Re: Is this Demodex?

I've been having an odd skin irritation in two spots on my face for the past 7 months (began around Nov/Dec last year). It began as 1 small red circle of off color skin with about 2 or 3 pimples in the red circle just above the corner of my mouth but below my nostril on my left cheek. It was tiny, smaller than my pinky nail. I thought at first it was a reaction to my face cleansers or creams, so I stopped using anything for months.
It never really 'itched' more so than tickled occassionally and usually in the evenings or if I was sitting in a dark theatre or something.
For months nothing really changed, but it did get bigger very, very, slowly.
After a cruise in Dec., my dad gave me some Desonate, which is a pretty strong steroid, he was Rx'd for psoriasis. Desonate actually seemed to take the redness away, and keep any red blotches/papules from forming, almost like drying it out, and it didn't get any bigger, but it wasn't getting better either.
Finally I got insurance and went to the doctor, that was in May, and asked him about it. He thought impetigo (tho I had no idea why, didn't look like impetigo one bit to me). He said some Antibiotic Neosporin for a couple weeks should clear it up b/c it was such a small case (still not bigger than a pinkey nail yet). It didn't, in fact, it started to spread then (spread but not really flare up). I called him and said the Neosporin wasn't working after 3 weeks and he called in Rx: Bactroban. I got Mupirocin, the generic. Totally irritated it! It itched like crazy! Became totally enflamed. More red bumps with papules. Spread to below the the corner of my mouth. There became two distinct seperate spots, now both larger than a nickel. After 6 days, I stopped the Mupirocin. Randomly running into some Aloe, I plucked some and applied it. It seemed to soothe the symptoms again, that's all.
So the next week I went back to the Doc to look at it again. We thought maybe fungal, he told me to try Lamisil. I got to the antifungal isle and there were so many different kinds so I grabbed a bunch and took 'em to the pharmacist to ask them which I should choose.
She told me if essentially 4 different Antibiotics didn't help, and that the Desonate, a steroid, was keeping it at bay, it sounded more like dermatits or eczema or Psoriasis to her... but I bought the Lamisil anyway, the one that she said would take one week if it was indeed fungal.
Nothing changed. It didn't flare up, but it was certainly bigger, enflammed, and having more papules.
I then called last week for a Dermatologist recommendation. I'm going tomorrow.
However, I wanted to share with everyone that I have been using TriDerma Intense Healing cream for hard to heal skin irritations, over the counter, Walgreens $15.99 and it has no steroids in it. It has alleviated the symptoms, and seems to have actually improved the condition of my skin. The top portion is looking 70% better, no papules, just barely off color... tho still a little scarred, maybe?? Not sure yet... The bottom portion is still battleing a couple papules but both have seemed to have receeded in size but I think the top might be scarred more than the bottom part, if that makes any sense. The top seems scarred but the bottom seems to have receeded into a red line, rather than circle.
I've only just now begun to realize that I do have a problem with my eyelashes. Every night they itch and I'm pulling at them like one's loose and just sitting wrong or something... I've noticed I do that a lot more than I previously really ever realized. But I don't think I've ever really had any redness or irritation in my eyelashes.
I'm thinking this could be Demodex and I'm anxious to get to the Dermatologist tomorrow. I'm terrified that I'm going to have to burn everything cloth in my house to be completely rid of them (as irrational as I know that is...). I saw somewhere online they recommended to replace my pillows (at least).
I will share the results of my appointment tomorrow.
Good luck everyone! Tweet