Main topic - Oozing Yellow Crusts

That’s great to hear, Col! I’m starting my Rosiver prescription today. How have things been in the last two weeks for you?

I have also tried topical permethrin, but I don’t think it did much with demodex. Also I don’t think it’s a safe product to use (when used frequently), in my case it gives me temporary mild muscle cramps/fasciculation/twitch in the face, probably due to its neurotoxicity.

The oral metronidazole and topical ivermectin is probably going to help you the most, although it may be difficult to differentiate which one did causes which positive effect.

Hi Adent3742

The Rosiver is working wonders for me. I apply in the evenings only and now in week 10. My skin has been 99.9% clear for 3 weeks now. I get the occasional minor blemish. I wouldn’t even call them p&ps because they are so small and insignificant. There’s no oozing or anything like that. Redness is diminished, there’s no itching, skin is smooth and I feel like a new man. I really hope you get results as good as mine. You may find things go on a 2 week cycle but each cycle things improve. I stopped the TTO after 10 months as it started to lose its effectiveness. Now I’m only using Rosiver. Fingers crossed for you!!

I’ve stopped with the TTO and been using the metronidazole and Rosiver for a couple days now, and I’ve had the worst breakouts I’ve had in a long time. I haven’t had large, weeping lesions like this since I started with TTO. I’m really hoping this is just a die-off phase. My skin doesn’t react well to being covered, so maybe this is just something that’ll always happen when I have to leave a cream on overnight.

Is this initial reaction to Rosiver normal? If so, how long does it last for?

Could be a die-off phase, or maybe an allergic reaction. You could try to also apply some on your arm, to see how skin responds over there.
In my case a noticed a mild redening of the skin and more breakouts, but those breakouts were small and wide spread over the face. It’s hard to recall but maybe it lasted a couple of days or a week in my case before the redening became less.

Consider just using rosiver. I don’t know anything about metronidazole. A lot of us see results from using soolantra/rosiver exclusively and a good skin lotion like cerave or just coconut oil. Maybe the two are not working well together. From the day I started soolantra/rosiver, the lesions stopped. There was about two weeks of red, raised bumps but no weeping. Then that phase went away completely and I’m almost human now.

How is your situation now, any improvements?

Hi All,

Yet another sufferer here. After so many internet searches, looking for my own diagnosis, finally stumbled upon this - so now Im joining the conversation. Heres my story:

Im 27yo and as far as I can remember, I first started getting the oozy spots when I was a sophomore in college… so… 8 or 9 years ago. I remember that because I remember the first time I had to miss class due to my horrific face. I saw the school doctor back then and he told me it was acne, prescribed me Finacea. That did nothing to help but it did also make my skin red and peel.

For years after that though I mostly just dealt with it. Like everyone else, I learned pretty quickly that nothing was going to make it stop oozing. I remember the early years of constant wiping and oh… the time I tried to blow dry my face because I thought maybe I could make it dry out before the yellow crust got any bigger! [that didnt work!] So, the fastest path to healing was just to let it scab over and not touch it.

I noticed over the years tho a strong correlation with dry skin. I have exceptionally dry skin on my face. If one drop of water hits my face, when the water dries my skin will crack and peel. I fear the rain, pools, and beaches. I’ve had the best results over the years by just being extremely diligent about moisturizing. But the puss still comes. I can never stop it completely. And certain situations make it much worse, such as airplanes. For years I hated airplanes because I knew I would walk off the plane with an outbreak, no matter how much moisturizer I used. But planes are exceptionally drying environments.

Then, about a year and a half ago, I was playing with my friends kid and put some paint on my face. It dried and my red turned red and swollen and within 24hrs my entire face had erupted in the worse oozing puss spots Ive ever had. I was basically a monster. Small children starred at me in the street. During that episode my derm told me it was impetigo and prescribed me Cephalexin and Mupriocin. They cultured my nose and I had staph. The most horrible breakout Ive ever had cleared up within 24hrs with these meds and I hailed it a miracle. One week after my cephalexin prescription ran out, the ooze spots came back. I went back to my derm and she told me to start rubbing Mupriocin around my nose every day, twice a day, for 1 week every month for 6 months. My husband did it to. The ooze spots persisted. [And by the way, my husband, nor anyone else Ive ever known, including all my past boyfriends, have ever had this, so I was always skeptical about impetigo which is highly contagious]

Then a few months ago I finally said ‘enough is enough’. I went back to the derm. I tried another round of Cephalexin and Mupriocin but this time I got puss spots while still on the meds. Also, my nose culture came back negative for staph this time. My derm recommended me for a special monthly meeting of derms from all over the area to work together on “tough cases”, aka medical mysteries. I spent a whole day talking to 30 different doctors and everyone came up guessing - acne, zinc allergies, rosacea, the whole gamut, but no one really knew.

