660 replies to this topic

[ginanutrition]

Sounds like everyone is going incredible hulk on these boxes and just ripping them up. Haha Awesome. I love how I'm getting all the tips from my accutane friends so there is less to figure out. I keep OBSESSIVELY checking my iPledge status to no avail--my derm hasn't entered the prego test results in yet from yesterday. I'm SO IMPATIENT. Grrr grrr grrrr! Hahaha

[veruca salt]

Sounds like everyone is going incredible hulk on these boxes and just ripping them up. Haha Awesome. I love how I'm getting all the tips from my accutane friends so there is less to figure out. I keep OBSESSIVELY checking my iPledge status to no avail--my derm hasn't entered the prego test results in yet from yesterday. I'm SO IMPATIENT. Grrr grrr grrrr! Hahaha

you're smart to do your research beforehand! i think you're way better prepped for what's to come, and will probably get less noticeable side effects since you already know how to combat dry skin/dry lips/itchy scalp/scabbing/etc.

[ginanutrition]

Hahaha You are hilarious. Screw those people who look at us like druggies. I just put on BIG sunglasses and a hat so I look incognito whenever I go to the pharmacy. Still, the pharmacists remember me and are sympathetic cause they know what I'm going through. The hardest part i've faced in the last few months has been the stares at the gym. People look at me like wtf happened to that girl's face? as I'm zooming along on the elliptical. I try to ignore it, cause I know deep down, everyone lacks confidence in at least one area of their lives.

[redhead rachel]

Sounds like everyone is going incredible hulk on these boxes and just ripping them up. Haha Awesome. I love how I'm getting all the tips from my accutane friends so there is less to figure out. I keep OBSESSIVELY checking my iPledge status to no avail--my derm hasn't entered the prego test results in yet from yesterday. I'm SO IMPATIENT. Grrr grrr grrrr! Hahaha

I definitely had to rip mine up tonight! I just could not get the damn pill out! It's ridiculous. Fortunately, my pill boxes come tomorrow (hooray for Amazon Prime!). It'll be much easier having the pills in a little container!

I know what you mean about getting tips beforehand. I have spent the past month obsessively reading logs on this site so I knew what I was getting myself into. Always good to be prepared!

Hope your derm enters your test results soon! After already having to wait over a month it sucks to even wait a few extra days!

Edited by AnalogHeart, 15 May 2012 - 08:43 PM.

[kaydon]

Day 1
I picked up my prescription of Claravis yesterday. My pharmacy only had half of the medicine in stock, so I have to pick up the rest tonight. Could these boxes be covered in any more pregnant ladies?! They're everywhere!

I took my first pill this morning. 20mg. I'll take the other one tonight. I'm not sure if it really matters if you take them together or not, but I'll go with what my dermatologist told me to do. No side effects yet, of course. Although, I was super nervous to take the first pill! Hopefully this process won't be too difficult, but it'll be worth it in the end.

The attached photos were taken yesterday. No makeup (well, except my eye makeup). As I stated in my first post, I really don't have terrible skin. (I hate it though.) So, I'm sure someone is going to think I'm crazy for taking Accutane. My acne is usually just on my chin, so it's pretty weird for me to have had acne on my cheeks lately. Most of the spots you see in the photos are red marks or small bumps that haven't gone away. I have a cyst on my left jawline that popped up in the last few days, a small whitehead on my chin, and a lovely red zit on my right cheek. There's also a zit in between my eyebrows, but that's been healing over the last couple days.

I laughed out loud when I read "Could these boxes be covered in any more pregnant ladies?! They're everywhere!" SERIOUSLY THOUGH! The blister packs are ridiculous. They should just put a big huge one on the front of the pack! They're hard to open too, I always hurt myself. I ended up putting them all into a container so I don't have to pry them open every day. Much easier!

And you are gorgeous!

[redhead rachel]

I definitely agree all of the packaging is rather unnecessary. It would be much simpler to have them in a bottle. Fortunately, I haven't gotten any weird looks from people! Lol. Although, it's still not ideal to have to pick up two big boxes of pills.

