Extreme face problem please help

[needacnehelp]

I've never really had too bad acne except for maybe one zit on my cheek or chin a month and a few on my forehead more frequently and had neither oily nor dry skin. A few months ago, my face just randomly broke out everywhere, starting with my chin, and within a week was completely covered with acne. I then started using an acne kit called Clean and Clear Advantage, but that only dried out my skin and made it peel pretty badly.

During use, the majority of my left cheek started sort of bubbling and swelling up a bit, thinking it was due to the dryness of my face from the acne kit, i stopped using it. This bubbling also started in smaller areas twice on my right cheek, but i somehow got rid of them just by popping them; which involves squeezing around the swolen area and a number of holes would erupt with a lot of force(spraying all over the mirror), with a thin, light orange liquid with bits of regular pus in it, then bleeding a lot for a minute or two, or leaking the light orange liquid for a few minutes.

The two areas on my right cheek ended up just going away over about a week's time, but the very larger swolen area on my left cheek didn't. The best way to describe the "swolen area" is to compare it to a mass of blisters all clustered up tightly; if i pop it though, each hole only gets the liquid out of it's own -sort of- cavern and several holes have to erupt in order to get all of the liquid out of the whole area. I can basically push from any direction around the outer edges of the swolen area and the pressure will pop at least one of the holes that you can't see until they pop.

Once popped, the area gets flaky and peels. It has been several months and i still have this blistery, swolen area on my left cheek that hasnt gotten any better without going back to being just as bad as before. I went to the doctor's about a month ago, and she just prescribed me doxycycline hyclate for acne in general. The other partes of my face have a little less acne, but are still pretty bad, especially my chin. I've tried putting ointment on my swolen part of my face at night, but that just creates tons of white heads all across my face when it melts and the oil gets all in my pores and only shows small improvement over a week.

I used to take benadryl as a sleep aid a few times a week, but then my mom told me to start taking it for my face because the swolen area might be an infection. I also started using a cleanser for sensitive skin, a once a week homemade scrub that has honey, organic sugar, and olive oil for deep hydration and a moisturizer for dry, sensitive skin. My embarrassment from this condition has stopped me from going to school countless days and I would really benefit from knowing what it is or knowing how to stop it before it gets even worse or deep scarring occurs if anyone could please tell me.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

yes, you can try Dove.

[needacnehelp]

Thankyou so much! All you have said actually makes a lot of sense to me. What you have told me about the histamine and the foods that increase it has blown my mind because i actually have been eating a good number of those foods more frequently than usual.
Also, for a mild soap, would Dove soap be a good choice?,or maybe Dial?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
What you have could be Rosacea, or acne rosacea, which is a skin disorder. It causes redness and pimples on the face around nose, forehead, cheekbones, and chin. The pimples of rosacea look a lot like acne but do not have blackheads. The main reason they increase is because of increased blood flow as in blushing. Hence heat of any kind, exposure to sun, hot drinks, spicy food, menopause, anger and emotional stress, high blood pressure, cough, drugs that increase blood flow like blood vessel dilators, and fever can also increase the symptoms.
Similarly food that increase histamine (a chemical that can cause flushing) release [like spinach, beans, citrus fruits, tomatoes, bananas, eggplant, raisins, figs, avocados, red plums, vinegar, yogurt, sour cream, soy sauce, yeast extract, chocolate, vanilla, and liver] cause the worsening of symptoms. Hence restrict the intake of these. There are several treatments available to control and keep the symptoms in check. Consult a skin specialist regarding this.
The other possibility is acne vulgaris. Acne is due to an overactivity and plugging of the oil glands. Keep you face clean by washing with a mild soap at least twice a day. Pat it dry and do not rub or scrub it. Avoid picking or pressing the raised bumps. You can also use Benzoyl peroxide 5% lotion or gel once at bedtime but this needs to be taken under medical supervision. Also you may need hormonal assessment.
It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage.  Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!