60 replies to this topic

[Kirbatha]

Day 11? Update

Umm, guys. My skin looks okay, except for the ridiculous multi-pimples coating my cheeks. What the hell are these? And my forehead looks gross. It's got a few surfacing pimples and lumpy blackheads galore. It's kinda unattractive and makes me not want to get a haircut. Of course, the acne in general is unattractive.

Also, my back and shoulders are taking a hit, it seems. I can only hope this is purging. Hello, initial breakout. I didn't ask you to show up, and you're not welcome in my house. Stay for too long, and I'm gonna have to kick your ass out while I try and push your annoying relatives out along with you. They've far overstayed their welcome, and I didn't appreciate their surprise visit at the beginning of my college experience.

[Kirbatha]

PICTURE TIME!

Today marks the end of the second week of my Accutane course. On the whole, not a lot of progress. Not that I expected any so soon.

Front pic - http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/1680/day14front.jpg

Left Pic - http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1787/day14left.jpg

Right Pic - http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8052/day14right.jpg

Also, blame the fact that I look like a hobo on No Shave November

My IB needs to go away so I can go get a haircut. Seriously, I hate having my hair this long.

[Kirbatha]

Day...17? Update

Well guys, I pulled a two-for-one on side effects today. Not only has my nose been sporadically bleeding since around noon today, but I woke up this morning with lower back pain. It was actually relaxing in a weird way. Stretching it, I mean. It was like yoga or something.

Skin is looking better than it was when I started, but in my opinion, it was pretty damn bad by my standards before, so improvement isn't exactly difficult.

Oh, and I had a friend comment and ask me if I'd busted my lip open, because apparently it looked cracked. Curse my Chapstick's inefficiency!

[Kirbatha]

Day 24

I got a compliment today that my skin looks better! I don't know if I believe it or not, but it made me feel good!

My cheekbones are symmetrical multi-pimples. It's a little disturbing, kinda distends my face into looking like some sort of comedic children's show villain. Of course, it's not NEARLY that extreme, in all honesty it hardly changes anything.

But I just did a dumb thing and popped them. The one on the right just gave me a little half-hearted pop, but I don't think that's over. The one on the left, though, was a fighter. Spurted a huge wave of blood and pus across the mirror, and then I had to squeeze it more to get the rest of its gunk outta my face. I feel good having popped it, because it's been there a while, but at the same time, I popped something nasty, so I feel like I'm gonna regret it.

I'm coming up on one month, and hopefully they'll up my dosage. My dry lips are dry, as usual, but the nosebleeds have stopped. My hair looks pretty good without washing these days - normally, I couldn't even go 24 hours before my hair looked like a disgusting ball of grease. Still need to cut it, though. Damn forehead IB.

[Kirbatha]

Day Something or Other - Just Under 1 Month

I just tried to make a turkey sandwich out of leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. I opened my mouth to consume it, and my lips split. Owwwwwwww. My aunt has Vanilla Pepsi flavored Chapstick, but I'm gonna invest in some Aquaphor tomorrow. This is ridiculous. I also got a crazy nosebleed earlier, and my tonsils want to kill me.

But the good news, my acne seems to be calming down! I got a couple compliments yesterday about how it's clearing up. I'll be posting pics soon. I have blood testing tomorrow and my next appointment on Tuesday at 12:45pm. I'm excited

[Kirbatha]

End of Month 1!

So far, I haven't noticed too much of a difference, but I am fairly sure my IB is calming down/has calmed down. My redmarks are lighter now than when I started (Seriously, Aqua Glycolic, y'all.) I just got my blood done, and I'm a bit worried because I definitely overindulged at Potbelly Sandwich Works last night (A Wreck on regular with a cup of broccoli cheddar soup...om nom nom), forgetting that I'm supposed to be fasting. Oh well, I'll just let the dermy know that tomorrow when I go see him. I wonder if he'll notice the difference in redmarks and ask what I've been using, it's been decent improvement for only a month, especially considering they take a freakin' year or something to fade on their own.

That sore throat I mentioned from before Thanksgiving is still with me. Inflamed tonsils and stuff, and I got sick. Had all this muscle and joint pain everywhere, but ibuprofen apparently works wonders. Tried to drink this packet of orange powder called Emergen-C to help me get better, but A. it didn't work and B. it tasted like Easy Mac powder. Which is not a good thing.

