r/Staphacne

I noticed a small cluster of bumps on my elbow about a week ago. Mildly itchy. No clue what the cause was but I thought it might be hives or contact dermatitis. It began blistering after about 4 days so I went to the walk in clinic the next morning. They gave me cephalexin 500mg for cellulitis.

Its been 24 hours since I began the antibiotics but its looking worse and I'm concerned the diagnosis is wrong. New rash appeared on the inside of my elbow on day 4 and on my finger yesterday. All on the same arm. The skin is swollen and painful to touch or move my arm.

Whats going on?

im at my wit's end. nothing is helping my 2 year old clear his staph/eczema on his face. he literally screams bloody murder, runs, kicks, etc whenever I try and apply anything. I'll get it close to clear then he'll scratch, rub and tear his skin off again in the night. I try my best to stay awake to prevent him but there is only so much I can do :( weve been battling staph/eczema for at least a year. his face just wont get better. tried hypochlorus spray, Probiotic sprays, used mupirocin ointment for far too long. ive read some parents have applied hibiclens but idk if thats safe for his face. hoping someone has a solution i haven't tried yet. 💙

UPDATE: I just received his stool test results and i have no idea if this plays a role in his eczema but in the Dysbiotic Flora column, they're are these bacteria listed: -Enterobacter Cloacae Complex -Klebsiella Oxytoca -Klebsiella Pneumoniae

In the Commensal (imbalanced) Flora:

• Rothia Dentocariosa -Rothia Mucilaginosa -Staphylococcus Aureus -Staphylococcus Epidermidis -Streptococcus Salivarius/vestibularis

if anyone has additional info on these while I wait for doctor appointment and do my own pubmed research id appreciate it 💙💙

Pics : pic 1-5 a week ago on accutane and end of my prednisone course
Pic 6-12 current flare after pausing accutane
Pic 13,14,15 while on doxycycline
Rest of pics. What happened after doxycycline causing me to go on accutane
Demographics: 29M, 5'9", 142 lbs.
Current Meds: Topical Mupirocin ointment, Accutane (currently paused at day 7).
Past Meds: Oral Prednisone (1-month taper ended recently), Doxycycline (March 2026).
Full Clinical Context:
Past Year: Multiple skin infections treated empirically with antibiotics without cultures.
Dec 2025: A small facial lesion near my lip was cultured and confirmed positive for MRSA.
March 2026: Finished a course of Doxycycline. Immediately after finishing Doxy, I began developing recurring boils for the first time in my life.
May 2026: Started Accutane specifically to treat these recurring boils (10 mg/day x 30 days, then 20 mg/day x 19 days).
Recent: Finished 1 month of oral Prednisone for a lung issue. Paused Accutane for 7 days following a motorcycle accident.
Current Presentation & Uncertainty:
During the 7-day pause from Accutane (and right after stopping Prednisone), my skin erupted into deep, painful bumps worse than my baseline—1 draining lesion on my neck and 3 large, elevated, erythematous bumps on my shoulder (photos attached). I also have hair shedding. A culture was taken yesterday (minimal drainage was available, so results are pending). I genuinely cannot tell if these are active bacterial infections (Staph/MRSA) or an intense inflammatory/purge rebound from stopping Prednisone and Accutane simultaneously.
Conflicting Plans from Derms in the Same Practice:
Dermatologist 1: Thinks this is a severe steroid-withdrawal rebound / cystic acne purge. Recommends restarting Accutane at a lower dose (10 mg/day).
Dermatologist 2: Suspects a bacterial furunculosis/MRSA flare. Recommends stopping Accutane, using Mupirocin, and transitioning to oral Doxycycline after an Accutane washout period.
Questions:

1. Looking at the attached photos, do these features look more like active bacterial boils/staph infections or deep inflammatory acne purging/steroid rebound?
2. What are the key visual or clinical markers I should monitor to determine if a lesion is infected vs. purely inflammatory while waiting on culture results?
3. If this is a bacterial flare, is it common practice to manage it topically (Mupirocin / Chlorhexidine) while remaining on low-dose Accutane, or is a full pause for oral antibiotics the standard approach?

