Hi All,

     I'm a 32 year old Asian Male(Chinese) who has been suffering from severe cystic acne and keloids since my late teens.  I have some bad keloids on my shoulders and chest. These have flattened out significantly (the right shoulder ones are actually now depressed) since receiving 5FU/Triamcinolone injections from Dr Fischman in NYC. They have stopped itching and stinging completely.

    However, the bigger problem is that I have now started developing keloids on the face and I'm still constantly breaking out with cystic/nodular acne in the Jawline area and the sides of my face where keloids can form.

     I took accutane when I was 20-21 after various topicals, facial washes, and anti-biotics failed to work and made my acne progressively worse. After a 5-6month 60mg accutane course my acne was mostly clear for a few years and my skin became significantly less oily.   I had very severe cystic acne before and during the early part of accutane treatment. (quarter sized cysts, and masses of nodular acne, significant portions of my face was covered in crust formed from the puss and blood). I didn't develop any additional keloids during accutane treatment since most of my facial acne was on the Chin and T-zone during my 20's.

  After finishing college in Southern California, I moved to NYC for graduate school. During this time period I also had little or no acne. (mid 2008- mid 2010) I then moved to China for work from (july 2010 - end of 2012)  I had little or no acne during this time either.

   I moved back to California in 2013 and my acne has gotten progressively worse and my skin has also become very oily again. Even more Unfortunately my adult acne has moved down and is mostly concentrated around the jawline area and the sides of my face.  In December 2015, I started noticing that some of my "cysts" seemed to have been there for months at least. Then a dermatologist pointed out to me that they were actually keloids (facial keloids are supposedly to be extremely rare) For those of you who don't know what keloids are, they are  raised scar tissues that can grow way beyond the boundaries of the original wound, they can also be extremely painful and itchy. As big as the ones on my shoulders are, they are nothing compared to the horrific ones some people get from something as small as a chicken pox.

    I was put on doxycline in January and my face was mostly clear for 3 months, until my prescription ran out.  I then renewed my prescription for doxy. From January - April, I was on a very strict low carb, 0 diary diet and made sure I had 8-9 hours of sleep daily. I had very little acne during this time period though myself was still very oily.  I started breaing out more