My pharmacy couldn't fill my entire prescription yesterday, so I picked up the remainder tonight. They didn't make me pay for it until today. One thing I was wondering about was the cost... It's worth it to me to spend some money to potentially clear up my skin for good, but I wasn't looking forward to spending hundreds of dollars every month on medication. So, I was bracing myself to pay $300+ and then the guy told me it was $5.

$5 for 60 pills. Yeah... I'm glad I'm still on my parents' insurance right now. Thanks, Mom!

Don't you love amazon? They are awesome

Yesss! I'm always ordering stuff through Amazon. Signing up for Amazon Prime was a terrible decision in terms of my wallet. Lol! It makes me order more stuff.

I laughed out loud when I read "Could these boxes be covered in any more pregnant ladies?! They're everywhere!" SERIOUSLY THOUGH! The blister packs are ridiculous. They should just put a big huge one on the front of the pack! They're hard to open too, I always hurt myself. I ended up putting them all into a container so I don't have to pry them open every day. Much easier!

And you are gorgeous!

Lmao! The packaging for these pills is just insane. I ordered some pill boxes, so I'll be keeping them in there instead of dealing with the blister packs every day!

And thank you so much! You are absolutely gorgeous too, my dear!

Edited by AnalogHeart, 15 May 2012 - 08:53 PM.

[redhead rachel]

Definitely! Especially since the retail price is over $1300 (according to my paperwork anyway). So glad this won't cost a fortune! My copay at my dermatologist's office is $15. That costs more than the pills!

[redhead rachel]

That's a good point, especially in a case like this where we have to go in monthly. But I guess they have to make their money somehow.

[veruca salt]

It costs around ~$150 for my blood tests!! Thank god my prescription was only $15... I also was slightly worried it'd be hundreds of dollars...

[redhead rachel]

Oh they are making thier money left and right from us, a girlfriend of mine has hyperhidrosis and gets Botox injections every 5 months which basically stop her from sweating in her problem areas like arm pits. Her insurance denied payment at one point claiming it was a preexisting condition or something like that. She had to pay the derm clinic 1500.00 per arm pit. Not to mention the 5 dollar Mickey mouse bandaid and 20 dollar cotton ball they use. Next time you get a copy of a insurance bill look at it the things the charge for is insane. I'm suprised they don't charge for us to step up and get weighed. Ugh

Ohh well I'm not going to complain about it. The guy in front of me yesterday had a 60 dollar copayment! I'm glad mine is under 10! I would never go see a doctor if I had to drop 60 bucks everytime!

That's insane! I'm on my parents' insurance, so I have no idea how much anything like that costs. I'm kind of curious though. I'm gonna have to ask my mom. A $60 copay is ridiculous though!

It costs around ~$150 for my blood tests!! Thank god my prescription was only $15... I also was slightly worried it'd be hundreds of dollars...

I haven't been billed for any blood work yet, so I'm not sure how much mine will be. I didn't even think about that. At least the prescriptions are cheaper than we thought though! The price of finally getting clear skin!

[ClearDreaming]

Just wanted to say guys it's so good to hear a group of girls talking about accutane! So often the logs are from boys and just dont cover it the same way.

Love the way it is written too rachel!

[redhead rachel]

Just wanted to say guys it's so good to hear a group of girls talking about accutane! So often the logs are from boys and just dont cover it the same way.

Love the way it is written too rachel!

Thanks so much!

[Tiger 1]

Hello Ladies!

Like many of you, I've been using this site for a few years as a source of information and support. Lately I've been following BeautifulDisasters and Taylor Sydow - you've both been very helpful. And Ginanutrition, you too have been helpful, I'm into all the health stuff like you so I relate to your approach. Here's my sad acne story in a nutshell.

