66 replies to this topic

[iAcne]

I really appreciate your replies btw, obviously you can still empathise with this quest for regular oil levels for others. I feel my eye puffyness wont be as noticable if there wasnt a sudden change of oilyness just below it . I just want to feel comfortable again for at least 1 whole day without messing with my skin and HAVING to have 2 showers everyday to maintain my less acne. thanks again.

PS, its been like a year since I started messaging you on your profile, happy anniversary , I said I would be with you/following you (i think I did), can I ask how old u r btw?

[Jofo]

iAcne, on 11 January 2012 - 05:28 AM, said:

I really appreciate your replies btw, obviously you can still empathise with this quest for regular oil levels for others. I feel my eye puffyness wont be as noticable if there wasnt a sudden change of oilyness just below it . I just want to feel comfortable again for at least 1 whole day without messing with my skin and HAVING to have 2 showers everyday to maintain my less acne. thanks again.

PS, its been like a year since I started messaging you on your profile, happy anniversary , I said I would be with you/following you (i think I did), can I ask how old u r btw?

Hey no problem. That's part of the reason I made this thread, so that others could benefit from whatever knowledge or experience I might be able to offer. And I know what you mean about not being able to feel comfortable for one whole day. When I had oily skin, I couldn't feel comfortable for one whole hour.

Also, I do remember your first PM messages when I was experimenting with peppermint oil. I can't believe that was a year ago. I'm 22 by the way.

[Jofo]

Day 174

About two weeks ago I cut down my dosage to once every two days instead of once every day, except this time I did it out of necessity instead of the desire to experiment. I foolishly let my pills run too low before ordering another batch, so I had to space out the pills to make them last. I was worried this would cause my oil to return like in the past, and sure enough the oil came back full force.

I received a new batch of pills four days ago and I've been taking twice the normal amount to speed up the rebound phase. I've got a social obligation this weekend and I really don't want to have an oily face for that. The oil does appear to be subsiding already, so that's good news. This is the first time I've used a different brand of isotretinoin. The brand I received this time is called Acutret. It's supposed to work just as well as any other brand. Let's hope so.

One weird thing is that recently I've been getting more acne spots than usual. Nothing super bad, just the classic little red spots. It's weird because they're popping up in slightly unusual places where I don't normally get acne. It's mostly in the beard area of my face, but I'm also getting some acne on my upper cheeks, eyebrows, and upper nose. I pretty much NEVER get acne on my cheeks. Even before I took isotretinoin, that just wasn't a problem area for me.

Edited by Jofo, 27 January 2012 - 12:40 AM.

[Jofo]

For nearly 6 months now, I've been applying peppermint oil to the left side of my nose every day as an experiment to test its alleged sebum-reducing effects. I'm able to gauge the effectiveness of this treatment since my nose still produces some oil over long periods of time, even though the isotretinoin has largely curbed my oil production.

I can say now that, when I blot the oil off my nose with a sheet, the left side of my nose is pretty consistently less oily than the rest of my nose. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe about half as oily. This is pretty exciting to me because it gives me hope that peppermint oil might offer a safe, long-term solution to oily skin. I'm hoping that the effect is cumulative and continues to increase.

[Jofo]

5 days ago I switched over to a new brand of isotretinoin called Eratin, because that was the randomly chosen brand that the pharmacy decided to send me. Ugh, I HATE this stuff. From what I've read online it is legitimate isotretinoin, although it comes in powder form instead of gel form.

It's making me feel awful. I'm getting side-effects that I never got with the other brands. One of the side-effects is dry mouth, which I've never experienced before. I have to keep a bottle of water next to my bed now because my mouth gets so dry. The other side-effect is really bad muscle fatigue. If I so much as stretch my muscles, they feel sore for a few seconds. Every time I stand up from a sitting position my muscles hurt. It always feels like my muscles are being overstretched. It's extremely uncomfortable. And the pills aren't even keeping my oil away! It's like all the side-effects of Accutane without the benefits.

Also, and I'm not sure if this is a coincidence, but for the first 4 days after I started taking Eratin, I was suffering from constant lightheadedness, nausea, and night sweats. Oh yeah, and I almost passed out at one point. I really don't know if those symptoms were linked to the Eratin, but it does seem a little coincidental that all of that happened right after I switched brands.

In short, I highly recommend that people DON'T TAKE ERATIN.

Edited by Jofo, 28 February 2012 - 08:44 PM.

[shaka84]

any update?

[Renegade Angel]

Update? I was following this for a while, wanna know how the medication has worked for you.