Okaaaaay. Listen up.
I have never had almost any acne on my face for all of my 18 years up until the past 6 months where I have had a crazy hormonal outbreak of constant acne (which is being attempted to be handled, but all good things take time) and only on my jawline and a little on my cheeks.
This is kind of TMI but to get a better idea of what I'm asking, this is exactly what I'm dealing with:
Very deep and painful cysts and nodules that cluster together. They seem to never go away ever completely. It makes my skin just look very bumpy and if I open my mouth or stretch out my skin you can see them all. Ive even using retin a 0.025 nightly for a little over a month now, and I feel like it just makes them more inflamed and they never surface. They're just circular blobs stuck in the skin and some have been here for a month or longer, and when they go away they'll act up again a month later in the same spot.
help!!! What do I do and how long is normal???
Can you try to get a Cortisone shot for any of the remaining cysts or nodules? Sulfur topicals might also work to at least reduce them. There's a tool on Amazon for larger and more painful zits that uses a blast heat to reduce their size, I can't remember the name but it's definitely available. [I also have weird closed comedones around my mouth and I think it's a result of my hormone imbalance, I had them before Spiro but now they're even worse, sadly.]
How is the Retin A working for you? Are you seeing any difference at all? Maybe you need to gradually up the strength.