School ends in a week, so I'll be spending a month and a half of the cold winter months relaxing at home, and by the time I come back, the Accutane should start really kicking some ass. I can't wait!

[Kirbatha]

PICTURE TIME! One month down, and here are the results!

Egh...they always look so much worse on my camera :/

Left: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/857/day30left.png

Right: http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/923/day30right.png

Front: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3950/day30front.png

In case you want a quick ref back to the beginning without having to go back a page, I will provide!

Before Accutane:

Left - http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/594/day1dermvisitleft.png
Right - http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/7898/da...mvisitright.png
Front - http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6492/day1dermvisit.png

Have I gotten paler? Did not know that was possible

[Kirbatha]

Month 2 Begins!

This month, I'm on Claravis 30mg, 2x daily. So, my dose got upped. Glory to the Dermatologist!

For some reason, my red marks are showing through more these days - I suspect that's due to my illness making me more pale. The dermatologist also did blackhead extractions (I think to demonstrate them to the student doctor who was present) and they talked about the whole Tiger Woods scandal while the doctor destroyed my forehead.

Not really I actually rather enjoyed the process, it felt like progress. Until the next day when I woke up and saw that several of the spots he'd picked out had formed fresh little inflamed whiteheads :/

[Kirbatha]

One month + 14 days:

Facial acne continues to clear. Although I have a nasty habit of popping these days. My forehead is inching toward a presentable appearance. As for my body acne, my lower back area is fine (was never really a problem to begin with), my chest is nearly clear (it's always the first to respond, body-wise), and my shoulders show little signs of improvement.

Not bad for 1/4 of the way through this. I suspect that by the time I return to school (January 19th), it'll have decreased dramatically (enough for a haircut please?), and thanks to Aqua Glycolic, my scars should be approaching negligible.

Seriously guys, Aqua Glycolic is pretty sweet. I get it for ten bucks at CVS, but you have to ask for it in the pharmacy section (at least, that's what I do).

[Kirbatha]

6 Days Until the End of Month 2:

I've had some rockin' cysts pop up recently. It's a problem. But overall, my skin is smoother, albeit torn up with red marks. My forehead is sadly still not presentable, so I've yet to get my much-needed haircut (my last one was August 19th or so). I saw my skin in direct sunlight the other day and it made me think I'd regressed a bit in redmarks, but indoors, they look okay. I'm clearing, slowly.

I'm just unhappy that I have to drive all the way back to Austin for my derm appointment. Which reminds me...I need to make that appointment...

[curlyq]

hi there. reading your log- I'm wondering is your skin dry? I'm only just going into my 2nd month but I have yet to see dry skin. My skin isn't oily anymore but I want dry skin damn it! less oil= less bacteria=less zits. stay hydrated and healthy-

[Kirbatha]

Hey, curlyq! Thanks for reading! Actually, my skin isn't dry. Well, actually, now that I'm feeling it, there's not too much oil there. A definite decrease from the old days, where I'd brush my finger across my face and carve a valley through the layers of greasy build-up. It's not unpleasantly dry, though. It just isn't oily. My lips are still rotting away slowly though. That sounds awful lol they aren't rotting, they're just really dry.

Picture update! Accurate as of December 26th!

Front

Left

Right

Forehead

The lighting changed between the last two sets of pics (dorm room vs. my room at home) so that affects the pics, but there's still obvious improvement. I mean, look at my first set of pics...especially my right side...ugh.

I've managed to persuade my dermatologist to give me a pass on this month so I don't have to drive back to Austin for a consultation (which makes him better than my old derm, who started all of this by not refilling my prescriptions) but I still have to get the blood taken and sent. That's fine, though, I kinda enjoy it

I've also been really sporadic with my dosage this month. I always wait until I'm eating something fatty, but that might only happen once a day, so sometimes I only take 30mg, sometimes I can pull off 60. I'm also taking turmeric caps, because I found my old bottle and they haven't expired, and I figure why not?

I'd also like to mention that my body acne is showing little improvement. That's unfortunate, although it's winter, so these days it's not like people are gonna be seeing me shirtless. My body acne has always been a problem, responding to no treatments except for burning the living **** outta myself one time at the beach. That worked for a few weeks, but it came back.

Edited by Kirbatha, 28 December 2009 - 04:46 PM.

[Kirbatha]

Oh. My. Bread.

Aquaphor is divine.