This has been the progression of my impetigo and cheilitis. It started with blisters on my lips, but these subsided and months afterwards I’ve been stuck with recurrent impetigo. These blisters on the first pic haven’t come back. I don’t know why the staphylococcus aureus with colden crusts keeps coming back though. We confirmed it is this exact bacteria that keeps returning by multiple swab tests. I think it has to do with my broken lip skin barrier that doesn’t seem to heal on its own anymore (see last picture: even though my lips don’t necessarily look bad, i am missing half the skin on the inside and outside of my bottom lip and if new skin grows it either keeps peeling off or for periods of time no skin grows back) What I’ve used or done over the months: 4 rounds of oral antibiotics, 4/5 rounds of fucidin, two weeks of nasal mupirocin, removed my piercings. They all work for like a week or two and then the yellow-red lesions return again. For maintenance I just use cicaplast b5 lip balm. Any tips? Anyone who can relate to this? I go to the dermatologist but even they don’t know what’s going on.

Hi! So rewind over a month ago, I had a sinus infection… the inside of my nose one side felt raw, I could feel a scab forming I figured it was from blowing my nose and nasal draining…. it went away then I had a pimple that above my eyebrow. didn’t think anything of it. a couple days in it felt like a blister. I did pick at it bc i’ve never had to deal with this before. i thought it was weird bc it was scaly and itchy. So i did a telehealth appt and they said contact dermatitis. so i treated it with some hydrocortisone and it went away after about a week or so. fast forward to now… I got another pimple near the original one started treating it same way. THEN outside of my nose one day had what felt like there was a scab, i picked up! now this is what im working with! I went back to telehealth Monday they prescribed me Keflex and Mupurocin. So needless to say im assuming its been staph all along and I am having MAJOR anxiety thinking im never going to combat this thing! I made a dermatologist appt cant get in until 8/20 should I go to Urgent care and have a real person look at it? culture it? I’m freaking out!! since starting my antibiotics monday night everything seems to kind of be the same. Not better not worse. The lesions on my forehead are scabbing and are itchy

any insight would be appreciated thank you

*** UPDATE*** Went back to Urgent care I was given an IV of Rocephin. and an RX for Bactrim to add on top of my keflex. They cultured my nose. Does taking the bactrim with the keflex seem

like overkill!? when should I be able to see changes in the right direction with this new protocol?

Been on antibiotic and steroid for the past year but they always came back right after i stopped it.

I went through like 10 different derm and they all did the same thing. Some antibiotic and steroid. They never look at my eczema and only prescribe the same generic drugs. The last one simply said that's the whole regimen, there's nothing else she could do for me.

They mostly appear on my legs. At first it appears as a small red dot and will burst oozing yellow fluid after a couple of days, always no matter what I do (keep clean, moisturizer, Hocl,...). EDIT: more thing to add, I tried mupirocin on those spot without steroid and it doesn't do anything at all, could be resistance or maybe not infected? the fluid is quite yellow and thick though.

I noticed I had a small cut on my thigh and that turns into the same thing. So I suspected it's a staph infection? I got bitten my mosquito quite often so maybe it's infected bug bite? But it happens all the time out of nowhere (and only on my legs) so idk.

Here is when it's oozing: Oozing

Here is another spot that is not: Dry

They all form a crater like spot with red in the middle.

I'm planning to try to decolonize staph. But there's no mucipicin for nasal in my country. Read other post says you can use chlorhexidine or povidone but those are not safe for nasal so I'm too afraid to try.

Since the derm in my area has pretty given up and don't even let me visit them anymore. Any help is appreciated.

I train mma/nogi jiujitsu . I Shower before training always, last trained 2 days ago and noticed these pimple looking bumps on my inner thigh this morning. Can someone help me out and lmk what this is or if it looks serious???? Few on my left leg and one on my right.

These showed up overnight. And cleared up quite fast too so am unable to tell if it responds to antibiotics or anti fungal treatments. Feels hot and itxhy too.

Hi all! I have had this scab for a week now. I have been putting hydrogen peroxide on it and neo but idk if it is healing or infected. It is not hot to the touch, I have picked it a couple times which I know is bad. Also I have muciporin ointment would that help? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Big ol boil on my fucking face. I'm gonna do the chlorhexidine wash protocol. Also currently taking 100mg doxycycline, which worked great the only other time I got a boil like this. Any recommendations?