First of all, I'm the oldest at 48 (Holy cow! Just had a birthday and that's the first time I've written that number down, how did I get to be 48?!) and have been dealing with acne on and off since I was a teenager but until I went off the pill in my 30s I was able to control it. Once I hit my 40s it turned into typical adult acne and the cysts and nodules began. I've tried it all, resisted accutane like all of you but finally had the last straw when my chin broke out in 6 painful cysts and I ended up in my derms office in tears a few months ago. Fast forward to today - I am on day 17 of my accutane journey. My derm is awesome, very empathetic and very patient with me. Her policy is to start everyone on 80mg and go for six months but I was very nervous with that amount of mgs based on all my research (I am 5'3 and around 112 pounds) and she listened to me and we agreed to start me off on 40mg a day (two 20mg pills a day) for the first month. Tomorrow I go for my first blood test since being on the medicine and my appointment for my next allotment is next week. So far I've experienced the typical side effects - the first was a really itchy scalp but it's getting better (really hoping not to have hair loss - I have fine hair and really want to keep it all), a few nose bleeds but vaseline took care of that, dry lips that are getting drier by the day but I'm lip balming the crap out of them and my body skin is itchy but I'm just living in the Cerave cream. My face is drier which is nice and I don't have to blot my oil 20 times a day which has been wonderful. The worst part has been the breakout. I knew it was going to happen but you just can't prepare for it. I've told my husband, I've got the Rocky mountains on my chin and the Sahara desert on my lips. It's been very tough dealing with the breakout - I don't cry easily and I've been in tears several times over the painful cysts on my chin. It's not like I haven't dealt with this before but it just seems harder I guess because I'm taking a medicine that's supposed to be helping but feels like it's just making it worse.

I can relate to almost everything each of you has said even though you're all younger. I can tell you that at age 48 it is absolutely mortifying to be with my peers and have such a different set of skin problems than they have - it's truly embarrassing to have all these red inflamed bumps or oozing sores on my face when my peers have beautifully smooth skin and are only worrying about a few wrinkles here and there. Recently I sat at my son's soccer banquet with the other parents and the entire time I was constantly worried my makeup was coming off the two cysts that had turned into wounds or that their scabs were coming off and bleeding - it was so awful! I'm really skilled at talking to people while strategically keeping my hand around my mouth to cover up the latest disaster. Ugh!

When I'm really feeling down, I read all of your posts and it keeps me going. I really never thought I would end up taking accutane and I too felt so much anxiety when I took that first pill - I sat on my bed for about an hour reading encouraging posts with the pill in my hand. But now I look forward to taking each pill and think of it as one step closer to the clear skin I've always dreamed about. My husband and two kids have taken turns holding my hand or giving me a hug to keep going so I feel lucky to have a great support system.

And for the record, I also was completely floored when I picked up my first set of pills and they basically gave me a freaking huge bag. The packaging is absolutely ridiculous - getting a pill out is like breaking into Fort Knox!

Good luck to all of you and keep those encouraging posts coming!!

[redhead rachel]

Hi Tiger 1!

Thanks for sharing your story with us! It definitely sounds like you've had a rough time with acne, which is obviously something we can all relate to. But at least we're all on the road to clear skin now! Just remember to stay strong and think positive! Your skin will be flawless before you know it.

And I have to agree... The logs on this site have been very helpful. For the past month I've been reading a lot of logs so I knew what to expect while taking this medication. It's really helped me prepare. And I'm sure the logs will be even more helpful now that I'm finally taking Accutane because I know there are plenty of people experiencing the same thing I am.

Just remember we are all here for you if you ever need any encouragement! We'll all have clear skin soon!

[Tiger 1]

Thanks Rachel! It looks like we are both at about the same point - my first day was April 30th, 4 days before my 48th birthday - it was a present to myself. I noticed you said you had been taking biotin and thought it was breaking you out. I started taking biotin a month before the accutane in hopes it will support my hair and nails. I didn't seem to have any problems with it. I also started taking fish oil to help with inflammation and joint soreness. I don't have any sore joints but I am an avid exerciser and will be kooked out if my joints get too sore to workout. So far, so good. My derm said she rarely has a patient that experiences joints so sore they can't workout and says her patients rarely have hair issues so I'm hoping for the best.

I hope your journey is going better than expected so far! I am starting to get to the point where I have to have lip balm on my lips at all times, especially at the end of the day, so annoying. And currently my lumps and bumps are in the healing stages. I am praying that my initial breakout is coming to an end but that seems to good to be true.