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Damaged Skin - Long Recovery - Eventually Accutane - Now In Hell

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(@chardrich)

Posted : 08/28/2015 1:01 am

Okay , I really don't want to be writing this, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I am going to summarize a lot of the backstory. In July of 2014, my mother suggested I use an acne wash, as I had run out of my daily soap. My previous washing routine consisted of a washing my face twice a day with a sialic acid soap; sometimes adding a benzoyl peroxide soap. This seemed to keep my acne pretty mild. Now, It's important to add that I have Keratosis Pillars Rubra, the mildly pink coloring you see in people cheeks, which, coincidental is a "sensitive skin condition. I wasn't aware I even had this until somewhat recently. Back to where things went horrible wrong. The soap, or at least what I thought was the same as soap, that my mother gave me (I am 18 by the way) turned out to actually be a sialic acid face scrub. Neglecting to even look twice at it, I began to use it twice a day every day, just like a soap. This continued for almost three months, before I realized that this was actually a scrub and the instructions for use were two-three times a WEEK!!!! What prompted me to figure this out? Well one day, after I got out of the shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed my face was bright red. There were a few spots that looked like they had almost been torn off. I was confused, embarrassed and anxious. My dumbass had no idea what was wrong. To put this in perspective, it was almost exactly a year ago, sometime in August. My first reaction was just confusion, I then started to look at the product I had been using for the past few months. I was completely stunned when I realized the mistake I had made. I had literally scrubbed my face raw, while having a pre genetic sensitive skin condition. It's hard to remember that long ago, but I believe I applied some Cetaphil lotion to the areas that were there worst, mind you, I had never once applied a moisturizer while using the scrub or the previously mentioned soap. I freaking continued to wash my face with a new bottle of the old sialic acid soap after this day. (TRUST ME, I KNOW HOW BIG OF A MISTAKE THIS WAS, THIS WAS ALL MY FAULT, IT'S RUINED ME AND I CAN'T RELAX) Of course this was no help. Eventually I realized I needed to do something different, I went and saw my primary doctor, like I said, my skin was always petty good, so i didn't even have a dermatologist at that time. They had no idea what it was and I was still a bit confused myself. Now, not only was the appearance red, but It hurt. It was raw, dry, painful, and all I could see in the mirror. It began to get better after I stopped washing it, SLOWLY. Then, hoping things would turn the corner, I finally got in to see a dermatologist! Her first suggestion was CeraVa cream. Sweet, I thought to myself! At this point (January or so) my acne was almost gone from doxycycline and my face was healing. After about 5 days of CeraVa and still no washing, my skin had just lost the last two months of healing. It get more red and raw than ever. I was devastated. It took some more time to reestablish contact with my dermatologist, but eventually i did. She now wanted me to try Cetaphil gentle cleanser and Cetaphil lotion. I was really uneasy about applying those to my face, because If history repeats, I knew it would be bad. Nonetheless, I tried both; first the lotion, then the wash. immiedetily after applying the lotion my face hurt, appeared more red and looked worse. I rinsed it off with water and never touched it again. I told my derm about this, but she still was very encouraging about the wash. So, I tried the "Miracle Cetaphil wash" Day one was okay, didn't notice anything bad. Day two, still good. Day three of use I began to feel raw, red and uncomfortable, just like the CeraVa had done! At this point I was giving up a lot of hope, especially considering this was all doctor recommended steps. So here I am, middle of my senior year of high school and this is literally consuming my life. I was damn determined to figure this one out. I began to not wash at all and only apply 100% pure vaseline! This began to heal and it was great, though it was taking too long. I found out that when I didn't put my face in water while showing, things healed faster. While the sensitivity was going down, the acne was getting bad. This became the primary concern and that is when I went back on doxycycline. While it helped somewhat with the acne, it also gave me oral thrush, not the best option. Around the end of May-June, after my derm had mentioned it a few times, I finally felt ready to try accutane. My skin was still VERY sensitive, could not wash, could not moisturize with anything but Vaseline and avoided contact with water; also I never let sun touch my face. Before the first pill of accutane, skin was pretty much normal looking, sensitive, but pretty alright. Week one of accutane, noticed nothing. Week two, small breakout and dry lips. Weeks three lips got very dry, but acne was almost all gone. Week four, my lips got infected, acne was almost completely got. Unfortunately the lips were horrible, people were pointing them out, laughing and I was humiliated. Derm wanted me to stop accutane for a week and go a course of antibitotics. I was feeling pretty good, I thought, sure! My lips will heal up and ill be looking great! That was not the case. My lips did get better, but not before my face went to totally hell, the bottom and top of my mouth became red and irritated, so much so it all began to peel. Then, all within a week or two, it went from red lips and clear face, clear lips and horribly red face. Almost as bad as when It was scrubbed off almost a year ago.

 

Sorry If that was a messy timeline, but it did my best.

My skin is too sensitive for ANY soap, believe me I have tried

The only moisturizer that I can use is vaseline

I have PTSD, which means that this has caused me more anxiety then I ever have had

I am feeling defeated.

 

I will attach pictures with a yearlong timeline. So right now, my face is very red and the reasoning is unknown. I have applied vaseline to my face every day multiple times a day for close to a year without ever watching. This led to the fastest possible recover in my mind. One theory of my dermatologist is that the vaseline is finally making things worse by blocking all the bacetera and yeast. She wants me on more antibiotics anti yeast pills. While I understand this theory, I am still highly inclined the most recent problem is due to some sort of accutane side effect, rash/dryness/rection.

 

To put this in prespective, I used to love my looks, feel confident, be happy and enjoy life. Now I want to hide and never be seen. Please Please Please someone give me some help. Thank you so much.

 

As the timeline of pictures show, things got worse and better and you can also see how the very red lips led to some kind of peeling and now overall redness. I think It's dryness, but the vaseline I apply now has a bad odor when I dab it off with tissues.

 

PLEASE help me. My dorm is starting to be at a loss, as I already have been.

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(@succubus123)

Posted : 10/01/2015 2:58 pm

Holy hell is all I can say. If your face still looks like the last 2 pictures I would stop using all medications internal and topical so your skin can start healing. It looks like someone poured hot oil over your face. You"re pilling and red because the skin is severely dry from medications. I know you said it hurts to wash your face with cleansers, can you at least wash it with plain water and a very soft wash cloth to help remove the dead skin that pilling? If it gets better after a week or two I would try to add a moisturizer to help speed up the recovery. This will probably bring the acne back but at least your skin layers will be restored and then after a few weeks you can try a different treatment for your acne if you need it.

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(@thickjanuary)

Posted : 12/20/2017 11:36 pm

Hey man exact same problem if you wanna check my post. Hopefully you see this but how is your face doing now? What about the redness? Did accutane make your face more red?

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