Finished Week One Of Accutane

I decided to start this blog to track my experience on accutane and to share with others and also hope others can share their experience with me as well.

I am on one of the generic forms of accutane- Claravis.  I started a week ago tomorrow.  Here is a little bit about myself.  I'm 39 years old, female and have developed what my dermatologist calls "adult acne"  I have never had such skin problems as I have had in these last few years.  Over the past year my face has really looked horrible.  My son asked me one day "Mom why is your face so bumpy?" I don't think any spot on my face was clear, just really bumpy and red.  I would also develop painful cysts on my face/back as well.  Over the past year I have tried several rx topical medications and oral antibiotics.  My dermatologist feels it is related to hormones.  After much thought/debate I decided to try accutane.  I started 30mg of Claravis twice a day.  So far so good for the most part.  My nose/forehead is starting to peel a bit and my lips are feeling chapped.  I use aquaphor which really seems to help. I wash my face in the am with dove soap and in the evening I use Cetaphil cleanser.  The only other symptom I am experiencing thus far is that I'm itchy-my scalp, my body.  I don't have a rash at all.  Has anyone else experienced this?  I'm not even sure its from the medicine.  My face also is a bit flushed but not to bad.  I pray my eye's don't get dry because I wear contacts but I do have some refresh drops on hand just in case.  I usually get daily headaches and I am always tired - lol so I don't think I will notice those s/e to much if they do develop!  I just pray that this is the right choice for me and that I do not have any long term side effects.  I'm going to try and post most every day to track my progress.  I don't know if its to early or not but I do feel like I'm already seeing improvement, I haven't noticed the bad breakout a lot of people talk about although my chest seems to be breaking out more, like I said before my face already looked horrible so I couldn't imagine it looking much worse!  I welcome any comments!