sup.

Thought it would be a good idea to keep track of my (eh, hopefully) progression on accutane, ate my first pill a couple of minutes ago. I'll make everything short and sweet. I'm 20, Norwegian and have had acne for about 4-5 years. It was about a year ago it really exploded, and ever since it has been really bad. As most of you, I've tried "everything". BP only, BP+differin+tetracyclin, tetracyclin only, diet change, god knows. Of the mentioned, only diet change has ever given me results (blabla, diet doesn't cause acne, blabla fuck you).

My acne is kinda weird. Few whiteheads, never anything cystic. Only thousands of millions of billions of red marks in my face and at my back/chest. Anyways, after years of this shit I visited my doctor when my second attempt on tetracyclin failed. This was in october, mind you. Half a year later I finally got my appointment. And here we are.

Almost forgot. I'm 69kg (150ish lbs), and have been told to eat three pills a day, which equals 60mg.

I've had my three first pills, and now I can't sleep because I'm about to puke any time. 04:53AM. What a start...

I never was about to puke on Accutane, but it did cause some sleepless nights. I never take them late at night anymore or else I'd just stay up until early morning.

Thanks for replying. Well, I can survive no sleep. Bad timing though, I have an exam in a couple of days

I'll keep your tip about not taking it too late in mind. Cheers.

DAY 2

Slept for about 3 hours last night. I feel good today though, the nauseaness (sp?) was hopefully just a "beginner's reaction". The month before I visited the derm I tried to mess up my skin on purpose by eating junkfood, drinking lots of milk and not using any face wash thingies or BP. I was actually in physical pain the week before my appointment, so I had to cool things down a bit. Hence, my skin is improving every day right now, accutane or not.

Beside the use of accutane, I drink about 20ml (2 table spoons) of apple-cider vinegar twice a day with orange juice. I also use a mild soap-free face wash from Nivea, which I think is great. It's not hard on my skin, and the results are definite. I try to eat lots of fruit and vegetables and drink a lot of water (which is dead important now, I guess). My problem has always been that I reach a certain niveau where my skin won't continue to improve, some sort of a plateau. Hopefully accutane can break that plateau and clear things up for real.

I took some pictures yesterday to keep track of my progression. I'll post them up some time, probably after a couple of weeks when I have something to compare with.

DAY 3

Skin is really dry today. If I moisturize, it only takes 2-3 hours and it's getting dry again. I don't think it's a good idea to moisturize 11 times a day anyway. Other than that, I feel good. A bit tired maybe, but nothing unusual. My lips are fine, I have never experienced dry lips in my whole life, so I'm guessing they'll stay strong for a little while.

DAY 4

First day out in public, I think the exam went good. Good thing I don't give a shit about what people think of me or my looks, because my face look like one single snowflake. My lips are still not showing any signs of dryness, and I feel good.

My skin hasn't changed much except from the dryness, things are still getting better after the "destroy my skin completely"-period before the derm visit. I don't really care though. Not yet.

DAY 5

First day at work on accutane. I work at a supermarket.

Quoting a 5 year old kid: "Look, the guy is red." I got owned.

Anyways. Extremely dry, and feel sunburned. I'm a bit worried over the severeness of the dry skin this early, it's painful for a minute or two when I moisturize. Lips are fine, no pain anywhere else than my face.

DAY 6

Nothing new, really. My forehead is improving nicely, it's actually quite smooth. I always experience better progression at my forehead than the rest of my face, so I'm not THRILLED about it.

I find it a bit weird that my skin seem to get less dry during the day. Say, I wash my face at 11am, and moisturize 15 minutes later. After two hours, it's really dry, but after 4-5 hours the dryness is almost gone. I'm not complaining though. I've stopped using the face wash, so I only wash with water right now to avoid further dryness. I think my lips are getting somewhat dry too, used lip balm for the first time in my life today.

SUM-UP WEEK 1:

Side-effects:
Redness (extreme)
Dry face (extreme)
Dry scalp (moderate)
Chapped lips (very mild)
Nauseaness (first night)
Sensitive skin (moderate-extreme)

Improvement:
Very mild improvement, but that's basically because I messed up my skin on purpose to get accutane prescribed the month before visiting the derm. It would've improved without accutane as well.

DAY 7

One week has passed. And holy shit. The redness I had yesterday is NOTHING compared to what I look like now. I honestly look like I've been wearing sunglasses while falling asleep in fucking Sahara. Of some reason the area around my eyes don't get dry at all, so it looks weird. Or hilarious. Work today'll be fun, I guess. Oh, well.

Woke up with chapped lips this morning. Doesn't bother me at all compared to the redness.

DAY 8

All my friends are now home during the holiday, beer will float. For the second time in three days I had to turn them down because of this shit. I'm not sure whether this is worth 4-5-6 months of hell, but we'll see. I'll have a couple of pints this week for sure, I will not let this control my life completely.

