u/Quirky_Age729

Hello! I am an 18F and over the past six months or so have been dealing with moderate hormonal acne for the first time in my life. It's been a journey navigating it, and has only gotten worse up until this point.
I had very mild acne in middle school, was prescribed Clindamycin swabs. These worked very well, but eventually weren't cutting it for the deeper cystic acne I began developing after a sunscreen gave me fungal acne. Treating the fungal acne destroyed my barrier in the process. So far, l've gone through Clindamycin swabs and topical cream, dapsone gel, tretnoin, and prescription azealic acid.
I had my hormones tested out of speculation a hormonal imbalance was causing my acne since I'm young, but my test results showed nothing unusual that would be correlated to acne regarding androgens, testosterone, and estrogen.
However, my derm kept recommending oral spironolactone. Obviously, I can't seem this as being ineffective until I try it. Although, I find it hard to make myself go on the medication due to the possible side effects and the fact that the acne can very easily come back once you stop taking it.
That being said, I am most interested in trying a good pre/probiotic supplement before any prescription medication. Do any women have good pre/probiotic supplements that worked well for them to clear up acne? Any recommendations are appreciated!

Hello! I am 18F and just herniated a disc in my lower back. About two weeks ago I was unable to walk after a tennis match, and had been dealing with dull back pains for about a month leading up to that. After a couple emergency visits and various referrals to different doctors, it was concluded I have a herniated disc (although they didn’t do any MRIs no matter how many times I requested a referral for one, they thinks it’s either L4 or L5). I finished a five day dosage of methylprednisolone, and had pretty good relief for the duration of time I was on the steroids. However, now that I am off of them, the pain is fully back. How am I meant to do school work and keep living my life when I can’t stand or sit without excruciating pain? I’m in physical therapy, take many breaks laying in all the different positions with pillows that take stress off of the lower back, and have order an adjustable standing desk. I just don’t know what to do, and none of the pain meds do anything for me. Am I going to be able to recover completely? What do I do to make things better in the meantime and prevent further flare ups while I’m recovering? Before the steroids, it was nerve pain in my tailbone area and left leg. Now, it’s muscle spasms and pain every time I move. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello! I’ve taken the ACT once online and once on paper, and did much better online so I’m planning to take it one more time online. I have the red prep book, but is it a good resource if I want to simulate taking the test online? For example, I’m really bad at math, so taking advantage of Desmos was a game changer for me. What are the best online practice tests?

Hello! I am currently going into Grade 12 in the states, and am pretty set on going to an Ontario or Quebec Uni. I have a couple questions: 1. Considering the stats I have (see ** below), do I have a good chance of being accepted to Western Ivey, Queens, and Rodman? 2. If I theoretically got accepted to all three, which is the best option overall in terms of academic rigor, career opportunities/resources, and social life? 3. I got a 27 on my ACT and I plan to take it one more time, but don’t have very high hopes for myself. Would you guys recommend submitting applications without my score, or is it important to submit it even to unis that are test optional? 4. If there is any crucial advice you can think of for an applicant in my position, please feel free to let me know! I can use and help I can get, and any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

** Currently 4th in graduating class with a 4.3 weighted and 4.0 unweighted GPA. Passed AP Seminar, AP Physics 1, AP European History, AP U.S. Gov and Politics, and am taking AP Calculus AB, and AP Physics II this year (I’m in an engineering technical school as that was what I initially wanted to study going into grade 11, but have since changed my mind and have altered my EC descriptions to be more suited to an accounting major). I’ve also taken other advanced and college credit classes not through AP. Placed Top Ten in grade 10 for FCCLA Interior Design at Nationals, and just placed 2nd in the same category at Nationals in grade 11 (this project consisted of me creating a project for a client following their guidelines and requests. I used CAD to develop the project, and also developed a 15 minute speech and invoice, which I think relate well to a business major). FCCLA Vice President, National Honor Society President, and working a part-time job as desk-clerk at a tennis center (I’ve also played tennis for four years, but wasn’t planning to make that a focal point of my application). With these extra-curriculars, I’ve found ways to make them properly centered around marketing, communication, finance, and professional presentation skills.

Hi. Just got my first job at 18 years old working at a sports center as a desk clerk in Ohio. I always hear so much about opening a Roth IRA or 401k as soon as possible, but am not even sure how to approach this. Does anyone have any guides or just advice to offer in general to get me a little more educated? I want to be as financially smart as possible, and even starting now feels a little late since I’ve been lucky enough to have had my parents provide for me up until now as a student and such. Thank you!

Hi! My whole life, I’ve had super beautiful clear skin and have no started getting aggressive acne everywhere as a young adult— chest, back, face, etc. I was able to clear up my chest and back that had fungal acne, and just had occasional pimples and acne scarring on my face. Now, I have fungal acne all over my cheeks and forehead. Trying to treat the fungal acne is taking much longer than I anticipated, and it’s making my regular acne very inflamed from prescribed ciclopirox shampoo. I feel so insecure that I haven’t left my house in five days, this is not like me at all. I’m scared to go into the sun, and I’m scared to exercise, and all I can think about when I go outside to do even the most meaningless tasks is how disgusting I look with all of my acne. I’m so sick of it. How do I keep my acne from controlling my life like this?

Hi! My whole life, I’ve had super beautiful clear skin and have no started getting aggressive acne everywhere as a young adult— chest, back, face, etc. I was able to clear up my chest and back that had fungal acne, and just had occasional pimples and acne scarring on my face. Now, I have fungal acne all over my cheeks and forehead. Trying to treat the fungal acne is taking much longer than I anticipated, and it’s making my regular acne very inflamed from prescribed ciclopirox shampoo. I feel so insecure that I haven’t left my house in five days, this is not like me at all. I’m scared to go into the sun, and I’m scared to exercise, and all I can think about when I go outside to do even the most meaningless tasks is how disgusting I look with all of my acne. I’m so sick of it. How do I keep my acne from controlling my life like this?

Hi. After a sunscreen caused a fungal acne flare up all over my face, I went to see a dermatologist. I had been prescribed Ketoconazole shampoo (which didn't work for me) for fungal acne on my chest and back, but had success clearing the acne up with Ciclopirox shampoo that I was told to use daily as a body wash on affected areas. As a result, I received the advice from my derm to use Ciclopirox on my face. However, she said for me to use it once a day. The instructions on the bottle (not the instructions left by my dermatologist) say to wait 3-4 days minimum between usage, and I'm finding very mixed instructions online. Should I keep using it every day since my derm said so, or will I see better results with spacing it out so as to avoid irritation? I haven't seen any improvement so far, only staying the same or getting slight worse, in addition to becoming itchier due to the drying effect from the shampoo.

Hi. After a sunscreen caused a fungal acne flare up all over my face, I went to see a dermatologist. I had been prescribed Ketoconazole shampoo (which didn’t work for me) for fungal acne on my chest and back, but had success clearing the acne up with Ciclopirox shampoo that I was told to use daily as a body wash on affected areas. As a result, I received the advice from my derm to use Ciclopirox on my face. However, she said for me to use it once a day. The instructions on the bottle (not the instructions left by my dermatologist) say to wait 3-4 days minimum between usage, and I’m finding very mixed instructions online. Should I keep using it every day since my derm said so, or will I see better results with spacing it out so as to avoid irritation? I haven’t seen any improvement so far, only staying the same or getting slight worse, in addition to becoming itchier due to the drying effect from the shampoo.