Day 11

Had a rough few days- had 3 very painful and cystic spots, one by the side of my forehead (where I have loads of scarring already), one on my forehead to the left, and one on my chin area. All 3 are looking a little better this morning (i've resisted squeezing 2 of them but couldn't resist with the chin one!) and the breakout on my jaw continues to flatten out. However I can still see tiny little bumps under the skin although they do appear to be coming to a head and turning into whiteheads... all be it very slowly!

Day 14

The 3 nasty spots described above are dying down but I have a new nasty one on chin area and have also got new pimples on my neck.

The right hand side of my face (jaw area) is normally by far the worse but the left hand side is starting to level out now as the tiny under-skin pimples are starting to come to the surface as well :/

Overall since starting the doxy I would say my skin is slightly worse than when I started.

I've had a bizarre day- when I was given doxy 2 weeks ago my dr referred me to a 'dermotologist nurse'. I saw her today, what an absolute waste of time that was. She was a lovely lady but she tried to get me to 'grade' my acne by looking at pictures of other people who had completely different acne to mine. She also started describing what acne is to me- really? I've had it for 13 years, I know what it is. She then tried to persuade me to continue with antibiotics and to not go on roaccutane again. I know my own skin. I have no doubt that antibiotics will clear my skin up but I can guarantee my acne will come back after like always and I'll be back to square one. I have a dr's appt 2 weeks today where I plan on asking for a referral to an actual derm for roaccutane round 2. Until then, maybe this doxy will eventually decide to start clearing up although the nurse did say I'm on a 50mg dose which she described as 'pretty useless'.

Over & out!

Day 19Still no huge improvement. The jaw breakout on my right hand side continues to flatten. I've had some new pimples pop up right on my temple, the side of my face and also one on my left cheek. They don't seem to be as cystic and as inflamed as they were so I guess thats an improvement in a way! The pimples that I did have just before I started this log on my left cheek appear to be leaving scars, as if I need any more of those. Can't wait until my next dr's appt a week Thurs where I plan on asking for a derm referral for roaccutane round 2 and double the dosage of doxycycline.

Day 22

Having a really bad day Just when I thought the acne on my jaw (right side) was clearing, medium sized bumps have appeared along my jawline. My skin is so, so bumpy. I squeezed some of the bumps which are a bit higher- I couldn't resist and squeezed them and stringy white stuff comes out uch! Also got a new bump under skin on right cheek. I scar really badly on my cheeks so getting worried now. Not sure I can hold on until dr's appt which is a week today.. I'm considering going on Monday instead.

Also i'm SO BLOATED tonight! I haven't eaten particularly bloaty foods.. I had a jacket potato with tuna mayo for lunch and a wholemeal sandwich for dinner!? I suspect this is the antibiotics wreaking havoc on my body despite the fact i'm taking 2 x acidophilus per day!

Day 25

Things are still pretty dire. I kept waking up in my sleep last night due to two painful zits coming up (does that ever happen to anyone else, the sleep thing?)- one above my lip and one above my eyebrow. Squeezed both as they'd already come to whiteheads.

My jaw (both sides now) continues to be the worst part of my face. Everything just seems to be getting more cystic on my jawline. I have several big red bumps but when I pull the skin taught you can literally see several balls of puss underneath the surface! Disgusting. Acne seems so much worse when it feels so much worse doesn't it? I use a lot of make-up but bumps are impossible to hide. I'm sitting here with my face coated in Lush's 'Mask of Magnamity', ive used it a few times over the last 2 weeks. Doesn't seem to do a lot but it's easy to apply and easy to rinse off so i'm sticking with it.

Doctor's appt on Thurs, think I may as well hold out until then. Can't wait, but at the same time i'm so worried that they will say 4 weeks isn't long enough to give my skin for doxy, keep going, bla bla. I want my derm referral and I want it now!

Day 26

Wasn't going to post today but feel I need to vent a bit. Stupidly tried squeezing some of these large red cystic.. things on my jaw. Nothing. And they'll probably be 3 x as inflamed tomorrow, brilliant! On a positive note *touch wood* haven't had any new acne coming up today, at least that I can do. I thought i'd post my routine up:

MORNING

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Face Wash

Clearasil Rapid Action Deep Pore Treatment Toner

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Oil-free Moisturiser

1 x Birth Control Pill (Mercilon)

2 x Probiotics (acidophilus)

LUNCH

2 x Zinc Supplements

DINNER

1 x ABC Vitamin tablet

BEFORE BED

Take make-up off with 'Take the day off' by Clinique

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Face Wash

Clearasil Rapid Action Deep Pore Treatment Toner

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Oil-free Moisturiser

Istorexin gel (thin layer all over face)

1 x Doxycycline capsule 50mg.

