So I’m a 21 year old female and I just found this forum the other night and I’m actually glad I’m not alone in this. I’m not glad we all suffer from shitty skin problems though.
I’ve always had pretty bad acne since I was 13. The worst for me has always been my back. My back is very scarred. I know both my parents had the same issues and then they both finally stopped the older they got. Anyways, back in 2016 in March I remember getting a small zit like bump on my leg and gradually within the next 4-6 months it got so bad I knew something was wrong. I didn’t have a regular doctor and went to urgent care. Doc said it was folliculitis and I had a feeling there was more to that. So I waited a few more weeks till I can get into the doctor and I went and she took one look at everything and said it looked like cellulitis and MRSA. She didn’t do any tests or anything. She prescribed me bactrim and told me to buy some Hibicleanse. I was in a lot of pain from the cellulitis all over my legs and face everything was burning. But the bactrim and hibicleanse combo worked great. Idk if her diagnosis was right considering she didn’t do any tests but idk.
I’m also just giving you a guys a back story because I’m not sure if what I have going on now is related to what happened in 2016.
So rewind back to August 2017 just months ago. One morning I woke up and my chin felt so painful. The pain from the pressure of a huge zit. And I felt my chin and I could tell this was going to be super big. It was so big it took over the whole side of that chin. Next day wake up and it’s starting to come to more of a head so I start squeezing. I know we’re not supposed to pop or squeeze and all that but I’m just one of those people that has to pop it I can’t help it. Well I try and squeeze and it hurts but nothing ever pops it just gets more of a purple color and oozes. Clear fluid comes out. It seeps for a few days and it seeps so much that skin that’s covering whatever it is turns soft and almost pale white. Next day I wake up and it’s scabbed over but the scab is yellow and just gross. I leave it alone and the scab stays there for like a week and then goes away. Once that one is gone, I wake up and I have major shoulder pain. I feel it and I have another painful spot with tons of pressure just like what was on my chin! I go thru the same exact thing as I did with my chin. Except the one on my shoulder is double the size! It was like a golfball I swear to god. Finally a week goes by and it’s gone. Well, around the end of November I’m starting to get these pimples/spots/whatever they are all over. They haven’t stopped and it’s getting worse. I get them in my eyebrows and it looks like folliculitis when I get them in my eyebrows. About almost two weeks ago I had a really bad one in my ear. It was in an awkward spot and it was so painful I felt nauseous. It had a bunch of green pus in it and hurt so bad.
Right now I have a really huge scab on the side of my face. A few days ago it wasn’t a huge scab it was literally a really big pimple like cyst and I could squeeze but all that was coming out was fluid and it was dripping down my face. It wouldn’t stop oozing all day long it was so gross. And it was crusty. It’s weird because the fluid just seeps and seeps but it’s dries up so fast! And when it dries it leaves behind little crusty trails. I’m going to post a picture of what this looks like during the scab/healing process. It’s so weird because before these spots scab they feel like the biggest cyst like things ever, you can feel there’s something underneath the skin. But they don’t pop. I get smaller ones that do pop but when they do pop it burns and the pus is green. These big ones don’t pop they just ooze then scab up and it looks awful. Now other weird symptoms besides this I have extremely dry skin all over my face, it’s flaky and my whole scalp is like this as well. It’s pretty big flakes too. It’s almost like I’m shedding lol. My back isn’t flaky tho. My whole face and head is itchy a lot too. I wake up with goo in my eyes the same color as the pus most of the time it’s odd.
Idk if anyone will understand what I’m talking about. I wish I had pictures of what my face and chest looked like two weeks ago because it’s pretty similar to what everyone else’s pictures look like. Again I just have one picture of a scab that’s healing before it scabbed it was was literally like almost one big cyst a very very big cyst and you can feel where it’s at underneath this disgusting looking thing on my face. Hell idk if I’m even posting in the right spot but I do know this was the only thing I could find that felt kinda similar when I tried to google what was wrong. I’m so embarrassed to go out in public. I’ve been putting bandaids on my face a lot if I do. I just don’t have health insurance. I’ve been using Hibicleanse again I use it every time I shower but it doesn’t really seem to do anything honestly.
I’m not sure if you have the same thing as most of us here have, some things are recognizable, but some aren’t.
If you have smaller lessions like here: What does it look like? (photos) then it could be.
The problem that most of us have, is limited to the face. Also, I haven’t heard of a green and pale white color before.
Because you have it on different parts of the body and lessions are large, it could also be impetigo, usually caused by Staph bacteria.
