knew that the biggest influence was coming from those things rather than the antibiotics, but even so, I was still a little scared to come off. When I did come off, my skin didn't really change for the worst because the bulk of the success was thanks to the diet and supplements. So, if you're also in a position where you've other things keeping your skin under control, it sounds like you'd have a great chance to phase this medication out without your skin changing for the worse.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks all I will follow your advice and up the probiotics and taper off. Unfortunately I didn't know I was going to be facing this issue until all I had left was 6 capsules but I'll space them out and see if that helps! I've been taking a probiotic for awhile and added a really good soy yogurt that has lots of live culture in it so that should help. And I added Quercetain with Bromelain which also acts as an anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine.

That's very interesting about Oracea's having antimicrobial activity. I'll just have to hope that my topical antibacterial lotion. Cleocin-T, that I apply in the morning is sufficient. I probably have the world's most resistant case of acne. It came back after two rounds of accutane and has lasted decades (I'm now 61). The only thing it responded to was full strength oral antibiotics and when I was actually on the accutane. Nothing else worked.

However, my current derm (who I also saw in my 30's before moving away) looked through my charts and noted that I had never tried a topical antibiotic. So this is what he put me on, along with the regime below. Sort of a multi-prong approach. Plus I got allergy testing and avoid foods I'm sensitive too. The whole thing resulted in clear skin. A miracle really so you can see why it is scary for me. No way do I want to return to what I've suffered with through the years!!!

But I think that what is really keeping my skin clear is a combo of the BP cleanser + Cleocin-T + monthly microdermabrasions. That and allergy diet (and probiotics). This was a new kind of regime for me and it seems to be working so I hope that the Oracea just isn't that big a part of it...since as I shared above, I had tried it before and it never did much.

Again thanks for the support.

Well I chickened out and went back on Oracea. I was starting to get some red bumps and freaked out. I am so sensitive now to breaking out and fearful of returning to how things were before. I just can't stand acne and I'm sick and tired of having to deal with it and taking meds. I'm probably over-reacting but that's how it is. So I'll just have to find the $80 every month to pay for this. @#$%

Please no comments on going natural, etc. I did that for years...totally natural and it did not work. Suppliments help, diet helps, etc. but it did not stop the cystic acne. The only thing that has is the (complicated) regime below. Oh well...