65 replies to this topic

[Again!]

You know, call me crazy but I really don't remember my skin being thin on my previous courses. You'd think I would, but I don't. I sure do have thin skin this time though. My thinking is since my skin was normal before accutane, then that must mean it returned to normal which means it should this time. Okay that was a little confusing, hope I made since.

[Parker395]

So today was my FINAL derm appointment. That's the fantastic news. Labs were fine and my derm doesn't need to see me anymore. The bad news - he wants me to finish off the medicine I have left. Which is about two weeks. Which kind of sucks. But at this point, at least it's only two weeks, right? I've made it this far so I should be able to suck it up a few more days. I'm just bummed cause I was set on taking my last pill this morning.

So I ended up with the extra two weeks because my derm started me at 40mg/day for the first two weeks fo my course, but wrote the prescription for 80mg/day so I'd have it for the last two weeks of the first month. Make sense? I guess as of today I've taken 4.5 months at 80mg and .5 months at 40mg. If I take the next two weeks at 80mg I'll end up with a total of 5.5 months on the tane - 5 full months at 80mg and 2 weeks at 40mg.

I JUST WANT TO BE DONE! My scalp and lips and skin and eyes are begging for some relief from the dryness!!! That and I'm taking a few snowboarding trips soon and the last things I want to deal with are uber dry skin due to cold mountain air and crazy sore joints from being active while taking this stuff (my back has been killing me lately!!).

Oh, and final tidbits from derm - (1) 3-4 weeks for dryness to subside after my course is done, (2) Have to wait one year before treating any scars.

That's it!

[sd85]

Parker395, on 11 January 2012 - 04:10 PM, said:

So today was my FINAL derm appointment. That's the fantastic news. Labs were fine and my derm doesn't need to see me anymore. The bad news - he wants me to finish off the medicine I have left. Which is about two weeks. Which kind of sucks. But at this point, at least it's only two weeks, right? I've made it this far so I should be able to suck it up a few more days. I'm just bummed cause I was set on taking my last pill this morning.

So I ended up with the extra two weeks because my derm started me at 40mg/day for the first two weeks fo my course, but wrote the prescription for 80mg/day so I'd have it for the last two weeks of the first month. Make sense? I guess as of today I've taken 4.5 months at 80mg and .5 months at 40mg. If I take the next two weeks at 80mg I'll end up with a total of 5.5 months on the tane - 5 full months at 80mg and 2 weeks at 40mg.

I JUST WANT TO BE DONE! My scalp and lips and skin and eyes are begging for some relief from the dryness!!! That and I'm taking a few snowboarding trips soon and the last things I want to deal with are uber dry skin due to cold mountain air and crazy sore joints from being active while taking this stuff (my back has been killing me lately!!).

Oh, and final tidbits from derm - (1) 3-4 weeks for dryness to subside after my course is done, (2) Have to wait one year before treating any scars.

That's it!

I might go down to one pill a day for a week, and then one every other day, then one every third day, etc. just to keep the good side effects for as long as possible. When I was on 30 mgs/day I didn't have much in the way of bad side effects--just the good ones (I'm 125 lbs).

[jhonyguy04]

congrats on your course Parker. now go out there and enjoy your beautiful skin!!!

[Parker395]

So...update. Went down to one 40mg pill/day last week and stopped taking my pills as of Saturday night. Since I went down from 80mg to 40mg to finish off my last few pills I started seeing the side effects decrease a bit. My skin is starting to look alive again (no more dull, lifeless, zombie skin) and I'm happy about that. Still having dry lips, dandruff, other dry skin issues. BUT, slooooooowly improving. My joint pain also seems to be subsiding a bit which is a big relief because it was getting really tiring. Oh! And no more rash on my hands! yay!!

My skin is still clear. I had a minor scare last week because I had some red areas pop up where I normally get breakouts. But they were more like dry spots that kind of flaked and got irritated after I went up to the super dry mountain air the weekend before. Those went away quick when I got more moisture on board.

Overall, I'm positive on my experience and my now clear skin. Plan to keep posting until everything is back to normal so I can give a final review.

[sd85]

Parker395, on 23 January 2012 - 02:01 PM, said:

So...update. Went down to one 40mg pill/day last week and stopped taking my pills as of Saturday night. Since I went down from 80mg to 40mg to finish off my last few pills I started seeing the side effects decrease a bit. My skin is starting to look alive again (no more dull, lifeless, zombie skin) and I'm happy about that. Still having dry lips, dandruff, other dry skin issues. BUT, slooooooowly improving. My joint pain also seems to be subsiding a bit which is a big relief because it was getting really tiring. Oh! And no more rash on my hands! yay!!

My skin is still clear. I had a minor scare last week because I had some red areas pop up where I normally get breakouts. But they were more like dry spots that kind of flaked and got irritated after I went up to the super dry mountain air the weekend before. Those went away quick when I got more moisture on board.

Overall, I'm positive on my experience and my now clear skin. Plan to keep posting until everything is back to normal so I can give a final review.

Congratulations on your course. I hope everything works out for you! I am quite interested to see what my skin will look like once I go off Accutane.