9 hours at work today. Went fine, I didn't get any dryer during the day.

DAY 9

My skin is definitely improving. I thought it was a placebo effect earlier, but now I'm positive. Though tons of new pimples pop up every day, the areas around my nose and lips are almost 100% clean. It's nice to be able to shave without any pain, it's been a while... The extreme redness has cooled down after I started to stay away from showering when there was no need to shower, and there are only certain parts of my face which need to be moisturized. So far, so good. I feel ridiculously tired today, but that is probably a good thing. My sleeping patterns are so fucked up that I probably should see a doctor.

DAY 10

Took a shower at noon today. The third time I moisturized, around 3pm, I was in so much pain that I literally had tears in my eyes. It's only the part around my nose which is really, really dry, and REALLY fucking hurts. When I shaved today, the skin was shaved off as well, heh. I think I have to buy an anti-dandruff shampoo too. I'll probably get lots of stares at work today.

This is getting tough. Call me insane, but I enjoy battling myself mentally.

Still day 10.

1. I think I got an eye inflammation. It sucks badly.
2. I lifted some cartons of juice at work today, and my back felt like I had deadlifted 500kg. It sucks badly.
3. I just looked in the mirror, depressed and worried, and found out that my skin is improving. Quick. Right now I'm extremely happy, and I actually think this is worth it

DAY 11
Dry eyes, dry hands, dry everything. Not sure if I actually have an eye inflammation or not, I feel better today. Oh, and I can't get up in the morning. It's physically impossible. 10 hours of sleep the last couple of days

DAY 12

Had a couple of beers last night. Drank about 3L of water too, but I still felt kinda nauseous. I don't know if it was a mental thing or if I actually did react badly. I don't regret it at all, it was awesome to see all my friends again. 95% of them are gone due to military service or studying in other parts of the country.

Today I'm a mess. It's definitely an eye inflammation, I woke up at 3pm, and I feel sick. I can't wait for this first month to be over. Something new every single day...

I've had a couple of bad breakouts the last three days, I don't know if it's due to crappy lifestyle atm. or if it's an IB. Doesn't bother me, I'm used to it.

DAY 13

Woke up with massive pain in my right eye today, and went to the hospital where they confirmed that my eye is inflamed. Sigh.

On the other side, I tried a new moisturizer this morning. A world of difference. No pain and no dryness. Also, I slept 3-11 today, and I'm hoping to turn around my sleeping patterns now.

Sounds like you are not having a good time at all. Are you taking all 3 pills at once? If so, try taking them throughout the day. One at breakfast, one at lunch and then one at dinner. Take them with food and a whole glass of water. Hope you are feeling better. I'm on day 10 today so we are at about the same schedule. Only I am on 40mg and not 60. I take one pill everynight with my meal. Also, they say if you eat it with foods that have alot of fat in them, the tane will be better absorbed.

IF you do get dry lips, try Carmex lip balm. Everyone is stuck on that Aquaphor stuff. I swear by Carmex! They even make a mint flavor that will cool the sore lips while it's moisturizing.

Good luck to you!


Sounds like you are not having a good time at all. Are you taking all 3 pills at once? If so, try taking them throughout the day. One at breakfast, one at lunch and then one at dinner. Take them with food and a whole glass of water. Hope you are feeling better. I'm on day 10 today so we are at about the same schedule. Only I am on 40mg and not 60. I take one pill everynight with my meal. Also, they say if you eat it with foods that have alot of fat in them, the tane will be better absorbed.

IF you do get dry lips, try Carmex lip balm. Everyone is stuck on that Aquaphor stuff. I swear by Carmex! They even make a mint flavor that will cool the sore lips while it's moisturizing.

Good luck to you!

I've delt with way worse things than this, I can survive constant tiredness, a red eye and dry skin. Finding that new moisturizer changed everything, I know feel have control over things. Not having control has been tough, but I honestly believe things will be way easier now when I don't have to worry so much about the pain.

I eat one pill with my breakfast and one 12-ish hours later. Both with meals, most of the time with "fatty meals". My lips seem to be fine with something called "Lypsyl", I don't know if it's a Norwegian product or if you can find it everywhere. Seems to work perfectly fine.

Thanks for stopping by. I've been reading your journal, and I'll keep doing so. Good luck to you too

Yeah, Lypsyl can be found pretty much anywhere.

Your English is great though, were you educated in English? Also... do many people in Norway speak English? I'm thinking about touring Norway this summer but I'm worried that Anglophones are few and far between.

Also, the other day some black guy said to me "Go back to Europe you motherf***ing cracker!" and I'm actually considering it. Hahaha. (I've got Norwegian, German and Scottish ancestry and I live in Canada)