My Fight against Acne

this will be a half scientific and half autobiographical posting

Due to the nature of my inherited oily skin, I always have papules, comedones around my T zone

One pustule around that time of month. That’s about it, nothing more……………

1. Since adolescent

I tried various medication

Be it Dalacin-T (clindamycin) or Benzoyl peroxide (Oxy), they were pretty good temporary fix.

I used to buy cheaper Dalacin T and Retin-A (isotrenitoin) fr msia for my spore fren who has serious acne

That’s about it

2. Before I came to Australia, I tried facial in a beauty salon which is such a cheater. 90 bucks for some massage, steam and mask. And one free facial wash solution and the content was not even clearly indicated. She didn’t even squeeze my black heads. That was their promotion. Before that, the girls will shine a magnifying camera at my face, enlarging my multiple comedones and enlarged pores right back at me, giving me that oh it’s the end of the world and we are your savior but you have to join our long term programme to survive. And worst of all they compare it with the palmar surface of my forearm where the smoothest skin is. I was too helpless and ignorant at the time so I obliged. But it was juz one try cuz I have to leave for OZ soon.

I went to the local GP who prescribed me topical corticosteroid which totally dries up my skin and make it sensitive and vulnerable (N.B topical corticosteroid is a big no no for acne tx)

I bot the Facial wash with salicylic acid which apparently will help reduce oiliness and get rid of acne.but what it does is to sting my sensitive skin. I did my own mask almost every day which further aggravate the problem (do not scrub your face too!!!)

I heed my cousin advice that mayb I m overwashing my face. So I should be like her: juz rinse my face every morning with water w/o any detergent. (but I forgot that she has perfect complexion) so my skin got worse during that period.

What I didn’t realize is that The problem of my skin at the time was not the oiliness but the sensitiveness due to my over eagerness in treating it. When the skin was sensitive, whatever i put on it will juz aggravate it and the bact is more easily introduced.......

I bot some OTC benzoyl and retin-A over to Australia.

But since I came to OZ, the situation was becoming noticeable. Mayb it’s the air, the weather, the food, the water or the stress…..but whatever modifiable changes I made were all futile.

Pimples juz can’t stop popping out from areas that were so smooth before (the non-T zoneà cheeks)

And I don’t’ like the exacerbation brought on by retin-A (topical retinoids)

I was becoming desperate, I tried facial once which is too expensive to keep up to and my face was too sensitive to all the squeezing. I bumped into the dermatologist registrar in st vinnies, Hanna who gave me prescriptions for Retin-A and benzoyl. They were all non-PBS listed so I have paid outta my own pocket. Used them everyday, not significant changes…..so I gave it all up

For a significant period of time, I juz let it go………… w/o any treatment

Everyday I was contemplating should I pop that cystic zit or not. Everyday I look in the mirror and tell myself heck care that acne with considerable determination….i am going to face the world today w/o thinking about it but that pain of pus stretching the skin was lingering throughout the day. (yet that shows how conscious about it I still was) i can't help thinking how pple will get distracted by my acne who has its yellow pus still hanging in there.

I realize I can’t stop my activities juz becuz of it yet I have to bring myself to face the world. I was slowly emotionally drained…..

During my GP term, I got some OCP outta convenience. Found the oiliness of my skin significantly reduced but zits still come out all da time. Was actually doubting the effectiveness of various topicals when the drug reps were promoting it cuz I myself is a very good case study. I was exasperated…. I didn’t realized how depressed I was.I started blaming my parents for not taking me to dermatologist asap back in msia juz to save the money. Instead we stray to other path such as the GP, the facial, the less dietary meat theory blah blah blah. Seriously I think I’m the kind who got depressed but disguised it so well. People will be so shock to find me committing suicide one day. I was actually crying everyday w/o reason… this acne thing juz eats me silently. But somehow my mom who knows me so well can see thru my emoness juz thru the blurry msn camera – the more she probe into me, the more I can’t contain my emoness. She was so worried that I can feel that she regretted of sending me to OZ.(that’s what I think) Well i thot it mayb the OCP that cause me to have some emo moments but I will tell you later it’s so not it.

i was so obsessive to the point that i actually photoshop my pics during a period. tellin myself that acne is a temporary problem and i will get over it. so i shall not leave any marks on the photos. and in the future i can juz pretend that i have never had acne before. HL knows about it...

Finally, I made up my mind and got myself a referral to a dermatologist and strongly requested for Ro-accutane (after much research on textbk, internet forum and wiki) although he suggested oral Ab doxycline initially. I juz don’t care. I don’t wanna waste my time and money juz in case it doesn’t work. My conclusion is what is oral Ab goin to do about the acne. It’s not goin to help in reducing the pathophysio anyway. When I try, I want to go for the Best for my money. Thus, despite the possible depression as one of its side effect, I took the chance w/o looking back

Days gone by….my complexion significantly improve that I found myself looking into mirror LESS

I found one less thing to worry everynight before sleep and every morning. My Mood significantly improved, I was able to participate in more stuff without much distraction. So I concluded that those cases of suicidal depression after ro-accutane are not actually due to ro-accutane itself but the residual effect of the acne. It was too late for those poor kids to take ro-accutane.

The time and money was all worth it for both my physical and emotional well being…the key is never delay treatment. Clean n clear blue color oil bloater is still my BEST friend tho.

I’m now 3 mths into the tx and I stopped OCP as it has SE on my body. I m able to tolerate ro-accutane at the moment. Have to take it for 6 mths. Hopefully I can recover fully and it will never recur. as for the scarring hope it will fade away ...................

These are the things that people who are blessed with good skin will never understand.

Advice is

Topicals such as Salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, clindamycin, retin-A does help

But when situation cannot be contained anymore or it affects you so much, pls go to a specialist and seek advice. Don’t go to facial salon or Chinese med shop. You will realize that GP tend to be reserved and the most they can prescribe is Antibiotics. So please use ur logical reasoning and decide for yourself.

facial will help if you do it regularly to clean your pores and get rid of the black heads which are the precursor of acne. but bear in mind that some of the comedones (esp the close one) can't be remove that easily

I shared my experience with one of my friends who suffered from the same problem. I could totally understand how she feels and I don’t’want her to fall into the same maze as me. she was amazed to see how much I improved over 2 months when she was still struggling with that Chinese medicine regime

But I was shocked to find out that she got her supply of roaccutane from her China friends w/o seeking any specialist advice or undergoing any baseline bld test. Seems like I’m her specialist *_* I strongly discouraged her to do so but I can’t really overright her so Juz have to wish her all da best then…….

this is a wikipedia link on some quite useful info on acne vulgaris