45 replies to this topic

[DanaLynn]

Month 3: Week 2

I currently have a mixture of vaseline and mentholatum in my nasal cavities. Mentholatum is a topical analgesic used sort of like Vick's Vapor Rub. My nose feels like it's constantly getting gucked up from dry/bleeding/nastiness. Thing is, my nose never bleeds outside, it seems like it must bleed *JUST* enough to cause some build up and make me think I have a stuffed up nose. When I go to blow or wipe my nose, it's dried blood.

So.

I've had enough! I got a q-tip put some vaseline on it and rubbed it on the inside of my nose for moisture. Then, I used the mentholatum to rub inside to numb it up so it didn't hurt anymore. So far, so good...plus...I can breathe again!!

As far as clear skin goes. I'm doing pretty good. I'd say my skin is 70% clearer than it was 3 months ago. I have about 6 blemishes on my face right now. ALL of them are underneath my jaw line. I just don't get it either, because this is a spot I NEVER got acne in before. Ugh.

Lips are on the almost unbearably chapped side. I forgot my chapstick at home yesterday and I had to work a 16 hour day. I really considered ripping my lips off my face. Luckily, I didn't and I just slathered it on when I got home. Wore a THICK layer of vaseline to bed and woke up to my lips feeling much more moisturized...at least as moisturized as you can get while on this stuff!

Cheers to blemish free skin.

xoxo,

Dana

[DanaLynn]

Month 4

I started 80mg of Isotretinoin/ day this month. I just opened my 3rd blister pack. I'm getting really discouraged as my skin seems to have regressed during the 3rd month when I was kept on the 60mg instead of bumped up. Luckily they bumped me up and hopefully it will get better. However, I was told that I just had this month and next month left. I was under the impression that I'd be doing a full 6 month cycle, and with my skin still sucking well into month 4.

For those of you that have completed your course, did your skin continue to get better after you stopped taking accutane or did it just sort of plateu where you ended up the day you completed your last dose?

As far as side effects, my lips are a LOT dryer. They feel like they have a constant film over them, and it's hard to smile most of the time. I'm still slathering them in vaseline at night, and I wake up with super smooth lips but a few hour later I feel like my lips have turned to stone.

Hope everyone's course is going well.

[DanaLynn]

Month 5: 80mg/day

I've definitely been slacking on my posting, but I'm almost done with the treatment. Here's where I stand right now:

1. Extreme lower back pain.
2. Large chunks of hair falling out
3. Eyesight problems
4. dry lips

I started getting twinges of back pain in month 4 when I was increased from 60mg doseage to 80mg. Then, one day while I was running hills for marathon training, my back just blew out. I couldn't move, I couldn't twist, I couldn't do anything. I basically had to crawl to my car. I drive a stick shift, and the pain was going down my left leg and I had excruciating pain trying to push on the clutch. I got home and it took me 20 minutes to walk from my car to my front door --roughly 20 yards away. I couldn't make it much further so I plopped down on the couch beside the front door and waited. My brother got home a couple hours later and I begged him to help me get up so I could go to the bathroom. It was the worst pain that I've ever experienced (and I've had 3 reconstructive ankle surgeries that didn't even TOUCH this kind of pain). That night I took two Celebrex and went to bed. I must have rolled over around 3am because I woke up in agonizing pain. When my alarm went off at 6am, I could actually move around and walk/stand in the shower. I was still limping very badly, but at least I could move. Since I work for a spine specialist I explained what was going on to my doctor, and he suggested physical therapy and to continue the celebrex. So that's what I did. After a few days, I felt a lot better. I went back to training for my race. I ran a half marathon on October 23rd and felt better than I thought I would. A few days later my pain moved from my left side to my right side. It has steadily gotten worse. My doctor called me in a Medrol Dosepak which is a 6 day tapering steroid. I'm on day 4 today and it has just now started to become tolerable. I'm really helping this helps!!

Again, I have had virtually no side effects until now. I'm noticing that my hair is falling out in large chuncks. It's very alarming.

During my last appointment I told my dermatologist that I was very discouraged because I seemed to have gotten worse during the past 4 months, rather than better. I never had terrible acne, but what I did have didn't respond to other treatments. After 4 months of accutane, I had full blown clusters of zits around my jaw line -- something that I'd never had before. He assured me that I need to stick it out (uh, duh! I am not going through all this only to bail before the treatment is over!), and that many times during the last couple months is when you start to see the most improvement. He also told me that this will either be my last month, or if I was still unhappy, I could go one more month.

Thankfully, my face has cleared up TREMENDOUSLY since my month 4 visit. It's literally night and day. I'm still weary of not doing a 6th month, because I have spent so much money and gone through so much just to have it come back as soon as I'm done with the treatment. I would be so upset!

Anyway, overall, I still think it is worth everything that I am experiencing to have clear skin. I'm going to ask to continue on with a 6th month just to be sure.

How has everyone else been doing? Getting close to finishing treatments?

[Again!]

Chunks of hair? That doesn't sound good. That is my biggest fear. I have really bad back pain also, along with bad ankle pain. I noticed it feels better when I get lot's of sleep, like 10 hours.

[iwantprettyskin]

I'm almost through with Month 3 and my acne is still present and somewhat disappointing. I really thought that I would have made more progress by now but patience is a virtue so I'll stick with it and hope that it gets better. For the nose-sort of-bleeds I would recommend swabbing your nose with Neosporin. That's what I have done for years and it always helps. I've been using Aquafor but Rosebud Salve (buy at Sephora: http://sephora.com/b...shouldPaginate= ) has been working much better on my increasingly drier lips than the Aquafor. I highly recommend it. It helps and it smells nice.

If my hair started falling out in chunks I would freak out. Have you talked to your derm about it? There's very little that would stop me from completing my accutane treatment but I think that losing my hair would definitely be a valid reason to give up on ever having clear skin.

[DanaLynn]

DONE.

I finished my course around December 10th. While the 6th month wasn't technically "needed" (says my dermatologist), I still had a blemish or two and wanted to make sure that it stayed away forever...so I did a 6th month.

I'm so glad I stuck with this treatment! My skin is perfect. I don't have one blemish, not even a bump anywhere on my body. Now, I never had body acne, but it seems like my skin everywhere is smoother and softer.

Some things that have subsided over the month I have been off Accutane.

1. My back pain is practically gone. I occassionaly have a really dull pain when I walk, but I have been able to return to running and even did a 25K wearing a 30lb ruck sack last weekend with no back pain.

2. Hair has stopped falling out. It never got bad enough to give me any bald spots or even thin spots

3. I still use chapstick every day but my lips are no where near as dry as they were while on Accutane

4. I actually did have to get glasses for nearsightedness. I don't wear them all the time - mostly when I'm trying to see the scores for a game on TV or driving. I don't know if I have been walking around in a blurry world all my life or if my eyesight really did get worse because of the accutane. Either way, small price to pay for clear skin.

I really hope everyone has results as good as I did. I'm in love with my new skin

Edited by DanaLynn, 11 January 2012 - 08:46 AM.