Overcoming Antibiotic Skin Reactions: My Experience

Background

I recently got a bacterial infection in my throat which resulted in me being prescribed antibiotics. I was told to take one tablet twice for ten days. On the second day of me taking the antibiotics, I noticed small white raised dots start to form on my chin, and by day three, there were hundreds of them on the bottom half of my face. This was not the first time this has happened. A few months back I was on some other oral antibiotic, and you guessed it, this same thing happened. I realized that I may be allergic to antibiotics or I just will end up with this rash like side effect anytime I have to use them. On both occasions, I went back to the doctor looking for a solution.

The Solution

It actually wasn’t that difficult to get rid of the small white bumps, though it did cause a lot of distress the few days that they existed. The first time it happened, I was prescribed another type of antibiotic with a topical cream or gel. Sadly, I am not one hundred percent sure of the ingredient or brand of the gel/cream that they prescribed for me the first time. When I had to take antibiotics again, and got the same rash on my face, I tried to search for the topical cream I was prescribed before and the name Clindamycin sounded familiar. I went back to the doctor and this time I was not prescribed another antibiotic, I continued taking and finished the one that was prescribed to me. I was also prescribed with a Benzoyl Peroxide 5% Acne Treatment Gel in addition to Clindamycin Phosphate Topical Gel 1%. I was instructed to apply a thin layer of both gels on my face before bed, for a month. When I heard the doctor say a month, I panicked. Last time, with whatever gel or cream I was prescribed, it fixed it in 2 days. All of the bumps were gone and I was only left with some redness, and a kind of dark greyish brown color where the bumps once existed. I continued using the gel/cream until I finished the new antibiotics, and for a few days afterwards and my skin was back to normal. I let the doctor know of this but nothing in my prescription changed. I was just going to have to hope Clindamycin was the ingredient that helped. And thankfully it was. On the first night when I used both the Benzoyl Peroxide gel and Clindamycin gel, my face burned really badly. I didn’t care. I wanted to be rid of the horrible bumps. The next morning my face was red and no matter what I did it burned. I did not see a reduced amount of bumps, but there were no new ones. I used CeraVe moisturizer because I know it works well with my skin and does not irritate it, but that did nothing to help keep my face cool or moisturized. I knew that I couldn’t continue using the Benzoyl Peroxide gel that I was prescribed, and decided to try just the Clindamycin gel. Thankfully, applying the Clindamycin Phosphate 1% gel once before bed worked perfectly. After two days, the bumps disappeared, and I was again left with some redness and a greyish brown color in place of the white bumps. I was also left with a destroyed skin barrier that burnt really bad, but I was able to bring my skin back to normal from that as well. Two weeks later and my skin is back to how it was before (I still have acne). So, if you have to take antibiotics and you end up with a similar rash (hundreds of small white raised bumps that do not hurt), don’t delay in going back to your doctor, they may prescribe you with Clindamycin Phosphate 1%, and if they don’t maybe ask them about it. Having those bumps felt horrible to me, and you really do not have to deal with it for more than two days if you act quickly.

I will talk in more detail about my damaged skin barrier and explain what I did to fix it in the next post. Thanks for reading!

PS: I would add a picture of my skin when I had the rash so it would be easier to know if you have the same problem, but I just could not stand to look at it so I didn’t keep the pictures. But here is a link to a picture on Google that looked very similar to what I had. It’s really blurry, so to see a clearer version, I would suggest to go to Google images and search “bacterial folliculitis” and scroll to find a clearer version of the image that I linked here. You might have to copy and paste the link into your browser. Viewer discretion is advised. https://tinyurl.com/tuuajthn