Hi everyone,

I'm a long-time reader but first time poster at acne.org. Since I was 12, I've had on and off acne troubles that were completely exacerbated when I hit college. Since then, I have tried a wide range of treatments including Accutane that helped with my cystic acne but was not effective on the mess of small bumps that have spread out from my forehead and cheeks.

About 11 days ago, I had a Levulan blue light treatment at a skin care clinic. They left it on for 6 hours and I was under the blue light for about 20 minutes (which felt like acid was being poured on my face). After that, I was extremely extremely red and puffy. The next day I started to break out heavily with whiteheads all over my face. These cleared up after about 2 days. Since then, the redness has decreased steadily but I'm still breaking out with pimples everywhere and the bumps have persisted on my forehead. I have also been going in for red/blue light treatments every day since then.

My question is this: does my reaction seem normal? How long should I expect to break out for? The practitioners at the clinic have been no help and I am left with acne that is so much worse than what I had before.

I would really appreciate any advice or thoughts that anyone could throw my way.

All the best,