7/18/09

condition: diagonsed as gram negative folliculits after 'incorrect>?' diagonsis from my GP... Basically i used to get acne in my scalp, i used to get mild facial acne, but my scalp was progressively suffering more and MORE, especially a day after playing football, it would just go extremely red and later (1 or 2 days) flare up. This condition was on and off on the scalp but it got to the point were it stayed on, and it was extremely painful and i could not sleep at all, my pillow would have blood stains on it...

(UK) firstly i saw my local GP who said i have seborrhoea dermatitis so she gave me ketopine shampoo which never worked. I saw her again and she was adamant that i use the shampoo (bitch). I then requested to go private, so i went to see a dermatologist...

He took a swab of my skin, and then told me it was "negative" as in deep gram negative folliculitis which was spreading!

he recommend that i take drugs + creams: erythromycin (pills) + naseptin (nasal cream) + fucidin (cream for the affected area) .. ok, so a few days after taking the medicine, the infection had TOTALLY cleared, wow, too good to be true...

the course was two months long, a few weeks after finishing it the infection came back with a vengeance, more spots on the scalp which were getting even bigger and more painful. I then went to see the derm again;

this time he prescribed me with clarithromycin, fucidin h, naseptin, and some cholroxhine? pink liquid (antibacterial) to wash daily... ok so again it cleared in about a weeks time... the course was one month long, afterwhich he recomended i go on accutane...

side effect check: the erythromycin and clarythromycin gave me nightmares and my teeth started to get brown marks on them especially between teeth, this has been EXTREMELY HARD TO GET RID OF!!!!!!! my teeth look disgusting compared to how they used to look pre-treatment... (it also says that on the leaflet that your teeth may become discoloured)

accutane dries out your skin like a bitch, you HAVE to use e45 and vaseline on your lips. i was also unable to exercise properly as i would get muscle pains easily....

ok so after the ACCUTANE.....i was expericing breakouts in my armpit(something i hadnt had for a LONG time) the pus would dry up and fall out of infected areas), but soon after finishing accutane the infection reappeared again....!!!!!

this time i have had enough, i returned to the derm who advised me on taking more drugs, but i never went to buy them.

Since then i have changed my shampoo to tea tree +neem, my soap is natural, and i also use tea tree wipes on affected areas. strangely the infection did calm down after doing this but the problem is still here... something that definately helps with the pain is cod liver oil! this dramatically reduced the pain and the overal spread of the infection, zinc was another plus, i believe these can be used in cojuction with tea tree wipes.

as for me, i always seem to have a runny nose and when i was a teen i only used to get big spots near my nasal passage, moustache, side of nose areas. so i am guessing the problem is indeed inside of nose and its becoming irratated whenever i wipe it or blow it (once a day minimum). tea tree wipes are said to be antibacterial but i think alot would depend on the concentration on that stuff. garlic is something else which is supposed to clean out ur blood. i actually used a garlic+water mixture and it drew all the pus out of most spots overnight.

i have also changed my soap again to a dettol soap. its totally antibacterial and it is said to kill 99.9% of bacteria, so if this doesnt work then god help me... theres got to be something wrong with my immune system for not being able to cope with these bacteria...

as for swine flu hitting those with a weak immune system, i prayed that god would take me because im really unhappy, i have isolated myself from my friends, and i have recieved unpleasant looks from people i know and i have dented my self confidence probably for life, therefore i saviour every spotless moment.. we'll see what happens, but i thought id post my log for everyone to see and compare; i would recomend seeing a doctor first but dont expect huge results or you might see discolored teeth or end up like michael jackson!!

Added 22nd august 09a

Since coming back on holiday my condition seemed to progress dramatically. Whlist recalling a few breakouts on holiday, I remember having breakouts followed by wheat/ dairy products. Starbucks, icecream, tea were some of the few things, although they were not eaten in great excess. Whilst turning sick on the last few days of holiday the minimal conditional subsided after I stopped eating for 24 hours (extreme flu virus), stayed in bed, wasted 1 and half days of my holiday !! grrr. Overall when I was on holiday apart the condition remained variable with one or two breakouts in hair follicles, although on one morning I seemed to breakout in the armpit groin and face. Weird. Signs of a food reaction? Perhaps.

Ok so having returned from holiday my usual diet consists of breakfast: 3 wheetabix , lunch sandwich, evening usually Indian (lentils and chapattis), with snacks everyday either chocolate yogurt icecream crisps etc. like I said the condition got worse and worse having returned. I think I had increased my intake of garlic, red clover supplements, bought redbush tea, and continued with cod liver oil (10ml daily without fail). Now I predict that my condition is affected by diet, I decided that it was probably between wheat and dairy since I am a vegetarian. I tried to reduce my wheat consumption by not eating wheatabix, ie I replace breakfast cereal with milk only, I had done this for about 1 or 2 weeks, I felt that the condition was improving but I was highly mistaken when I had a massive breakout all over my scalp area once again. I had broken out severely after eating heavy dairy for around 2-3 days, diet included milk, tea, pizza, cheese, milkshake(large).

Since then I have switched to reducing dairy, so no dairy for breakfast, and have seriously tried to cut back on yogurt as well. I have come across a skin disease called HS or Hidradenitis suppurativa, im wondering if I have mistakenly been diagnosed with folliculitis when I have this condition instead! Anyway for the past week I have cut out dairy, cut out garlic, and I am taking 15mg zinc three times a day, I probably will cut down the 2 times a day in 2 weeks. I have read that HS affects those who are around the age of 20 and the disease stays till around 40 years old. The disease is also said to be hormone affected, aprocine glands in the skin become overloaded with hormones and overproduce substances that block the sweat glands. Having read this information, I know garlic influences testosterone levels in the human body, red clover influences oestrogen, and I also read that dairy could affect our hormones as well (going to research more on this soon).

Ref: wiki: anti androgen;

An antiandrogen, or androgen antagonist, is any of a group of hormone receptor antagonist compounds that are capable of preventing or inhibiting the biologic effects of androgens,[1] male sex hormones, on normally responsive tissues in the body. Antiandrogens usually work by blocking the appropriate receptors, competing for binding sites on the cell's surface, obstructing the androgens' pathway.

Zinc is apparently an anti androgen and could help control this condition. I hope that after a long time of taking 2 x 15mg of zinc daily for a while + controlling my dairy consumption can help reduce this condition. Over the last few days my scalp is healing well, one or two new spots which are yet to be inflamed, i hope the zinc will subside them overnight.

[i also went to see the doctor to ask for an allergy test in which he declined, he said only for children/ and extreme conditions, he said he could refer me to a specialist but I refused, after all this I got no faith in doctors.]

This condition really messes with my head, it has made me self conscious about the way I look, yet it has made me a stronger person. I donat give a fuck about the way they look at me. I hope to update log later? If I donat then presume the therapy works.

Log 9.57pm gmt