Day 28 *One month mark*

So today marks one month on Doxycycline and about 8/9 weeks on Isotrexin. One thing i've been noticing this week is dry, flaky and red skin on my forehead and dryness on my nose and jaw. I think this is probably a side effect of the Isotrexin (as Isotrexin is accutane in gel form), so it may be an indicator that the isotrexin is actually doing something!

Went to see the Dr today. I explained that my acne has gotten worse and more cystic. She actually suggested writing to the dertmatologist and of course I agreed with this. Hopefully I should be on roaccutane again by March-ish. She also bumped up my Doxycycline to 100mg per day so I'm expecting things to quicken up now.

Two new spots since last time- one about an inch from the left hand side of my mouth, and one really big under the skin nasty one on left cheek. Left side of my face is starting to get even by the right by the looks of things! The last cheek zit I mentioned is going down by itself, phew!

Things are (slowly) starting to look up! Hopefully this time next year i'll be able to look in the mirror and not deliberatley make my eyes go out of focus so I can't see my acne!

Day 35

Hi all. Not a huge amount to report. JawGate is still ongoing- had some more large itchy red pimples come up at the beginning of this week (right side) that I squeezed on Monday evening. Since then I've notice a flattening of the area but I'm not going to get my hopes up too much as this has happened before and then bam, more spots! I've attached a picture of JawGate for you all to see. I took it this morning. Although it's a lot flatter than it has been, you can see the discoloration from the spots that have previously been there so you can see the scale of it.

I've had 3 or 4 very small manageable zits come up on my temples and near eyebrow area.

Overall, I have a feeling that the general picture may be improving slightly for the first time since my acne problems made a significant come back starting in June 2014.

I did forget to take my doxy last night and took it this morning on an empty stomach, big mistake as I'm pretty sure this was behind my having to pull my car over and throw up this morning! I had awful nausea for 30 mins previous to this.

Day 40

Things are looking bad again I said last time I felt things were improving but it seems I spoke to soon. The left hand side of my face is pretty good apart from two little bumps on my cheek I can feel under the skin.

Right hand side as usual is a different story. JawGate continues. Lots of new bumps coming up AGAIN. Where can they all be coming from!? To make matters worse the affected area is getting even bigger as i'm now getting pimples all the way up my jaw towards my ear. I've attached a picture of JawGate for you to see, not the best quality again but if you compare it to the last picture you can probably see that it's worse today. Seriously, i've been on Doxycycline for 6 weeks now, what's going on!? I'm starting to think I became resistant to it from when I first took it.

The only saving grace is that although I have lots of large, deep, almost cystic spots, most of the hundreds of tiny under-the-skin spots I was describing in my first few posts have gone- I suspect this is because they have actually all turned into the big cystic spots I seem to have today. Still, hopefully it means when (if...) the bigger spots clear, i'll be left with clear skin and no more little under the skin bumps.

If you look at the picture closely you can actually see some of those little white bumps i'm talking about.. I can see about 6/7 in the middle.

Day 42

jaw still in a state, new spots on both cheeks as well as side of my head (temples), which are both areas which already have really bad scars. Really starting to feel like doxy isn't working and I feel this may be because I was on it before. If I don't see an improvement by the end of next week I'm going back to the Dr to ask for different antibiotics as it will be ages yet before I get roaccutane.

Feeling so crappy..

Day 46

My acne is now at the worst it's been since I was about 14/15.. pre-roaccutane and pre-antibiotics. I'm 25. I honestly can't believe how much my skin has deteriorated in the last 6 months, it's unreal.

JawGate isn't going anywhere. In the light I can see about 20/30 bumps along my jawline. Over the weekend I had 3 zits come up on my chin, one on my lip, and, the worst part.. 3/4 on each cheek. It's so much harder to hide cheek acne and it's where I scar the worst.

I feel so depressed. I don't feel like going to work, going out, socialising, or doing anything. I just want to stay in bed all day with isotrexin lathered all over my face.. not that it seems to be doing anything, because it isn't.

This is day 45 every single oral treatment i've been on before (doxy, minocycline, accutane, etc etc) have worked nearly instantly for me. I'm not sure what the next step is. I'm tempted to go back to the dr's this week and asked if I can be pushed up the derm waiting list, for new/different antibiotics (ones i've never been on before, if there are any left) and Dianette. I know the derm nurse advised me not to make such drastic changes because it can be hard to tell which treatment is working but I honestly don't care anymore, I just want to blast my body with every treatment possible now. Can't go on like this.

