Maintenance after accutane.

I finished tane at the end of last October, and things have been going great. Unfortunately, lately my skin has lost its smooth texture, and small little bumps have been coming up. It just hasn't been feeling "right," either. Hard to describe but my skin just felt right on and, for a while, after tane. Nothing major as of yet, but as you can probably tell I'm freaking out a little bit. I don't have the money to go to a derm right now, however I do have a full tube of Differin and about half a tube of Retin-A Micro from previous treatments.

I know that sometimes people use a retinoid for post-tane maintenance, and was wondering if this could work. If so, what would you recommend I use, Differin or the Retin-A Micro? Why? Please help.

Also...it's been so long since I researched this, but if I use a retinoid once a day at night, when should you put moisturizer on at night? About 10 minutes after applying the retinoid?

Advice would be appreciated.

Sprained my ankle while on Accutane...

I'm kinda worried that it won't heal as fast as it normally would if I weren't on tane, although I'm really lucky that I didn't break it. Anyone know any supplements to help something like a sprain heal faster? I'm already icing it and resting and all that but was wondering if I could do anything else. I'm already taking flaxseed oil to get fat in my diet to take with tane...should I take fish oil since I hear that's good for joints and the body in general?

I start school in a week and don't want to have to use crutches to get around. Is it possible for tane to be slowing the healing process in the ankle?

Might switch generics mid-course

Our pharmacy called to say that they didn't have Amnesteem, and said something about it being discontinued (what?). They did manage to find 40 tablets from other pharmacies in my state, and if somehow 20 more pills pop up I'll be fine for the month (I need 60, since I take 2 40 mg pills a day).

But, my worry is for months 5 and 6 (I just started month 4). Supposing they can't find any more Amnesteem to give me, would it be okay to take another generic midway through my course? I know and I've read how they all have the same active ingredient, and are legally required by law to have the same amount, but that doesn't stop the nagging paranoia hidden deep in my brain that somehow switching midway will result in a less effective tane course.

Guess I just need some reassurance. Has anyone else switched isotretinoin brands throughout their course and come out clear at the end?

Cetaphil sticking to my skin?

I'm on Accutane right now (month 3, and still breaking out), so of course I need to moisturize. The problem is that a lot of the time I find that my Cetaphil moisturizer kind of sticks to my skin and isn't really absorbed. I've tried a couple other moisturizers but they aren't as rich as Cetaphil and still leave me dry.

But I still get this oily sheen on my face from the Cetaphil sometimes, and when it doesn't absorb my skin still feels "tight" dry, even if it doesn't look dry. Is there something I'm doing wrong (like using too much) or any tips to help it absorb in the skin more often? This is kind of weird.

Anyone know anything about EDTA?

I've been eating a lot of fish over the past several months, probably too much, and there's a chance I have elevated mercury in my system (I get this weird tingling/weakness in my arms sometimes that could be related). There's this OTC supplement called EDTA, which when taken orally, binds to toxic metals in your system and flushes them out (from what I understand).

What I'm wondering is if this can interfere with Accutane at all or decrease its absorption or anything bad like that. I'd ask my derm, but I want to do that as a last resort because she doesn't really know much about supplements, and had no idea about flaxseed oil and if it was okay to take while on tane but just assumed it was (which I later found out was true thanks to this forum).

So I was wondering if you guys could help me find out if I can take this now or wait until after my tane course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDTA didn't say anything about medications, and various Google searches didn't either.