My dermotologist was put me on Keflex (500 mg tablets) and Cleocin T dabber for treatment of infected Acne Vulgaris. Ughh, I had a better complexion when I was a teenager.
Questions I forgot to ask-
My doctor told me not to drink milk when taking the Keflex. Anyone know why? How long should I wait after taking it to have some milk with cereal? What about other dairy products?
It’s only been two days so far. Anyone know when I’ll start to see and feel relief?
The Cleocin has been drying my pustules out significantly. I asked the doctor and he said this is what he’s going for. They are so dry and scabbed over they hurt. Should I be concerned? My dermotologist was not.
I am not a doctor and can’t give medial advice. My experience in general, however, is simply that your skin is likely dry and inflamed. Unless your doctor told you otherwise (and read the label on the medicine, too) wash your face with water or lotion.
Oh I should have mentioned, he gave me special soap for washing my face.
GingerOfTheNorth and Spezza thanks. I didn’t know about the absorption issues. Is it just milk or all diary products? I’ve been taking it at like 8 and not eating breakfast till 10 or so…
awldune, I was aware of the normal flora destruction. Luckily my stomach is pretty robust.
Anybody wanna take a guess as to when I’ll start seeing some results?
:eek: I was given Keflex for an infected cyst on my back. If I took it without food, took two doses near each other in time, or even didn’t quite eat enough, I felt nauseous.
Actually, I was sort of borderline nauseous the whole time- if I rode in a car, I’d be prone to start feeling motion-sick, that sort of thing. I described it once as my stomach being about 7 out of 10, where 10 is perfectly fine and 1 is puking up my toenails.
Glad you’re having a better experience with it than I did. I don’t recall being told not to eat milk products, but I wasn’t sleeping too well then (hard to get comfortable in bed with an infected and inflamed cyst on your back), so it’s entirely possible that I just don’t remember that.
I have no first hand experience, but my understanding is that with most oral anti-acne products your face will get worse before it gets better.
As to how long it will take to see results - I would imagine that depends on the dose your taking, how severe your problem is, etc, etc - you should probably direct that one to your Dr - perhaps you can just phone the office?
Interesting, Alice-in-Wonderland. My experience w/ antibiotics for acne never involved a worse-before-better situation. Topical products, yes. Cleocin for me was useless. If I even took antibiotics for 10 days for an unrelated condition I would definitely see an improvement in my skin.
If its anything like Acutane ,then your skin should start to molt. It removes the acne by stripping away skin layer by layer , so that you will be able to peel off disgusting strips of translucent skin.
Stay the course and nuke the acne, in about 6 weeks , you should be able to step back and assess your condition.
There is no listed reason that I could find not to drink milk, it may be just a personal preference of your physician. Ask him why, as it could be for any number of reasons, although I can see nothing in the literature to suggest that avoiding dairy products is necessary with this medication.
Cleocin is Clindamycin, another antibiotic.
All antibiotics are associated with rash, Cefalexin has Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis as a listed side effect and Clindamycin has exfoliative and vesiculobullous dermatitis listed. Although listed, they are EXTREMELY rare, so don’t apnic.
If your doctor is happy, you’re fine, but if it gets worse, you develop rash on other parts of your body, or previously normal skin (ie skin unaffected by acne) on your face starts to peel and blister, go back and see him again asap.
A fair trial of any acne treatment is 3 months (although you’ll probably notice improvement earlier), as you’re trying to affect the new layers of skin coming up from the lower epidermis, not the layers of skin currently on the surface. It can take a while to see the full effects.
I’ve been calling my doctor and checking in. My face is way worse now than when this started (only 4 days ago). The worst spots are now scabbed over and painful. He wants me to discontinue the Cleocin and up the antibiotic to Cipro. I hate to take such a strong antibiotic but hopefully, doctor knows best. He feels that the acne itself is infected and that’s what needs to be treated.
They’re nothing like Acutane. Completely different mode of operation.
And that’s not why Acutane works either; if that’s what happened to your skin, that’s unusual. Acutane reduces the oil production of your face - so much so that users get chapped lips and nosebleeds. It manages to affect oil production for life - quite amazing, actually.
It was an interesting time of my life ,I tell ya. 5 years of living with acne and going to highschool and forever looking blech. Then six weeks later , totally clear , it was amazing.
Excalibre- or they could be suffering from that famous side effect of depression!
Accutane is a very powerful medication with potentially devastating side effects. It should be reserved as a last resort for serious cases of cystic acne.
It is not a miracle cure for everyone with acne, it is what you turn to when NOTHING else works.