Day 55

Progress has been up and down since my last blog. I've had a new clogged pore come up near my cheekbone and 3/4 new spots on my neck. However, (can't believe i'm about to say this!!) no new spots on face in the last 2/3 days and the cheek outbreak on my left cheek is flattening out, as is my problematic jaw. Feels like another turning point, but last time I said that I broke out like crazy!

Day 46

My acne is now at the worst it's been since I was about 14/15.. pre-roaccutane and pre-antibiotics. I'm 25. I honestly can't believe how much my skin has deteriorated in the last 6 months, it's unreal.

JawGate isn't going anywhere. In the light I can see about 20/30 bumps along my jawline. Over the weekend I had 3 zits come up on my chin, one on my lip, and, the worst part.. 3/4 on each cheek. It's so much harder to hide cheek acne and it's where I scar the worst.

I feel so depressed. I don't feel like going to work, going out, socialising, or doing anything. I just want to stay in bed all day with isotrexin lathered all over my face.. not that it seems to be doing anything, because it isn't.

This is day 45 every single oral treatment i've been on before (doxy, minocycline, accutane, etc etc) have worked nearly instantly for me. I'm not sure what the next step is. I'm tempted to go back to the dr's this week and asked if I can be pushed up the derm waiting list, for new/different antibiotics (ones i've never been on before, if there are any left) and Dianette. I know the derm nurse advised me not to make such drastic changes because it can be hard to tell which treatment is working but I honestly don't care anymore, I just want to blast my body with every treatment possible now. Can't go on like this.image.jpg

is doxy working for you ? Do you have resistance towards antibiotics ?

I was on tretinoid + doxycyline.

Took about 2 months to cleared out, then i go on a lower dose of doxy for 3 months.

Day 61

Things are still continuing to look up Since last time i've had one new spot come up on my lower neck, one on left cheek and one/two on right jaw. In general, the picture is getting a lot clearer although I am in hyper pigmentation city!

FYI I stopped using istorexin, I haven't used it since day 56 because I ran out. To be honest, it didn't seem to be doing much for me. I've never had much luck with topicals anyways.

Day 67

Skin is continuing to improve. Slightly less redness and lots of flattening out, my skin is feeling so much smoother! Had 2 new spots since last time, one small whitehead on JawGate and got quite a painful one on left cheekbone which seems to have reduced a little overnight. Only thing is that i'm now starting to mull over my scarring.. and i'm not talking about the hyper pigmentation (I can deal with that) but more the ice pick and box car scars i've had before this whole breakout. It's just about coming to that horrible realisation that I will never have perfect skin I suppose!

I'll add pictures at some point, although to be honest, I think it will be hard to capture the progress as most of the redness is still there- it's more the fact that my skin is so much flatter and with barely any bumps now which is what's progressed so much.

Day 71

Hi all, I took a pic on day 69 but it doesn't really show much change as you can't see how much my skin has flattened out from it! I'll upload after anyways.

Had a bit of a down day yesterday. Don't get me wrong, i've continued to not have any new zits, but I caught a glimpse of my face in some strong sunlight in the bathroom. My skin is just so full of imperfections. My pores around my nose are still gigantic (I seem to remember only roaccutane being able to fix that) which really bothers me.

On a more positive note, my face continues on the clear path. The blackheads on my nose seem to be coming closer to the surface..? Not sure if that's a coincidence or whether the doxy is pushing them out.

Hopefully this blog is concrete evidence that you NEED to give acne treatments time (2-3 months) before you can expect results!

Day 75

Things are still going well for me! There seems to be less redness along JawGate now, so I took a picture today which i'll attach at the bottom of this post so you can see

I have had one kind-of spot come up on my chin, it was really painful at one stage but hasn't come to a head and seems to be going down.

I have to admit, now things are clearing up, i've found myself being a bit lazier with my regime! I'm good with taking my make-up off in the nights but I've missed out doing my face wash/toner/moisturiser in the evenings a few days over the last week or so. Really need to get back on track with that one.

Starting to look ahead to my dermatologist appt now. I haven't been offered one yet, probably won't be for months actually. But still, I don't like being on antibiotics in general so i'm looking forward to going back to roaccutane. I wonder if it will get rid of my acne permanently second time round..? I don't want to be going through this cycle of accutane -> clear skin -> off accutane -> bad skin -> antibiotics -> accutane all through my life.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

The picture above is from today, Day 75. If you look at it compared to the picture I uploaded on Day 46 you'll see the difference!

