Acne Days...When Will it be gone?

I can honestly say, I've pretty much tried about everything.

Seriously, you name it I've tried it. In fact to show you, I've made a little list: proactive, neutrogena scrubs, neutrogena three step system, neutrogena calming cleanser, neutrogena naturals, clean and clear deep clean, clean and clear morning burst, vichy normaderm, clinique three step system, biore scrub, lay scrub and cleanser, aveeno naturals, aveeno daily cleansing pads, aveeno salicylic acid wash, clean and clear 3 step system, a few Japanese products, and the list goes on.

Let me describe my skin. It's UUUUBER sensitive. It gets red easily. I have acne, nothing super severe, mostly just on the surface, but it's still there and persistent. I have at least 2-3 zits always on my face, even more. It doesn't sound as bad as it looks, but trust me; and my redness doesn't help the appearance of everything. And the mega oiliness?! Gahhh, to have skin like Reese Witherspoon... And I have scars, mostly just hyperpigmentation nothing like indentations or ice-pick scars. I do have abnormally large pores on my nose, but that's another story.

I've been to see two dermatologists. The first, gave me two creams that he assured me would take away my acne. Least to say, those two creams ended up making my skin feel like sandpaper. I never visited him again.

After seeing him, and later on in my years, I visited my doctor hoping to get a referral to another dermatologist. She told me I should take minocyclin because she had such good success with it and it would definitely take away my acne. Well, she was wrong because that sucker gave me the worst acne I've ever had my in my life! And to this day, no doctor or dermatologist believes me when I say I've never had acne as bad as I do today before taking the drug. But, hey, they're a dermatologist and I'm just a stupid little girl right?

Needless to say, I stopped taking the drug and called up the doctor and demanded she give me a referral to a new derm.

The second dermatologist I visited gave me a retin-a product and a benzoyl peroxide gel. Well they seemed like they were working to get rid of the acne...right?? At least thats what I thought. I know retin-a is supposed to help with cell-turnover, but man, still my breakouts persisted. And at the time the benzoyl peroxide gel was just too drying.

I have had two laser treatments to help reduce the appearance of my scars. I guess it worked...I always wonder if the derm used a lower setting on the laser so that I would have to come in again and pay her another nice sum for another treatment. But I guess I'll never know, because I changed doctors.

What is it with dermatologists and being uppity?! Both I visited seemed like they were too busy to help a young girl with her acne with no super duper PPO health care. But that's just my experience, I shouldn't generalize all dermatologists out there.

Anyway, so I switched doctors and made an appointment. Expecting another uppity doctor who didn't want to waste his/her time on me, I was pleasantly surprised. My doctor was nice, very intelligent, and REALLY took into account my uuuber sensitive skin.

She told me the retin-a product I was using was probably causing me more irritation. She also didn't believe me when I told her about my experience with the drug, but she gave me a valid reason why it may have caused me to break out more. She explained that maybe that was a stressful time in my life and my hormones were out of whack. (which is true, the period I used it I was dealing with some major things, that now I look back at and go "ohhh...").

So she told me, that I should try the drug one more time and see. It was known to be the least irritating and most effective. My acne was not severe enough for accutane and I don't want to go on birth control. So I've been on the drug for so far a week and so far so good! She also prescribed to me clindamycin lotion and an adapalene gel. I'm not sure if I spelled those right, so I'll have to go run and check, but so far everything has been going well. She told me to continue using the benzoyl peroxide gel so I have. Everything seems to be working nicely together and I have noticed a stop in breakouts. I just pray that it continues to get better!!

So this has been my first week on this routine and I hope to report again in another week with how my treatment is going.

I have sensitive skin and I'm dealing with it!