I was eating a burrito from Chipotle today, and every time I opened my mouth to ingest this monster, my lips would split. I look like I just got lip injections. But I got some Aquaphor today, and it's the single most wonderful thing to ever touch my lips.

Two months today, y'all! Progress has been made, and I've got months ahead! I'm optimistic and ready to destroy this condition once and for all!

[Kirbatha]

2 Months, 3 days or so:

I'm actually seeing improvement on my forehead and back now! My forehead finally rid itself of a disgusting cyst yesterday (it was a bizarre sort, the skin over it felt incredibly thin, so I just stretched the skin around it and it exploded onto the mirror with a satisfying pop) and I think that's the beginning of my road to improvement. Still not getting that haircut until right before I go back to school.

My back is looking okay, for once, though still not presentable. It's mostly red marks, which is new, and I've had a history of quickly clearing redmarks everywhere but my face, so I hope that's fixed before the weather gets nice enough to swim. I cannot wait to be in the water again.

[mercyunbound]

It seems like your skin is really improving from what I see in the pictures! Oh man Aquaphor is that divine? I might just have to go out and get some now.

[Kirbatha]

Oh yes. In 24 hours, my incredibly chapped, Botox-looking lips were back to normal. Aquaphor is a beast.

Aqua Glycolic is a good redmark remover as well. I'm also using it as shaving cream. I should probably pick up some more soon...

I have my blood testing tomorrow, so we'll see what generic brand I get this time. I liked Amnesteem a bit better than this Claravis, and I was supposed to get Sotret instead of Claravis...I know it doesn't matter, but it's interesting nonetheless.

[Kirbatha]

January 12th

Well, talk about BS. Remember how I was supposed to be getting bloodwork done last week? Yes, that happened. But apparently, Quest is horrible at keeping track of things, and decided they didn't really want to send the results.

So, the weekend rolls around and I'm wondering, where's my medicine? Like, for real. So I call Dr. Carrasco (my derm) and he says they never got anything. I'm thinking, "How curious..." so I call up the bloodbank. 4 or 5 times. The first time, they answered, put me on hold, and promptly hung up. So I called back and eventually got a hold of a woman, who told me the number to their main testing center here.

So I call them, and I give them the fax number for my doctor (make it faster, ya know), but apparently that wasn't enough. I got a call from my derm today, saying they still hadn't received my bloodwork, so I called Quest to confirm that it had been sent. It...hadn't...

So I threatened them.

Except not really, I'm a good kid but the woman was very sympathetic to my situation, having been on Accutane recently as well. So she forwarded my results to my derm, who called and said he got them, and I believe I'll be able to pick up my prescription tomorrow. A full week after my pills ran out. And that was with rationing, since I was only using half the needed dose for the last couple weeks.

[headtrip_honey]

Oh yes. In 24 hours, my incredibly chapped, Botox-looking lips were back to normal. Aquaphor is a beast.

Aquaphor is indeed a beast. I recommend it to everyone I can. You can use it all over your face, too, for extra icky gross feeling goodness! I just do it at night, then when I wash my face in the morning, my skin is gloriously soft and moisturized.

All hail Aquaphor!

[Kirbatha]

January 13th, 2010

PICTURE TIME! Yeah, I apparently dropped my every 2 weeks plan to post pics. Instead, I will post whenever it strikes my fancy. And right now, my fancy hath been struck.

Front Pic

Right Side

Left Side

Forehead

headtrip_honey: I would feel disgusting if I put Aquaphor anywhere other than my lips. It just seems...ick.

I'm gonna start Bio Oil tomorrow, in addition to my new batch of the Accy-Acc. Claravis, once more. I feel let down, I was hoping for a change. Not that there's anything wrong with Claravis, but I think it'd be cool to go through every brand of Accutane.

My skin, being the beast that it is (Aqua Glycolic, an alpha hydroxy acid, with my daily shower, does not even make my skin tingle. I feel almost nothing, although I wipe away sheets of dead skin while showering, so obviously it works) will fall subject to Bio Oil soon. I'm gonna test it on my shoulders first, just to make sure it won't make me break out and ruin all my progress.

[Kirbatha]

Day...64ish

Got my haircut! I was successful in preserving the bangs area enough to cover my current problem areas until the red marks fade away, which should be in time for my next haircut, judging by how long it took me to get this one (Last one was August 19th). You'll see pics when I take my next set, which should be soon, since I want to have some comparison pics in the same lighting as the first few (my dorm).