So we decided to treat it as rosacea - I started Doxycycline and topical Metronidazole. The pus spots have kept coming, now worse than before, and in the meantime my face has turned red and swollen and painful and is peeling, which is maybe why the puss spots are worse.

Anyway, thats my story and here I am now. Guess Ill go back to the derm and ask to treat it as demodex, based on everything Ive read here. I know this echoes what so many have said before, but it is nice to not feel so much like a ‘medical mystery’ anymore.

Thats me with a mild outbreak:

Your story breaks my heart because it is exactly my same story. Doctors for years calling it impetigo. Mayo clinic even prescribed me leprosy medicine as a shot in the dark.

Cutting all citrus out of my diet helped slightly, but not much. This all started when I was 17 and didn’t let up until at age 38, I started using Soolantra. It costs $300 for a tube. I don’t even put it on my whole face, just a little between my eyebrows and through my eyebrows and to the sides of my nose. Then I apply coconut oil as a moisturizer and use nothing else.

I have the same dry skin problem as you, which may or may not be sjogren’s syndrome. My eyelids are so dry that I cannot use cell phones, for it causes my eyelids to break out. No joke. Even though I don’t apply Soolantra to my eyelids, using it near my eyes has improved my eyelid symptoms a lot.
Soolantra has given me my life back. You’ll see similar results from others in these posts. Also youtube search Jennifer Brown Soolantra.

I wish you the best of luck. You have nothing to lose by trying Soolantra. A dermatologist can give you a coupon or get it from the website, but it gives you the first prescription for $20 or something like that.

Best of luck. Communicate your results with us if you see some success.

Ciao!

Thank you for sharing your story. Also interesting things you mention about the medications you have tried.

It’s still unclear what the exact cause of the problem is, although demodex is a suspect, but there must be another factor involved because basically everybody carries demodex and not everybody has our rare problem. (Also, a lot of people carry Staph and don’t have our problem. Although even demodex has been reported to be able to carry staph.)
But Soolantra (topical ivermectine), which is primarely used to target demodex and also has anti-inflammatory properties, does help a group of people here that tried it (except the results of @adent3742 are not yet reported).

So like @misfit108 says, I would suggest to ask for Soolantra. Even if your derm doesn’t belief in the demodex theory or isn’t able to find demodex, given your long history without much success, and given the positive results others here have reported, they should at least give Soolantra a try.

I would also like to suggest the use of a povidone iodine solution of about 7.5% iodine as a face wash: Main topic - Oozing Yellow Crusts
Note that some of those products mention “scrub” but it isn’t like a facial scrub, it doesn’t contain hard particles.
As far as I know, I’m the only one here that is using it, but I think it does seem to have a positive effect on my skin. Also povidone iodine is a well known antiseptic in the medical world, for cleaning the skin and wounds from bacteria and yeasts.
I would like to suggest to use it once a day as a fash wash, and not using other products to wash the face, so wash the face only once a day, otherwise the face may get drier.
Apart from only washing the skin once a day, you could also try to take short showers, like 5 minutes, using a mild-warm water temperature. Make sure the shampoo doesn’t flow over the face, and don’t wash your face under the shower. Warm water causes the pores to open up, which can result in dry skin.

Not sure if it really helps, but I try to avoid the use of towels to pad my face to after washing it. Towels may contains irritating substances left over from the washing detergents, and they may contain bacteria when not replaced daily. So I use a paper towel every day to pad my face dry.

Good to hear that even though you had a large breakout, it eventually got better and better.

Not sure if that Tea Tree Oil shampoo really contains a significant amount of tea tree oil to be really noticable. It’s unlikely to be able to kill demodex (if that is the problem) in regular shampoo concentrations. If you want to sterilize, you could also try a 7.5% iodine solution. (May not really help against demodex, but does have anti bacterial and fungal properties.)

Currently experimenting with less hot showers. Warmer/hot showers are more relaxing, but I’m reducing it to the point where it is less relaxing but still comfortable, from 38 degrees celsius (100F) to 31C (87F) (if the button temperature readings are correct.)
I notice that my skin is better/smoother, especially on my back. Not sure if it really does something to my face, since I don’t wash my face under the shower.
I also noticed that I’m less charged with static electricity. (Usually when I wake up in the morning and step out of bed, I feel a very light electric discharge on the feet when touching the floor.) This reduced static electricity could be due to the improved overal smoother body skin (dry skin can increase static electricity), but it could also because of the changed duvet/bedding.
I wondered about static electricity before in: Main topic - Oozing Yellow Crusts

Hello again -

Writing in with an update. Its was now 4.5 months ago that I found this website and decided to go back to my derm and ask for soolantra. Well, that was an awkward visit. She was very reluctant to prescribe me a medicine just because I “found a website on the internet…”. Anyway - we cut a deal. I would do one more month of just Metronidazole, and if things still didnt improve she would give me soolantra. Well, one month and many pus spots later, I started soolantra.

