Finally cleared my bacne

I recently finished a five month moderate course of accutane, and in doing so have cleared up a pretty severe case of bacne.

I'm posting this here because prior to accutane, I was on this forum a lot looking for suggestions- none of which really worked for my case. I did loads of antibiotics, i tried (and failed) at the head and shoulders method, and i even gave that ridiculous "do nothing approach" a crack (fyi- bad idea if you have oily skin). Anyway, i know some people are fundamentally against it, but if you have severe back acne like i did, i think accutane is probably the way to go.

5 Month Course Completed!

It's kind of late for me to elaborate too much tonight, but I wanted to post to inform you all that I just finished my five month course of Claravis (40/40/40/60/60). Overall I am really pleased with the outcome. I definitely struggled with the decision whether or not to go on accutane, but in the end I have no regrets- other than not going on it sooner. I was on a moderate dosage, and navigated through the course with minimal complications or side effects.

I went ahead and attached a couple before/after pics for those that are curious. There are still some redmarks in there (particularly on the back), but they have been fading away, and I expect/hope that will continue now that i'm finally off the drug.

Oh, and not that I'm going to disappear from this site by any means, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you on this forum who have contributed their insight on accutane. This board was a tremendous resource for me, and my course was a lot easier because of it.

Is it safe to apply moisture lotion to my face?

I'm into my third month on Claravis (40 mg/day), and while my face is not overly dry (aside from my lips) there is some dryness on my chin area at times. I am wondering if it is ok to treat this with moisture lotion?

As someone who- prior to this course- has been plagued by oily skin all my life, i've kind of been conditioned to fear touching my skin, let alone putting a potentially pore clogging substance on it. Should being on accutane alleviate this concern? The moisture lotion/sunblock that I have purchased (and conveniently uploaded for your viewing pleasure) states that it is "dermatologist recommended" and "won't clog pores", but I'm not sure if that proclamation is equally applicable to someone with acne prone skin. Am I being over-cautious here, or is there a chance that this might break my skin out?

Sore joints and Exercising

So, i'm nearly two months into my course (40 mg/day), and in the last week my knees have been sore. The feeling developed after playing basketball on pavement, and has been kind of slow to subside. Anyways, I like to run at the gym, and I was wondering if that remains a good idea during this time of soreness or not? Is it simply a matter of "toughing it out", or am i risking some sort of damage by ignoring the pain?

My alternative is to take the rather emasculating step down from the treadmill to the eliptical machines, which appear to be easier on the body. Thoughts?

Today I went to fill my accutane prescription

Today I went to fill my accutane prescription. I had previously gone on Saturday to do so, but they did not have my generic (i have no prescription drug coverage, so thats kinda important). Anyways, after a curiously long period of waiting for my pharmacist to return with the pills, she instead came back with the news that my ipledge id # and birthdate were apparently incompatible. Mind you, this is not my first month on the drug, so I found this confusing. We then called ipledge, and after 25 minutes of being redirected to different automated messages, we were finally put in touch with an actual human. This rep then confirmed that, while i was qualified to receive the medicine, my birthdate was apparently entered into the system wrong by my derms office. I called them immediatly to correct the error, but of course their office had closed 15 minutes earlier. So, because of their error-and the ridiculously nonsensical red tape-i was once again turned away empty handed. Will find out tomorrow if the third time's the charm. FML