Hi there,
First off I just want to say this last year has been the worst 365 days of my life.
I developed really bad back acne and let it be. One day it became really painful so i visited a family physician and got myself checked out. He told me I had pretty bad nodular acne. He then gave me some general antibiotic to try and combat my acne. He also recommended me to try different acne creams and to visit a dermatologist. The pills didn't do anything and the creams didn't help either. Upon my first visit to a dermatology specialist. She then told me I had Cystic Acne. She recommended that I start Acutane (Isotretinoin). I of course have to do the IPLEDGE program and have blood drawn. I do all these things only to find out my insurance company has denied the treatment. That's another story for another day. 3 months go by and I finally get accepted to start taking Acutane. My doctor started me off at 40mg once a day. She told me she was starting slow to see how my body would react to it. After a few months she upped my dosage to 80mg a day. She said she would like to increase to 100mg but never actually did.
I never got any horrible side effects from the drug, I honestly only got dry, chapped lips.
The Acutane treatment lasted about 8 months. It was pretty effective at eliminating the acne on my face which was nice but wasn't my concern.
After I finished most of the painful bumps went away. Now i'm left with some pretty nasty scars. I honestly have no idea if this is even fixable. I would love it if i could have some magic cure to get rid of all my scars but am doubtful. Maybe someone here could enlighten me one some tips to get these to fade.
Picture 1 is before acutane.
Picture 2 is 6 months on acutane
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Picture 3 is 7 months on acutane
pictures 4A and 4B are current off of acutane.
also please excuse my crude editing.
TLDR; Had cystic acne, took acutane, left with scars, Any help?
I had cystic acne on my back as well. If I were you Id ask the doctor who has given me acne scar treatments and he may be willing to give you his opinion. He never treated my back. He only treated my face but he has treated burn victims and he is a big deal in the Nashville area. Not saying you would go to him but his opinion might help you get an idea of what can be done. His name is Brian Biesman. This is his account on real self
https://www.realself.com/find/Tennessee/Nashville/Oculoplastic-Surgeon/Brian-Biesman
This is how you might be able to contact him.
https://www.facebook.com/drbiesman/
Send him a message with your question and your 4A pic. All that might be able to be done is take the redness out but thats better than nothing.
Very sorry for what is happening to you. I would get a few dermatologists recommendations - other drugs might be better than Accutane for this body type acne. I do know that men have had excess body acne due to over production of testosterone.
Scarring - You have Hypertrophic / Keloid Scarring. Any raised spots need to be injected with Kenalog / dilute steroid to flatten them. The back/chest skin is slow to heal . CO2 Laser is effective on these areas for this treatment. They will most likely give you steroid creams and hydroquinone to lighten the areas. Other users have tried tca peels to their body. Make sure whoever treats you (list of doctors on the faq) has history of treating body acne scar suffers. I would suggest for your case to also post on realself.com, it's free and doctors can give you further advice.
Vascular laser must be used on the reds V-beam, 1064nm, excel v, or ipl
Please checkout the faq - top post of the acne scar sub for some more info.
Checkout also the sub forum (top of acne scar sub) which is not as frequented called hypertophic scarring, someone might have had a few more at home solutions in the past.