Ive been hesitant to write in and say this but — I believe Im cured. I started applying soolantra once a day on my entire face. There were a couple times in the first two weeks where I would forget in the morning and a small spot would pop up later that day, but I would quickly douse it would soolantra and it went away within a few days. Anyway, after a month of daily application, I stopped applying. And its crazy to say this, but thats basically the end of my story. I havent had an outbreak, of any size, anywhere, in 3 months. Im living my life exactly the same as before, except now, absolutely no outbreaks. Its the longest Ive ever gone without one since this all started 8 years ago. Also - in my first post I detailed my incredibly dry skin and speculated about its relationship to the outbreaks - well, the dry skin is also gone. I am no longer moisturizing like a mad women and fearing the rain. Actually, I basically dont use moisturizer at all anymore. I just dont need it.

So, I dont know about cause and effect - did the soolantra cure the dry skin condition, rosacea, (which caused the pus outbreaks), or did soolantra kill the bugs which caused the pus outbreaks (and lead to dry skin)? All I know is that I feel like I have a new lease on life. The last time I wrote in to this website was a really dark day for me - I was up for hours and hours manically scouring the internet, looking for answers, frustrated, desperate, and angry. Not to be lame, but after years of suffering, I really believe that finding this website, and finding soolantra, has changed my life immeasurably. I am so, so, so grateful.

Ill write back again if anything changes. Feel free to ask me any questions regarding my soolantra use. To recap: soolantra on my entire face (not just effected areas) once daily for 1 month. And thats its.

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That’s great to hear and your story mirrors many of our own. I suffered the outbreaks for 20+ years… on any location from earlobes to chin to forehead. Now I only apply a small amount of soolantra between my eyebrows and down my nose, and to the sides of my nose. Iv’e barely used a quarter of a tube since starting it in February. I got my life back. The only time I get outbreaks again now is if I eat salad dressing or anything with vinegar. But other than that, the soolantra’s got me immune. Everything else in my life sucks, but at least I don’t have to humiliate myself by going to work looking like a creature from another planet.

Good to hear you’re clear, and only with just one month of use of Soolantra. Note that it may come back, but at least now you know and have an effective weapon against it.
Interesting that it also solved you dry skin problem. In eczema and staph, they often mention the itch-scratch cycle. Maybe Soolantra broke a similar cycle, allowing your skin to restore/strengthen.

http://www.qbm.hk/index.php?id_cms=8&controller=cms&id_lang=1 :

I am so incredibly happy for you!!! i am so grateful for the info I was able to find on these websites. I believe I have been cured by Ivermectin ( the active ingredient in Soolantra) and my own daily regimen of cleansing, exfoliating and moisturizing. I am so happy with my skin now. I’m glad to see other people sharing their success stories!

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Hello! I just joined this forum and im so happy about your positive experience with soolantra treatment! I wanna start to use it shortly but I still have some doubts about it… for example how long should I wait before I see affects on my skin?

Thanks in advance!!:slight_smile:

Hi One345, welcome :slight_smile:
(I also just replied to you other topic.)

You owe it to yourself to give Soolantra (or another topical form of ivermectin) at least a try, even when you have doubts. But some people get red and irritated skin from Soolantra and quit. Unclear whether this was only temporary for them. To avoid such reactions, it may be needed to start slowly with it.
Soolantra often gives a change in the lesions in the beginning, more lesions may appear temporary, but often with less oozing and often smaller. In my case, this maybe was only a couple of days to one week, then it gets better.

Does this look like something that soolantra will help? I have p&ps elsewhere on my face (typical rosacea), but this crusty/pussy stuff around my chin responds to nothing. I’ve been using soolantra on the rest of my face starting this week, but not sure what to do with this. I don’t want to go to the derm again. They’re useless.

Welcome :slight_smile:
Looking at the photo, I’m not sure if you have the same skin issue that the other users have.
If you look at this: What does it look like? (photos) does this look similar to your lesions? These lesions are yellow/orange (the distinctive color is more visible in bright light), usually pustule shaped, with clear fluid leaking/oozing from it. These lesions are usually 1 to 3 days active before beginning to heal. (Smaller lesions heal faster.) And then a new one appears randomly somewhere else on the face.
Does this sound similar?

How long do you have this lesion on the chin? And since when do you have similar lesions like this? Did it start after starting with Soolantra?

If it’s not what the other users have, then I’m not sure if Soolantra will help. (Although it can also help for Rosacea.) It may also help, because Soolantra also has anti inflammatory properties, but Soolantra may also give an initial temporary worsening and irritated skin in some users.