Can you post pics of the problem?

It sounds like antibiotics messed you up pretty bad. Maybe start doing some research on rebuilding gut flora and healing from that? (just be careful not to overdo probiotics--too much of them can cause just as many problems as having them wiped out)

Large open pores do take a while to go away. Four months isn't that long. How are you treating your skin now?

Also--what were you taking the antibiotics for?

I hope you feel better soon.

i'm told 'huge pores' are genetic.which is hard for me to believe because previously i too, like u had not many huge pores but its been some mnths or yrs since i notice them and yes,they are big if not huge.

are u trying to say ur pores are scarred?

I'll try and get some pictures posted.

I took amox 500mg 3x/day for 10 days for a "possible" ear infection. Didnt do anything but give me some zits.

About a month and a half later, I took Amox 1000mg 2x/day for 14 days for an abcessed tooth. Didn't do shit, I popped the abcess with a pin and pulled the tooth out with plyers and a cloth. Infection cleared..hasnt come back, wish id doen that first

Then I got strep from my neice drinking out of my water bottle, refused to take antibiotics till it got to the point I couldnt drink water (thx antibiotics for destroying my immune system making me prone to all these infections, which i never had untill i took antibiotics for that damn ear thing, which wasnt an infection to begin with, Turns out its TMJ related most likely. So I had to be put on IV clindamycin 600mg every 8 hours, 4 total injections, followed by 300mg clindamycin 3x/day for 14 days.

I now cannot digest ANY vegetables, they just pass right out of me undigested, massive amounts of bloating and constipation with loose diahrea type stool.

But as vain as it sounds, I dont even care about that, I just want my skin back

Anyway, ill try and get some pictures up in the near future.

As for skincare routine, im now using spectro jel (the purple one) once every day or 2 max, trying to push for 3, but all these damn large pores are congested (ive never had conjested skin .. acne mildly when i was younger, but never any conjested skin) so i dont think going 3 days without washing will help much.

Also, now when i do pop a pimple it stays red for days, i'd get the odd under the skin bump or blackhead that could be very easily extracted and there would be no redness remaining after about an hour or two.

Sebum seems to be SLOWLY coming back, but now it just make my pores look even worse. This sucks. Most of the damage was from the Derma E microdermabrasion, says to massage for 3 minutes over entire face gently. I rubbed rough in the same area for the full 3 minutes, and now i have large / scarred pores only where I used the Derma E, the rest of my skin is still the same except for the small skin colored pimples everywhere now.

Antibiotics wrecked my immune system combined with chronic stress, and gave me acne

Xrays turned my skin dry (also getting hair loss after x rays)

Derma E damaged my skin from which it seems it can not repair (Is it even POSSIBLE for pores to return to normal after 4 months? I cant find a shred of evidence saying that they can or will)

I know many people report a pore reduction, but I do not believe these people had large scarred pores, probably had rougher skin texture or blackheads (blackheads are NOT enlarged pores) and this is what people see a reduction in I think.

Please look at my post, 'Change Your Life' in general discussions.

I promise you it will all change if you follow my rules and this will be your last treatment ever.

It's horrible acne, but no matter how bad yours is, you can have great looking skin.

Consistency and patience is the key to getting rid of acne.

Also, stop looking in mirrors. Stress levels sore when you catch your own eyes and face and that obviously doesn't help.

For your particular case, take an executive B vitamin for stress.

Since salicylic acid made your face worse, you might just be allergic to salicylates and sulfites (antibiotics contain sulfites btw). Try using just the bare basics. Trust me, when I cut out all the crap, my skin began to heal on its own. Do some simple honey masks if your skin tolerates it - do a patch test for a couple of days and then apply pure honey all over your face if there's no reaction. Pure aloe vera gel also helps. Maybe a B5 or hylauronic acid serum if you want to use something a bit stronger. Just let your skin breathe and don't apply too many things on it. Washing your face with spring water instead of harsh tap water can help, and also using a SLS-free cleanser. And what deja said, just work on strengthening your immune system with healthy eating, vegetable juices, and maybe a few supplements (watch out for gelatin and other capsule ingredients though).

for the last 3 months Ive only been washing my face with Spectro gel (purple), as its ever more gentle that cetaphil. I wash my face 5-6 times a week (never more than once a day) and Im not seeing any improvment. Ive read a VERY few posts about others who have had enlarged pores due to chem peels/retin a and microdermabrasion. And all but 2 or 3 have never recovered from them. One girl posted her enlarged pores started going away around the 8 months mark of not doing ANYTHING to her face (just cold water in the morning) and after 14 months her skin was back to normal. And another girl who said hers was almost back to normal after 8 months, so theres still that shred of hope that im hanging onto. But hope can be a two way street, as most do NOT recover from this.

also, why has my skin gone from super oily to super dry. funny, enlarged pores are connected with oily skin, yet when my skin was oily i didnt have acne OR pores. Now its dry i Have loads of acne and loads of pores. its noted that as you age your skin gets drier and your pores get larger... so OBVIOUSLY oily skin does NOT = large pores or acne.

I had acne from 15-25, during this time i had a habit of holding in my stool as long as possible, cause i hated "wasting time" giong to the loo (I used to be so activce/social...)