I, like @Lala12345, would suggest to go to a GP to have it cultured. Maybe the GP can provide topical antibiotics in the meanwhile (before the tests are completed), like Bactroban, so see if it helps.
If it is something like staph, than you should avoid any scratching and keep high hygiene practices, such as keeping the finger nails short (so that staph cannot easily stay underneath), wash hands regulary with Hibicleans etc.
One problem with hygiene practices is that it can dry out the skin, which can make it more prone to further infections. Skin hydratation prevents damage from dry skin, but may also increase bacteria count, so you may need to find a balance in this. Try to avoid jar-like moisturizers, because bacteria can colonize it. A pomp flacon would be the most hygiene form.
Also, if your climate environment at home is dry, a humidifier could help your skin to strengthen.
But if it is the same as most of us here have, than antibiotics aren’t doing much. Then you should get Soolantra cream.
Yes I have tons of smaller ones too. Idk why I’ve gotten these really big ones. This one in the picture is pretty much gone and now I have another big painful one on the same side but in the corner of my nose and cheek. It’s not as big as this one above but it’s so painful lol
Thanks for all the advice. The main reason I even shared my story is because this was the only place I found where I felt like I had similarities beside a few differences.
I haven’t had them cultured no. I should I know. I’m waiting for insurance. The one big difference that definitely might make me think I could have something that’s different than all of you is mine aren’t just on my face. I have them on my back, chest, and shoulders. But those are all areas that I usually break out with acne in too so idk. One symptom I really have never had is the dry scalp. It seems like there is definitely lesions on my scalp(not any big ones) just the small ones like the ones in the pictures you guys have posted. And tons of dry skin. Ive never really had a dandruff issue and I’m super frustrated with all of the dry skin on my scalp. I try and scratch it off gently before and during the shower. Usually it didn’t work. A few days ago I used my regular shampoo and then I saw my friends shampoo so I decided to shampoo a second time with hers and my scalp hasn’t been as bad since. Her shampoo was some dove dandruff shampoo plus conditioner and it worked great.
I read your story and while most of us only suffer on the face, scalp and around the ears… I have had the outbreaks on tattooed areas of other parts of my body. It has only been on the tattooed areas though, and mostly during the time when the tattoos were fresh.
We’ve all done our own research and come to our own conclusions about this stuff. I don’t know that yours is the same, but it’s closely-enough related that you can maybe draw some help from us. It took me a long time before I understood what the ooze was. It’s basically your body squirting lymphatic fluid onto your skin in order to heal something that’s registering as damage or as an allergen. So the trick is to stop that process. For many of us, who have been battling this for decades- Soolantra is the answer. Soolantra, however, is very expensive… and will be more expensive for you if you have to go rubbing it all over your back and other areas.
So, forget Soolantra for now. Let’s boil it down to the possibility that your body is producing too much oil and may be luring demodex mites to feast on it like a bunch of Las Vegas tourists. If you want to beat this thing and get your life back, you may have to radically change the way you eat. I don’t know your current eating habits, but it helped me a lot to strip my diet down to almost nothing. For a while, I had to eat nothing but rice, vegetables and chicken that I steamed. Only drank water. Then one by one, you can add things back in and see how your body reacts. Our bodies do not always make sense. Apparently my body reacts to tomatoes and citrus. Even though I can’t handle eating lemon without getting a break-out, I can eat grapefruits all day. So sometimes they answers you find betray all reasoning. I also have a terrible time with avocados. You’ll find diets all over the place online that tell you to ‘cleanse’ using lemons and avocado and stuff like that, but it has the opposite effect on someone like me. A lot of people radically change their conditions just by cutting out dairy, which I did almost a decade ago.
Because you mentioned the drying out, research a condition called ‘sjogren’s syndrome.’ In short, it is an oil gland disfunction. There’s no way to fix it, but you can alleviate symptoms by refraining from tea, coffee, etc. Even the most mild tea, you have to remember, is dehydrating. Coffee is especially dehydrating. Alcohol and other things, too.
I don’t know what’s triggering your symptoms or what things will help you, but if you want to win you have to hit at it from a lot of different angles. You have to be patient and persistent with trying things that seem counter-intuitive. No doctor is going to do a damn thing for you other than label you with mrsa or something and tell you to swim around in hibiclense. Even a naturopath is just going to sell you different types of ‘cleanses.’ You can find a way out on your own through trial and error and with communicating with people like us. Wish you the best of luck.
