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Accutane & Staph? HELP

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(@sandrino)

Posted : 11/15/2017 4:48 pm

I™ve been reading on this forum for several months, attempting new solutions and implementing all your guys wonderful info on top of seeing a dermatologist. I am now at a point where I feel I must post and ask for help. I am a 22 year old male, I™ve had acne in some form all my life and do struggle not to pick, in that time I™ve seen many dermatologists and doctors. My problems started as a child (young teen?) with little bumps all over the backs of my upper arms which I would pop vigorously until I got a bad scar near my shoulder which scared me off of popping innocuous bumps. The bumpy regions itself hasn™t really went away but I leave it alone and besides being visible it doesn™t bother me. Following that I had what I presumed to be typical teenage acne, my nose typically is all black heads, pimples or in grown hairs in my beard region, etc. No oral or topical solutions from doctors or dermatologists seemed to have any impact but again you learn to live with it and move on. Finally about a year ago I had a painful something develop in the bottom corner of my chin/ beard area that got MASSIVE and eventually released a bunch of gross green fluid leading me to believe it was an infection or something like that (I will say this I did pull at the beard hair a bit and wasn™t in the greatest frame of mind because it was Christmas and my dad had passed away just that week) the area has never really grown the hair back properly but I would been fine with just a scar the problem is the area continuously, almost a year on now, continues to get irritated/ raised up and red/ and produces just an insane amount of dead skin around it (I™ve theorized and it looks slightly to me like a bunch of hair coming out of too small a space or one follicle). Following this incident I seemed to be getting a resurgence of forehead acne so I went back to the doctor/ dermatologist route. At first I tried a topical which did nothing, moving on I and my derm made the call to try Accutane as a last stand against my growing skin problems, 2 pills of absorbica a day (I had refused Accutane years earlier in fear of the health problems and because I figured I™d grow out of acne) the results have been mild to say the least. I am 5 months in, never had the initial breakout people talk about, my lips are mildly dry, I have occasional dry patches, the blackheads on my nose cleared some but I would say that™s the extent of it. The acne on my forehead gets continuously worse and began weeping so I™ve spent the last month-2 months with a band aid somewhere on my forehead. Upon returning to the dermatologist he thought the forehead stuff was staph and prescribed me the topical mupirocin for the lesions and inside my nose, that was about two weeks ago and while some of the lesions have come and gone the major one on my forehead has stayed/ re emerged from its scar and new ones have formed. They seem to start as innocuous little bumps that look like very small acne that I either end up popping to get rid of or watch grow until they become painful or swell the flesh around it, the flesh around it seems to eventually peel away popped or not and turn into a large red diveted area. I had been using tea tree oil previous to the mupirocin which seemed to work as well or better and a major problem I am having is the bigger lesions cause the mupirocin to move away from the center of the wound and leak down my face if I don™t put a band aid on. The area on my chin continues to produce dead skin/ grow improperly but I currently have a full beard and have avoided shaving which seems to have stopped it getting irritated at least at this point, the derm did an extraction on it and couldn™t find anything so has stuck to cortisone shots which seem to calm it down(one nurse offered up the idea of removing the problem area and sewing it back together but that seems risky to me). 

Sorry for the wall of text I just wanted to get all my skin issues down and out there, in general it™s not something I like to talk about or share but I am at my wits end. I™m a bouncer at a bar and acne and band aids constantly on my forehead make for an easy target for drunk costumers when I confront them about something they may be doing, on top of the fact that drunk people already say things to me about my forehead that you™d never say sober. I™ve changed pretty much everything about my life and dietary habits to help including giving up soda (I love Coca Cola man), milk, adding a cup of greens to my diet everyday, etc. The areas I have also considered as a possible cause are mold in my apartment and my families dogs or my families well water (but they are undoubtedly thinking I™m increasingly insane if I bring these things up since they don™t have the same issue). 

The products I use are Jason™s tea tree body wash, a tea tree mint shampoo with occasional selsun blue, face cleansers - witch hazel apple cider vinegar and Mario badescu cucumber cleansing lotion, the Lush products ocean salt and grease lightening (a tea tree and aloe gel). I am also experimenting with alkavita/ alkaderm and puracyn. 

Any help, thoughts, ideas, things I may be doing wrong would be appreciated more than you know. 

Here™s my forehead today after a shower. The top right large one was the large healing/healed scar that seemed to reopen and begin weeping the last two days or so. The large red area to the left is a scar significantly older than the other with a new red swollen spot growing right above it/ on top of it (which has been common around these healing spots/ scars)
image.jpg

 

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(@sandrino)

Posted : 11/19/2017 1:07 pm

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts ?

Have also been waking up the last few nights with blood stains on my pillows but I dont see anywhere on the band aids or my body that show visible signs of bleeding in contact with the pillow, could the muniprocin in my nose or ears be bleeding ?

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(@sandrino)

Posted : 11/27/2017 9:02 pm

Any ideas anyone?

I now have hives on my arms and legs. Could I be coming into contact with something at home or work (given my current condition thats pretty much all Im doing thank god Ive got a break from school for a little bit here) and another scar has reopened (the middle one with the black speck in the picture above)

would really appreciate anyones input, this is really crushing me for a variety of reasons and even had a lady mock me last night at work so yeah would really love some help.

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(@sandrino)

Posted : 12/05/2017 9:55 pm

Anyone? Getting pretty bad in my opinion. One week left of accutane. Pretty much giving up. Here™s a pic of forehead currently followed by spot in beard thats been there over a year, spot in beards main problem is its a scarred area that seems to get inflamed easily, near the top right of the scar there is three or more hairs in one follicle (at least that™s what it looks like to me) it™s the visibly darker hair spot in the pic. It seems to form a hard sometimes annoyingly painful/ noticeable dead skin sheath around the three hairs and if I move those hairs around too much or try to remove the sheath it will often bleed not immediately but in the following days. 

As I noted earlier I™ve pretty much given up on this post getting a response or any help, and improving my situation in general. I™ve been mocked at work enough that I could honestly care less and forget about any kind of social life. I™m going to hope that with time I improve I™ll come back on here if it ever does or if I ever find something that helps so that hopefully others reading this will get the help I so desperately needed. 

 

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(@rapharapha)

Posted : 12/12/2017 5:43 pm

Hold tight. Push the dermatologist to solve your problem and constantly remind him that you still have the problem. Also remind your general practitioner. Good luck.

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(@juwalker)

Posted : 12/12/2017 6:00 pm

Looks improved in the photos. Keep going back to derm til you are satisfied. You may need a longer course or a lower long term maintenance dose. Keep us updated.

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(@ellyfant)

Posted : 12/13/2017 9:47 am

Your skin is otherwise poreless and looks ok. I think the big red patch may be something else, not acne. Are you using a good moisturizer? Go back and see the derm right away and see if he can prescribe a topical to heal the red patches. Picking while on accutane is a big nono because the skin takes a much longer time to heal on accutane.

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