Month 3 (and a bit)

Finished my 3rd box of the good stuff and am seeing some (good) results.

I had a pretty bad run at the 2 month mark. Really bad breakouts and itchiness for about 3-4 weeks. It was so bad at times I would have to take days off work and socially it was pretty grim.
There was 3 things that turned things around for me (well, I believe they did anyway)...

Around 3 weeks ago I made the stupid decision to pass out on a beach for 4 hours wearing no sunscreen. I got severely burnt all over my face. Now, I don't usually get burnt so it just shows how careful I now have to be whilst on this med.
It took two weeks for my face to calm down and for the dead skin to shed...not such a pretty sight. The upside tho, was that with the shedding went the pimples. The burn completely cleared up my face. I should mention here that in no way do I condone getting burnt...Seriously, it's dangerous stuff and no matter how bad your acne is, it does not have the potential to be fatal like sunburn.
Anyway, I still break out here and there but nowhere as bad as I did pre-burn. The other thing I did and I reckon it has helped a lot is not shaving. Instead of shaving, I bought myself a beard trimmer. It doesnt touch the skin and causes almost no irritation at all. With the trimmer I can get it down to almost a stubble (so I dont look like george of the jungle).
The 3rd thing is probably the amount of time i've been on accutane. Even though i'm not even half way through the course (being...2 x 20mg per day for 8 months), 3 months is still a milestone (which was true in my first course also).
So things are looking good. But to be honest I feel as if it could turn at any moment and very quickly. But am just going to enjoy the good ride i'm having at the moment.

J.

Accutane course no. 2

Firstly, i've got to say this website is really cool. From someone who has battled to control acne since hitting the puberty blues I know how isolating the condition can be. It's sort of a personal battle and the majority of people (in the real world) don't understand what you are going trough...So it's great to read other people's stories...

Bit about me...I'm 26 years old (m) and have suffered from acne ever since I was 16. As a kid I never had a problem with my skin and when I look at past photos I really can't believe my skin took such a dive. Things went pretty haywire when I turned 16 when I had very severe outbreaks...Cystic acne, redness, new pimples everyday in every place imaginable...I looked a mess. Not a great thing when your'e in high school..

Anyway, just after my 17th birthday I decided enough was enough and consulted a dermo. By this stage my confidence was absolutley shot. I couldn't look people in the eye and began to be so self-conscience about my apperance that I would check myself in the mirror at least 5 times before I could leave the house.

I remember sitting in the dermo's room and struggling to look the guy in the eye. He could see my pain and had no hesitation prescribing accutane for me. He told me about the wonders of the drug and the liklihood of success and for the first time in a long time I felt really positive that things would turn around.

My memory isn't the best (it's nearly 10 years ago now! time flies) but the course involved taking antibiotics (which I believe were Bactrim-DS) twice a day for two months then starting a course of accutane (60mgs a day - 3 pills per day).
I remember the antibiotics kicking in pretty much straight away and clearing up my skin to a degree. By the end of the 2 months the redness in my face had slightly subsided and the breakouts were not as frequent. Still, it was pretty severe and I was ready to start my accutane course.

Unfortunatley my memory of my whole time on the course sort of escapes me. I remember the dry lips and the shedding of skin on my face. I'd have to lather up with moisterizer every morning before school and put blistex on my lips every couple of hours. But I do remember the side-effects being very manegable. I started the course in September and by the end of December my skin had cleared up 100%. I found a photo the other day taken just before new years eve and I couldn't see one spot. I was on top of the world...

I had clear skin until two years later when I turned 19. The acne had come back but was nowhere near as bad as what I experienced when I was 16. From 19 to 24 I controlled my acne (on and off) with various antibiotic courses such as minomycin and bacrtim-ds. My skin was definatley controllable and I would use (and still do) cetaphil to wash my face twice a day.