Day 82

A few developments since last time. On day 76 a nasty spot came up on JawGate. Once again, like the vast majority of acne i've had during this whole 2014/15 breakout, it was not squeezable. It was a large lump with no whitehead that has now completely flattened out! I also got one small zit on the very top of my head by my hairline, and one on the back of my neck.

General picture is still one of huge improvements. My skin is feeling so much softer, I can't stop feeling it!!! Feels good!

Day 98

Hi all, didn't realise it had been so long since my last post! Things have steadily improved in terms of skin clearing up and the red marks on my jaw fading. However, Day 91 was pretty rough.. I had a spot come up on the back of my neck and two quite deep nasty ones on my right cheek near my nose. I find it really difficult to cope with acne in the centre of the face as it's so more visible there. I squeezed one of the spots and it barely left a trace, however the other one never came to a head and so i'm just letting it flatten down by itself.

Although overall progress is good i'm still feeling very self-conscious about my skin. My pores on my nose and side of nose are actually huge! Still, when I look back at the pictures I posted earlier on this thread when my skin was at it's worse I realise how far i've come. Will try and post up a new picture this week.

Day 110

Mixed progress since last time. Still general improvement overall, but I've had three more spots come up on JawGate recently. Two of them have been and gone, but i've got another nasty one now! I've also had a few spots on my back. Still unhappy with my gigantic pores and still feeling really low about my scarring (ice pick, box car.. a bit of everything).

BUT! Good news, today I got my letter from my derm stating i'm ready to book an appointment with them. Really excited about that! Accutane round two here I come!

Day 120

Hi all!

So today was the day of my first Derm appointment- WAHOO!! But before I get onto that, an update on my skin from last time. I've had about 3 spots crop up around my jaw (honestly thought I was completely re-lapsing) and one or two on my neck and top of my back. All of which have flattened down after a few days. None of them came to a white head, just nasty old nodules again. My skin is looking pretty good at the moment.

So.. my derm appointment! First of all, I was really lucky I was seen so quick. Originally I wasn't going to be seen til the 20th March but they had a cancellation today. I went to the appt completely make-up less. I was surrounded by a load of other acne sufferers but luckily I was seen first.

I described my acne journey to the derm from the beginning. My derm examined my face and back. She said my case was a "difficult one"- she said it was tricky because it isn't clear cut... On the one hand, my skin isn't that horrific at the moment as Doxy has done a decent job, so there's a case for leaving me on it for another 6-18 (!!!!) months. But on the other hand, i've been suffering from acne for a long time and my skin is highly prone to scarring. Accutane of course is a preventative measure for acne and therefore for scarring too. Thankfully, she asked me for my thoughts (I thought she was going to disallow me Accutane!) and so I explained to her how upset I am about my scarring and how little negative side effects I had on Accutane last time. She said she agrees and is fine to put me on Accutane again! Woo hoo! I think having some new-ish acne helped strengthened my case for Accutane as Doxy clearly isn't clearing 100% of my acne (although it has done wonders so far in all fairness). I signed all relevant paperwork, had my pregnancy test, she looked at my blood results etc and all was fine. I was in and out within 40 minutes and had my Accutane prescription to boot. Really excited, i'm going to start tomorrow to give my body a little break from Doxy first.

The derm did talk a lot about my scarring which made me feel really self-conscious. I don't think my scarring is THAT horrific, there's a lot of it but it's not as deep as scarring i've seen on other people. But nevertheless she mentioned words like 're-surfacing' and 'fillers' I could consider paying for once i've finished my course of Accutane. I am definitely interested this and am looking into Dermarolling, so if anyone has had any experience of this I would appreciate some advice!

So here we go, here are the last photos of me on Doxycycline taken today, Day 120. I took my last Doxycycline tablet last night. You will be able to see a huge improvement from the horrific IB I had earlier on in this thread. The first pic shows 'JawGate' loads of hyper pigmentation still which shows where the huge breakout was. The second picture shows my left cheek. No active acne here now but lots of scarring which seem to be getting worse These pictures don't show my scarring at all really. My face is covered in pits but the lighting on these pictures is kind to my skin:

So this will be my last post on this thread! I haven't had many comments but lots of views so I hope this has helped people who have been lurking. Doxy (any antibiotics really) are in my opinion a brilliant short-term fix to clear up even the most severe of breakouts. Unfortunately for me at least, they don't work long-term. And I have certainly felt the effects previously of being on antibiotics for long periods of time. Good luck to everyone on your Doxycycline journey, now for my new Accutane log!!