On my face and now ear

Hello everyone. I’ve been following this thread so a while so I thought I should share my story. For the past 8-9 years I’ve dealt with the oozing yellow crusts. Been to many dermatologists, even some of the best in Manhattan. Many have never seen this situation before. I’ve tried many topical creams as well as pills. When, it appears I stress out which definitely triggers a bigger outbreak. The past 2 months I didn’t have a breakout. I thought it was over. I was washing with Dove soap and aloe vera at night. Recently I woke up with some ooze on my ear. Thought nothing of it and went on with my day. The next day I woke up and the whole lower half of my ear, behind it and some on my neck was hard yellow crust. I went to a dermatologist and finally got soolantra. I’ve read in a couple posts that some people used soolantra and washed off and used sudocrem. So I tried that. Nothing, next morning looks even worse. I washed my ear and applied clindamycin phosphate. It’s still little yellow crusts on it. Don’t know what else to do with it. Already called out of work this week just so I don’t have to explain to my co workers what’s wrong with my ear. It’s very embarassing. Any tips or questions feel free to ask.

Hi, Welcome :slight_smile:
The ear is not a very common area of lesions, although they may appears on those areas. But it’s primarily on the face. Just to make sure, how much do your lesions look like these, and you do have them also on the face, right? What does it look like? (photos)

I cannot remember people that started with both Soolantra and Sudocrem at the start. Although Sudocrem may work, it may block Soolantra. I would skip Sudocrem, because you already have Soolantra. (Maybe you can try Sudocrem if Soolantra isn’t working enough. But for the moment, I would skip it.) Soolantra should be applied one or twice a day as a moisturizer. You can wash your face, but you shouldn’t wash Soolantra off after applying it. Soolantra can be used as descripted in the manual. You can apply it all over the face, and should also be applied on areas on which you don’t have active lesions, but in which new lesions may occur in the future. Eye regions should be avoided (according to the manual).

Soolantra often gives a temporary worsening or breakout. So you may want to start with it slowly, depending on whether and how long you can take it (a worsening) in your situation. See this thread for more info about this and how you could start slowly: Bad first reaction

Also try to avoid scratching the ears. Btw, is it on the ears, or inside the ears?

It is on the ears and now on my lower cheek. Seems to be spreading more. I have minocycline not sure if I should take that. It has worked for me in the past. It also made it worse towards the end.

I’m not sure if you have the same thing as most of here have, because of the location, which is normally primarily on the face. Looking at the photos, I would describe it as a infectious boil on the eyelobe, that is oozing a lot. It could be the same thing that most of us here have. I think the disease manifests itself a bit differently depending on the type of skin tissue were a lesion occurs.

I’m not sure if I interprete the photos correctly. The wet parts of the skin, is that dried up yellow fluid from the earlobe boil? Or is it an applied topical? There also seem to be a bit of a rash surrounding the area of the earlobe.
Is there itch involved?

Were there any swab culture tests done from the lesion?
Which other medication have you tried?
The previous time you used clindamycin phosphate, was it also on the earlobe? Or also on the face?
If lesions appear on the face, do they also appear outside the beard area?

Hi. The yellow is the crust from the oozing. There is definitely a rash near my ear which is itchy as well. I have had these lesions on my face but never on my ear. This is the worst my face has ever been. Went to the dermatologist today and she gave me Bactrim. My wife Last summer had such bad sun posioning that she had boils, she used preparation H on it and it cleared up. So what do I have to loose? That’s what I have on my face now. Definitely better but still oozing. The last time I used the clindamycin was on my face and it worked for a bit then it took a turn. I have taken so many medications for my face it’s too much to list. Basically everything. This is why I’m desperate.

Since you already tried a lot of things, I would suggest to try Soolantra for like 2 weeks to 3 weeks, to see if it’s effective. If it is, than you can always continue with it.
I would also add the Cetaphil moisturizer mentioned here: Skin hydration

You can try this:
Wash your hands, then clean/wash the face with water in the morning or evening, apply Soolantra all over the face as described in the manual (avoid eye regions), while your skin is still a little bit dampened/moistured from the water, so that you can spread Soolantra easier over the skin. Just use a little bit of Soolantra, because that’s usually already enough. Also because you just starting, it can give a temporary initial breakout, maybe the next day, which may last for like a few days to 3 weeks.
Also apply it at and around the ears. Then wait for like 5 minutes for Soolantra to move a bit into the skin, than apply the Cetaphil moisturizer to moisturize the skin and to further smooth the spreading of Soolantra.