Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

So, the story:

Keeping it short, an Irish boy, 23 years of age, having dealt with acne for close to 10 years, has hit the bottom of the acne based barrel, stunted confidence, lacking in a social life, finally wants out.

My acne is moderate, but persistent, so while it may not be aggressive, there are constant waves of attacks, multiples of active and red-marked acne, and it's very much pustule based acne, which makes it visually disgusting - to me. It's strange, what repulses you in yourself you find completely fine in others. Your own mind playing tricks.

Anyway...

Today I met with my dermatologist. Notes on the appointment:

• He read like a spokesman for Roaccutane, but that didn't eradicate the message.
• We spoke frankly about the drawbacks and he was considerate and quite honest.
• He took my weight and said that the best course of action would be 70 mg a day.
• The 70 mg being based on a weight of 11 stone.
• This 70 mg would be split into 30mg in the morning and 40 mg in the evening.
• It will be 70 mg per day for four months.
• I ask whether starting with a lower dose would be best, but he stated that it's only used to ease people into the drug, so they won't be deterred by the strong symptoms within the first couple of weeks.
• There won't be any blood tests, unless there is colouring in my eyes after the first month.
• He has studied, prescribed, and dealt with this drug for just under 30 years.
• He has prescribed it to his own children, as well as some relatives.
• He sold it quite well, even if I had a level of paranoia attached to the idea prior to the visit.

Now, I'm waiting for my medical card to kick in over the next couple of days before I begin the course, but I'm hoping maybe someone could tell me about their course, especially if it entailed an immediate high dosage. This, while only an opening post, will become a log. No fear of a lack of updates either as an addiction to the Internet will help in this case.

So, starting with a little bit of apprehension, but good vibes. I'll post some imagery later, some horrible stuff for you all to enjoy. Also, I hope you don't mind, but just to quirk up the posts, I'm going to do an image-song-filmscene of the day type thing, too, to accompany the logs and complaints and eventual euphoria (believe!). I guess I might aswell start now.

Day -2/3.

Song: Mazzy Star, Happy Image: Morrissey Scene: The Monday Tape, High Fidelity

Pustule Breakout

Say hello to my skin.

(Sorry to anyone who has just seen their breakfast in reverse.)

This morning I woke up with a breakout of pustules all over my face. On Saturday I have a wedding to go to and right now there is no chance in hell that that is going to occur.

Now, while this is an image of a breakout, you should be able to gather from the rest of my skin that there are marks from former pustules everywhere. It's been a wave of this type of acne for quite a few years. Never once have I had a week or two of clear skin/freedom.

I am now 23 years old and this is the first time that I'll admit to acne having a huge affect upon my life, both socially and psychologically. I nearly don't want to admit to what my life could be without acne.

Is there anything - and I do mean anything - that can be done about this type of acne?

Thanks in advance.