Hello All!
Welcome to my Doxycycline (100 mg) and Retin-A (.025%) log! I will try to update this as much as I can during the next few months, and I hope that at least one person on this website (which I am new to, woo hoo!) will find this useful.
Background Information
I am a 15 year old, teenage girl who has had acne since 5th grade. My acne started out pretty light, but as the years went by it got progressively worse. When I was 14 years old, my acne began to flare up so I visited my pediatrician hoping she would schedule me an appointment with a dermatologist... she didn't. Instead, she recommended I try ProActiv. I used ProActiv for 10 months or so and my skin calmed down. It wasn't perfect, however, and I still had a few pimples here and there but it was tolerable. When I began seeing ProActiv Plus commercials on TV, I decided to try it out. Bad idea. I began getting deep, painful cysts all over my right cheek that would take weeks to go away. At my worst point, I couldn't even speak since it hurt to move that part of my face. I visited my pediatrician again and she immediately scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist. The dermatologist was extremely friendly and helpful, and she suggested I go on Doxycycline for a month and if that didn't do anything in a month, that I come back for Accutane. And so I began my doxycycline journey. The first week, I saw no improvement but I also didn't get any new breakouts. The second week, my active pimples dried up and went down completely. Third week, I had no new breakouts and I was happy. Fourth week I began to get deep pimples on my face that were nothing compared to the ones I had previous to the doxy. I met with my dermatologist again and she said that she saw improvement on my face so she thought it would be a good idea to stick with the doxy for 5 more months and add Retin-A on top of that to help out with my severe hyperpigmentation.That's where I am today. My first day of Retin-A and second month of Doxy
Below I have attached two pictures: The first one is what my skin looked like before Doxycycline and the second one is what my skin looks like after one month of Doxycycline:
@siewguat I use the Retin-A 30 minutes after I wash my face with the Cetaphil Gentle Cleansing Bar!
2nd Week Update
I think I am beginning to get the dreaded "initial breakout" since my face is swelling up with deep, painful pimples that take a while to head. Aside from that, nothing else seems to be happening... Let me know if you guys have any questions/comments!
2nd Week and a Half Update:
The initial breakout is getting worse and worse and I'm kind of regretting starting Retin A this month since its Thanksgiving and Christmas is right around the corner Too late to go back now so I'm staying hopeful that it'll all get better soon!
Here are the pics: (I did not pick on the pimples! They popped by themselves while I was washing my face. It appears to be that the Doxy/Retin A helps bring up a head faster)
hi! i have pretty mild acne which isnt under the skin acne sort of thing. i am on Retina and Doxy and its been about 1 week. ive started getting really dry flakey skin all over my face and my acne is getting really bad; i feel like this is pretty normal but do you know how long this will go on for? i have events which i plan to go to and dont want my skin this bad for them. i also have tried covering them with makeup and the makeup literally scabs off it, literally it just flakes around it and leaves my face! its so weird.
thanks, any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!