I made it a habbit to start going whenver i got the urge, and a round of antibiotics for an abcessed tooth in 2010 and my acne cleared 100% in 6 months. I was then acne free for a year and a half. I could eat 10lbs of junk and drink pop, not wash, rub shit all over my face and go to sleep. No zits in the morning.. EVER. Nothing could give me acne. then took antibiotics again in large doses and acne started coming back. I have really bad bowel habbits after those damn antiibiotics.

THEREFORE Acne = Digestive issuses, and toxic build up within your intestines. along with other organs being damaged/crowded or over worked.

Acne happens in teenages the most in my opinion because the surge in horomones. Horomones are filtered thru the liver. All of these excess toxins too clear out (yes i related horomones to toxins, because if they are NOT eliminated efficiently, they become free radicals / toxins ) it stresses your liver. Live is a main component of digestion therefore overworked liver due to horomone surge = excess toxins and free radicals, and your already taxed liver now has a harder time helping in filtering toxins from food, and hinders proper bile secretion for digestion. This is what = acne. A fault in your digestive system. (or any organ linked too/with digestion)

The first round of antibiotics got rid of a certain bacteria that was overgrown inside me, most likely from holding in my stool all the time. once these were killed I was INCREDABLY fortunate that the proper ones took its place, and i Had great elimination. unfortunately after the massive amounts of them Ive been on in the beggining of the year, they killed too many of the good ones, and now the bad ones have grown more.

Antibiotics are KNOWN, VERY WELL KNOWN as in gauranteed 100% to affect your difestion, whthere you notice it or not, it always does, as bacteria play a large roll in what you can digest.

I took ALL of my antibiotics will cooked/steamed vegetables. ANd now I cannot digest ANY vegetables .. coincidence? maybe, but i doubt it.

Anyways ill keep hoping against hope that i can recover from this. Doctor has me going in to yest for celiac / chrons as he believes antibiotics are a cause for these conditions and yells at me for not going to him in the first place.

Hey, i just wanted to tell you, i think i have the same thing (though cant exactly tell without picture).

These pores i think didnt come because of the antibiotics, but because of the salicylic acid and the general drying of your skin.

Basically what happened is that the peel dried your skin and your sebum, and then the hard sebum streched your pores, and somehow

your skin cant recover from that (just like mine).

When i was 18 (im 24 now) i remember i had perfect skin with no visible pores at all (except the tip of my nose), but due to emotional stress i got like 2 small pimples on my inner cheek / beside my nose. I was stupid enough to always trying to squeeze them, so they didnt really went away and got a little worse (but still, the complexion of the rest of my face was perfectly fine).

So i just went to a doctor and got some kind of chemical peel, i dont remember if it was BP or salicylic acid, but it smelled kind of strong and toxic. What i remember was that it fucked up my skin complexion. Just exactly like you described, one morning i also woke up and had these big conjested pores around my nose, maybe 2 days later also on my forehead, but the pimples went away. Only on the spots where i used the chemical peel. All in all i only used the peel maybe for a week.

I still have this right now, even six years later. I'm not using any skincare at all and didnt get any pimple (not even a single one) in all that time, but my face looks still somehow fucked up (big pores, dry, but oily at the same time). Which also depresses me a lot..i know there are a lot of people with a much more severe acne case, but at least pimples come and go, while this shit came overnight and doesnt go away for years if ever, it seems.

This is a good example as to why we need to stop messing with our skin too much.

Us acne-prone people tend to panic when we break out, buy some chemical cocktail OTC and slather it on our face - then we pay for the consequences.

I know my skin would look so much better if I just left it well alone years ago when I got those first few acne breakouts.

This is a good example as to why we need to stop messing with our skin too much.

Us acne-prone people tend to panic when we break out, buy some chemical cocktail OTC and slather it on our face - then we pay for the consequences.

I know my skin would look so much better if I just left it well alone years ago when I got those first few acne breakouts.

SO TRUE. I started breaking out when I was 16, like most people. I went crazy on my face though, because when I went to get a facial the specialist told me there was something wrong with my skin and convinced me to buy some horribly irritating products. I also started using some hardcore face makeup, and it just went downhill from there, until 2 years later when it finally exploded. We have to be so careful!

Also, people have some really good suggestions for you on here, but I would really recommend the Regimen, or advice from a dermatologist, although the Regimen will probably save you money, and it should work on your skin. It's for all types of acne and all skin types.

The regimen will do absolutely nothing, my acne is internal, and my skin is suddenly very dry and peeling, also have aged 10 years overnight. The regimen will do nothing but damage my skin further. I haven't washed my face in 4 days, skin is drier, but pores are ever so slightly smaller, and not a single new zit. Also redness has come down. So that's what I'll keep doing...nothing.

Skin is not self destructive, and I believe 90% of us would have better skin in the end if we'd just let shit be, but we can't do that can we? No, of course not, the media has made us all vain and shallow. How many people in undeveloped contries have acne? Do some research and I'll find it's VERY rare in non industrialized countries. This is NOT a coincidence.

Since your problem happened after you took antibiotics maybe you should try some probiotics. Try some yoghurt if dairy doesn't break you out. You can also buy plain probiotics in vials.

It would help rebuild the good bacteria killed by the antibiotics.

Also I think you should probably just try a gentle cleanser and moisturiser for the time being. Hope your skin goes back to normal.