For some reason when I was 24 - after a break from antibiotics- when I went on another course of Bactrim-DS the drug kicked me around big time. I would get really bad headaches, constipation, feel anxious and generally feel drained. I asked my G.P about this and he suggested I take a break from antibiotics for a while. Which I did, but things got really bad last year (when I hit 25). This time I went to the dermo and she prescribed me all sorts of antibiotics. However, all of them had the same affect on me as bacrtim. Meanwhile my skin was getting worse and worse.

The dermo had suggested for me to go on another course of accutane right from the beginning but I resisted. Even though, from what I remember the side-effects were manegable I didnt want to go through the whole ordeal again. After all it is a powerful drug and can produce some strange side-effects. Having said that, after resisting her advise for over a year I felt I had no choice. My skin was taking a turn for the worse and I had tried all practical alternatives (including accutane cream, retina-a??).

So... two and a bit months ago (September 8th) I began another course. This time, my regime would consist of 20mg a day for 2 weeks and then 40mg a day for the next 7 months.

I'll go straight into what I felt when I started and what I am feeling now:

First week I immediatley had dry lips and needed to apply blistex at least every 2 hours. I also noticed, that if you don't put it on at night before you goto sleep you'll wake up with uncontrolable chapped lips.
I also felt extremley tired those first two weeks. The accutane really knocked me about. Not only was I tired but I felt light-headed and dizzy most of the time. I found myself oversleeping on weekends and having this constant urge to sleep. Another side-effect was a lack of concentration. I had an attention span of a goldfish. I remember trying to read the newspaper one day and not being able to take anything in. Very strange feeling. I would read the article over and over but nothing would really register. I would skip lines also....

As I was a bit worried about this I called up the dermo after those first 2 weeks and explained what I was feeling. She actually wasn't too fussed and confirmed that the drug does have some "strange side effects". She told me to persist with it and step it up to 2 pills (40mg) a day (which I was supposed to do after the 2 weeks anyway). She said taking more would not necessarily make the side-effects worse.

Well, after the first month thankfully the tiredness and lack of concentration went away completley.

Now alot has been written and said about the link between accutane and depression. For me the jury is still out. I have to admit, there was a two week period (a couple of weeks ago) where I was really down. Didn't want to talk to anyone or do anything. My mood swings were pretty extreme aswell and I was up and down like a yoyo. I'm sure the drug had a bit to do with it. But there are other factors in my life that definatley played a role. Not the least being the acne . Acne in itself has always affected my self-esteem and confidence and obviously these are factors that play a role in the onset of depression and "down moods".

After two months (2 weeks back) the side-effects have really started to kick in. My forehead got really dried out and I had scabs everywhere. Note though, that I was using Benzac - 10% to control the bigger pimples. Stupid decision...and I was specifically told not to do this. It just dries your skin out way too much. Accutance does this already and when you put on another product your skin just cant handle it...Trust me the result doesnt look great.

But i'm begginning to get severe breakouts. Especially on the jaw line and the forehead. I know it does get worse before it gets better. But my face looks pretty bad at the moment, so much so I feel awkward (once again) looking at people and being sociable. Its not just the way I look but its the uncomfortable feeling I have from the dryness.

I am also getting a build of a dry scabby skin just on my chin. I put cetaphil moisterizer on 3 times a day and this does help. My lips are still very dry and the corners of mouth are very cracked and if I dont put any ointment on them for say an hour it actually hurts to open my mouth. Oh and finally I have really dry eyes, but this can be easily fixed using your standard eye drops (it's all fun and games!).

So, not great at the moment. I'm nearly at the 3 month barrier and obviously can't say that I am happy with the results. Hopefully good news will be just around the corner (I actually do have a lot of faith in the drug). Got to be positive!

On the plus side...I'm not tired, I don't get headaches, i'm thinking clearly, my stomach is fine, my appetite hasn't changed and my joints dont hurt. So could be worse.

I could write forever but I probably should leave it here. Good luck to everyone out there on accutane. Will keep you guys updated on any further developments.

Cheers.

Jay.