I've been going through the worst year of my life from pityriasis rosea to some unknown inflammatory skin condition. I'm on my last month of accutane, and while it helped tremendously with acne - it did not have an effect on whatever is causing this inflammation of my skin.

My Dermatologist always wants to give me nizoral shampoo, antifungals, antibiotics, and refuses to culture my skin. So for me I go to the regular doctor and shove the results in her face.

The last 3 of 4 dr visits showed I had an overgrowth of serratia marcescins which is a gram negative bacteria that usually is only pathogenic to those immunocompromised individuals. However, I don't know if I have an immune disorder or not, not even sure who you go to for that.

The last girl who cultured my skin effed up the whole thing, didn't label it correctly, completely botched. So, I bought a microscope and did the gram staining myself.

What I found was a few yeast cells (no overgrowth guess rules out pityrosporum), a few demodex mites (again i guess that rules out demodex folliculorum), and a whole boat load of blue stained bacteria, and a considerable amount of red stained bacteria. Red is gram negative - and blue is gram positive.

I'll be taking these with me to show the derm. My guess would be that I have a bacterial infection that is extremely resistant to antibiotics and accutane.

How to perform a gram stain -

1) take a culture with a qtip (rub fiercely)

2) take a slide and put a drop of water on it

3) rub the q tip on the drop of water until its dry

4) heat fix the slide - for those who don't have a bunsen burner like me, take a lighter and swipe it really fast under the slide 3-4 times

5) pour crystal violet onto the slide and wait 60 seconds then wash off with water

6) pour iodine onto the slide wait 40 seconds and wash off with water

7) take decolorizer (ethanol) and spray the slide down then quickly rinse with water

8) pour saffrenin on the slide wait 45 seconds and then wash down with water

9) air dry and then another swipe with the lighter good to go

10) take a look gram positive is blue/ gram negative red yeast cells which look like spaghetti and meatballs will stain red also, and demodex just looks like an evil creature and does not absorb stain.

To further investigate and see whats a fungus or not a fungus - Perform steps one through 4. Pour potassium hydroxide which kills everything off the slide but the fungus. Then take a look, or if you prefer you can pour some saffrenin on there to add some color, but you should be able to see the yeast or fungus without a stain.