33 yr old cystic acne cyst, surgery, & failure

[LinTK]

I am officially at the end of my rope.

33 yrs ago (age 21) I developed cystic acne. I had really good skin before that time. I am still fighting it, at almost 55 yrs of age, & I am beginning to think there will never be any hope for me looking normal ever again.

The worst of it is on my left jawline, where I had a deep scar (actually, a sort of scar pouch under the skin), that has consistently been active all this time. Just running my hand over my face would make all sorts of horrible smelling stuff come out of it. In the past, I've done every treatment available - accutane (2 courses), lancing them open, steroid injections, every antibiotic known to man, & surgery about 25 yrs ago, which failed when one of the stitches blew....leaving me w/ a cystic acne lump w/ a permanent hole in it from the blown stitch.

About a month & a half ago, I tried surgery once again, this time w/ an actual plastic surgeon (it was just a general surgeon before). He was pretty confident that he could remove the entire lump/scar/infected area. I should probably state that the scar/lump measured about 1.5" wide by about 0.5" long. Needless to say, this surgery was also a failure. While the original scar/lump is now gone, I now have a *new* lump, on the surface of my skin (not deep like the old one was), & oil & infected crap is now collecting in *this* one, & draining out whenever I touch that side of my face. The added bonus  is that I now have a large, ragged, fish hook-shaped incision scar around the whole mess. The new cyst is about the size of a marble, w/ half below & half above the skin's surface.

I keep thinking that, if there was just *some* way of permanently turning off/removing/killing off the offending oil glands that are pumping all this crud out, that maybe I'd have a chance of looking normal. The old cyst was so heavy, it was pulling down the left side of my face; my original plan w/ this plastic surgeon was to remove the old cyst, then have a sort of mini "face lift" to even out the 2 sides of my face. Now, I've pretty much given up hope of that ever happening.

So - how to you permanently kill off oil glands FOREVER???

Thanks for any ideas ~

Lin

[lornyjane]

It is said that laser can destroy oil glands. Please look into research about the DHT hormone responsible for acne (roaccutane blocks this). I'd say your dose was too low to stop acne but would have little effect on an existing cyst. There are natural DHT blockers. One is called Saw Palmetto.  Laser treatment can resurface the skin & get rid of scars. However it would take multiple treatments. A surgeon could also perform Dermabrasion (not to be confused with microdermabrasion). It is possible Dermabrasion could remove the oil glands if done deep enough.

[LinTK]

Unfortunately, things are getting worse, & my surgeon doesn't seem to see it.

The scar has an open area, that has really foul-smelling gunk coming out of it. Today, after taking a shower, I notice, on another part of the lump that's surrounded by the surgical scar, what looked like a flake of white dry skin. I got my tweezers to remove it....but it turned out to be a large plug of solidified oil gland secretion. When it pulled it out (it was perhaps a bit less than 1/8" long), it was followed by a gush of blood. So now, I have 2 open holes in this thing, w/ stuff coming out of them. My surgeon, who I saw on Mon, said that it's no longer infected, nothing's coming out of it (!!!!), & I should simply massage the area to get the lump to break up & go away. Or, he said, "I could cut it again". There's obviously something still in there, it's infected, it smells horrible, at least one oil gland is still *very* active, & I look 100 times WORSE than I did before the surgery,

I don't want to kill *all* my oil glands....I just want to stop the one monster, Incredible Hulk oil gland that's been pumping out all this crap for 33 yrs. Is there NOTHING that will do that?.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Unfortunately there is no way as such to kill all oil glands. However cystic acne needs to be treated. Cystic acne is the most severe form of acne. Cystic acne affects deeper skin tissue than the more superficial inflammation from common acne. Since they are severe, so systemic medications are usually required. The treatment consists of topical and oral antibiotics, tretinoin, oral contraceptives in females and Intralesional corticosteroid injections. Very severe cases may need excision and drainage. Also the treatment has to be taken for a long time so that relapses do not occur.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[LinTK]

PLEASE???????

[LinTK]

ANYONE???????