Having had little joy with the medical profession, I thought I'd try this community for help. My partner, JP, has developed a skin condition that the doctors are treating as acne. I had terrible acne as a teenager that wouldn't respond to medication, and the spots would become inflamed at times, but it was nothing like I'm seeing in JP.
These 'spots' don't burst if you squeeze them (I know he shouldn't be doing that anyway), it's as though the puss is too deep in his skin, or there is a series of pores blocked at once. The result is a painful red swelling that distorts the shape of his face. He has been to the doctors twice: the first time he was given a basic 6 week course of antibiotics. The spots seemed to calm down initially, but soon flared up again, as angry as ever.
Regular anti-spot face washes and so on appear to make the condition worse, and he's convinced that even washes for sensitive skin aggravate his skin, so is now washing with just water and a microfiber cloth. He's tried bio oil as we read that with adult acne, dryness rather than oiliness, tends to be an issue and he does have dry flaky skin. He also has a lot of scars from the condition now, and we hoped the bio oil might help to fade those. He has since stopped using this, as his recent flare up is the worse it's been yet.
So he went back to the doctor and was given a different course of tablets (I'm not sure if these are antibiotics too, but they're called tetralysal (lymecycline), and he also has a topical cream (defferin), although he was warned it could dry his skin out (as if he needs more of THAT), so he's only applying the cream directly to the swollen areas. This was 3 weeks ago now, and this is the first month where the condition didn't even lessen for a week or two.
I even went out and bought him a brand new pillow, and we put on a fresh pillow case every 2 nights (flipping it between), so he's always lying on a clean surface at night. He's also stopped drinking alcohol and is working out and drinking plenty of water. Oh and he takes a daily mutlivitamin, which he started taking when his skin very first started breaking down, he takes cocodamol (for the pain) and has started taking cod liver oil and a herbal remedy for acne that we got in Holland and Barrett.
He's in so much pain today and he's ashamed to go outside because of how it looks. He left work early today and went to the doctors to make an appointment but they told him it will be the end of next week before they can see him. He needs help NOW.
I don't think they're treating him correctly. I just hope it doesn't take the 6 years it took to cure my own acne (I think it cleared on its own, but in the end, lavender oil worked on me. I've tried this for JP and it did nothing, tea tree doesn't help either).
There is just one other thing that may be important, but that he won't tell his doctor; his skin gets considerably worse when I am about to come on my period. My periods used to be few and far between, so we never noticed (he's had mild acne since before he met me, with just occasional spots). I started self-treating through my diet for low thyroid activity because although it was affecting my health, my levels weren't deemed low enough to medicate by the stingy NHS who just wanted to keep monitoring me (I hate giving blood, and my symptoms were getting unbearable, so screw that shit). Anyway, this resulted in my periods becoming regular for the first time ever, as well as relieving 90% of the symptoms I'd been told indicated a thyroid problem. It was then that we started to notice that JP's skin got much worse when I was about to come on my period. We've observed this for about 6 months now.
Does anyone have any ideas what we can try next? Is there anything he should be asking his GP to investigate? I've told him to ask to be referred to a dermatologist, but whether or not they'd do this is another matter.
He's so depressed over this, and he keeps getting angry and yelling (not at me, just in general), and I'm a bit scared of him when he gets like that. I feel so helpless because I can't do anything to make it better.
These 'spots' don't burst if you squeeze them (I know he shouldn't be doing that anyway), it's as though the puss is too deep in his skin, or there is a series of pores blocked at once. The result is a painful red swelling that distorts the shape of his face. He has been to the doctors twice: the first time he was given a basic 6 week course of antibiotics. The spots seemed to calm down initially, but soon flared up again, as angry as ever.
Regular anti-spot face washes and so on appear to make the condition worse, and he's convinced that even washes for sensitive skin aggravate his skin, so is now washing with just water and a microfiber cloth. He's tried bio oil as we read that with adult acne, dryness rather than oiliness, tends to be an issue and he does have dry flaky skin. He also has a lot of scars from the condition now, and we hoped the bio oil might help to fade those. He has since stopped using this, as his recent flare up is the worse it's been yet.
So he went back to the doctor and was given a different course of tablets (I'm not sure if these are antibiotics too, but they're called tetralysal (lymecycline), and he also has a topical cream (defferin), although he was warned it could dry his skin out (as if he needs more of THAT), so he's only applying the cream directly to the swollen areas. This was 3 weeks ago now, and this is the first month where the condition didn't even lessen for a week or two.
I even went out and bought him a brand new pillow, and we put on a fresh pillow case every 2 nights (flipping it between), so he's always lying on a clean surface at night. He's also stopped drinking alcohol and is working out and drinking plenty of water. Oh and he takes a daily mutlivitamin, which he started taking when his skin very first started breaking down, he takes cocodamol (for the pain) and has started taking cod liver oil and a herbal remedy for acne that we got in Holland and Barrett.
He's in so much pain today and he's ashamed to go outside because of how it looks. He left work early today and went to the doctors to make an appointment but they told him it will be the end of next week before they can see him. He needs help NOW.
I don't think they're treating him correctly. I just hope it doesn't take the 6 years it took to cure my own acne (I think it cleared on its own, but in the end, lavender oil worked on me. I've tried this for JP and it did nothing, tea tree doesn't help either).
There is just one other thing that may be important, but that he won't tell his doctor; his skin gets considerably worse when I am about to come on my period. My periods used to be few and far between, so we never noticed (he's had mild acne since before he met me, with just occasional spots). I started self-treating through my diet for low thyroid activity because although it was affecting my health, my levels weren't deemed low enough to medicate by the stingy NHS who just wanted to keep monitoring me (I hate giving blood, and my symptoms were getting unbearable, so screw that shit). Anyway, this resulted in my periods becoming regular for the first time ever, as well as relieving 90% of the symptoms I'd been told indicated a thyroid problem. It was then that we started to notice that JP's skin got much worse when I was about to come on my period. We've observed this for about 6 months now.
Does anyone have any ideas what we can try next? Is there anything he should be asking his GP to investigate? I've told him to ask to be referred to a dermatologist, but whether or not they'd do this is another matter.
He's so depressed over this, and he keeps getting angry and yelling (not at me, just in general), and I'm a bit scared of him when he gets like that. I feel so helpless because I can't do anything to make it better.
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