11 replies to this topic

[rosybear]

First day on Accutane, Starting College in a week and a half eeep!
Hey Y'all!
Since this is my first post I guess I should introduce myself. Im a seventeen year old girl and I have had pretty bad acne since I was 13. To the best of my knowledge I have tried every cure for acne ever imagined; topical, dietary and antibiotic and nothing has worked which has been incredibly frustrating as I'm sure some of you probably know. So I have decided to try accutane.
Having Acne has been increasingly frustrating as I've grown older as it always gets alittle better (enough for me to get hopeful that it is clearing up for good) right before it gets worse than it has ever been. I'm starting at an art college in the fall for painting which I am very excited about !!! I have been looking forward to college my whole life for a million different reasons but since I hit puberty the main one has been that in my head I've allowed myself to grow confident in a fantasy that in college i (finally) would have clear skin; which i know sounds so silly but . Needless to say...no such luck. I'm a pretty outgoing person as is but I constantly feel sooooo held back by the millions of gross red things on my face. I only ever feel comfortable around boys I like when its dark out so they cant see my skin and even then Im always nervously "playing" with my hair (aka= pulling it around my face to hide the war scene on my cheeks). Going on the subway with a boy I think is pretty is something I will avoid at all costs, and if I am forced to do it, It is rare that I wont have to fight back tears as I try to think of creative ways of shielding my face under the entirely mercy-less florescent bulbs. Trying on clothes is just miserable; how can I focus on the way clothes fit on my body when the process of trying them on requires me to stare at myself in a mirror under florescent lighting?! Maybe some of you know what I'm talking about? Sorry to be being such a downer it's just that I looked at the calendar today and realized that I start college in less than two weeks and there is really no reason I should still be entertaining the idea that my skin will acceptably clear by the first day of classes. Oh well .
Anywayyyyy I took my first Accutane pill twenty minutes ago (20mlgs, but my doc said thats just the starting dose) so yay! I'm so excited to be on a definitive path to clear skin but I'm also alittle nervous because I hear some people have a pretty bad initial break out within the first two weeks, and I dont wanna be looking my very grossest the first time i meet the people i'm going to be spending the next four weeks with . I'm also alittle worried about not being able to drink since i am definitely a fan of that, but at the same time I think no kind of intoxication I've ever experienced has felt as good as clear skin looks .

Well thank you for reading over my whining and I hope all of you are well!
please let me know if you have any advice for being on accutane in college or if you have a recommendations for products for dry skin (my skin is normally pretty horribly dry so on accutane...Eeep! I already afraid!)
Thanks again and good luck on your own journeys! (Im sure you'll hear from me again soon )
-rosybear

[rosybear]

DAY TWO 20 mlgs

Should something be happening? Because nothing has changed, my skin isn't drier and neither are my lips and I'm no more thirsty than I always am. My skin isn't any clearer but it's also no worse than it usually is. Could my lack of any kind of proof that I have been on accutane for two days now mean anything? or could it possibly be because I also quit smoking two days ago?
hmmm...
Anyway hope you guys are all well and making totally awesome progress
happy last few weeks of summer!

Edited by rosybear, 15 August 2012 - 08:19 PM.

[aracon504]

Started my second course for relatively mild acne I've had since being really ill when I was 19. Finished the first course in Feb and had amazingly perfect skin until a month later. So I'm on day 8 of my second course- and school starts on Monday (I'm a Juniorish- but I'm doubling majoring so its complicated). Hoping I don't have an IB like the first go around.


Anyway, no you shouldn't notice much on a 40mg/day dosage on day two. It is a cumulative drug and generally it takes about a week to see any noticable difference (that being flare ups in acne, drying of lips/skin/drying of current acne, etc.) Just remember if you so happen to have the dreaded IB, the end result will be AMAZING! For me it resulted in celebrity like skin, as if I had the perfect foundation on- so just keep in mind what you're shooting for if it gets hard. And know you're not alone! Look forward to hearing or seeing awesome progress!

[poptartie]

Hey!
Welcome I'm glad to have someone like yourself around to travel this journey with me! We do sound very much alike...(except I'm not a drinker. I'm no goody-goody, by any means but drinking and drugs are hard limits for me. No judgement though!!) I'm glad to hear you quit smoking. No good to have pretty skin after accutane only to make it all nasty from smoking!!!
I'm on day 11 of 30mg and I don't really notice too much either. I'm pretty sure it's just too early for us. I'm sure we will see all the good (and bad) stuff soon enough
And you are right. Guys are just so damn flakey.
GOOD LUCK AT ART SCHOOL! It sounds awesome!
Keep in touch

[heather135]

First day on Accutane, Starting College in a week and a half eeep!
Hey Y'all!
Since this is my first post I guess I should introduce myself. Im a seventeen year old girl and I have had pretty bad acne since I was 13. To the best of my knowledge I have tried every cure for acne ever imagined; topical, dietary and antibiotic and nothing has worked which has been incredibly frustrating as I'm sure some of you probably know. So I have decided to try accutane.
Having Acne has been increasingly frustrating as I've grown older as it always gets alittle better (enough for me to get hopeful that it is clearing up for good) right before it gets worse than it has ever been. I'm starting at an art college in the fall for painting which I am very excited about !!! I have been looking forward to college my whole life for a million different reasons but since I hit puberty the main one has been that in my head I've allowed myself to grow confident in a fantasy that in college i (finally) would have clear skin; which i know sounds so silly but . Needless to say...no such luck. I'm a pretty outgoing person as is but I constantly feel sooooo held back by the millions of gross red things on my face. I only ever feel comfortable around boys I like when its dark out so they cant see my skin and even then Im always nervously "playing" with my hair (aka= pulling it around my face to hide the war scene on my cheeks). Going on the subway with a boy I think is pretty is something I will avoid at all costs, and if I am forced to do it, It is rare that I wont have to fight back tears as I try to think of creative ways of shielding my face under the entirely mercy-less florescent bulbs. Trying on clothes is just miserable; how can I focus on the way clothes fit on my body when the process of trying them on requires me to stare at myself in a mirror under florescent lighting?! Maybe some of you know what I'm talking about? Sorry to be being such a downer it's just that I looked at the calendar today and realized that I start college in less than two weeks and there is really no reason I should still be entertaining the idea that my skin will acceptably clear by the first day of classes. Oh well .
Anywayyyyy I took my first Accutane pill twenty minutes ago (20mlgs, but my doc said thats just the starting dose) so yay! I'm so excited to be on a definitive path to clear skin but I'm also alittle nervous because I hear some people have a pretty bad initial break out within the first two weeks, and I dont wanna be looking my very grossest the first time i meet the people i'm going to be spending the next four weeks with . I'm also alittle worried about not being able to drink since i am definitely a fan of that, but at the same time I think no kind of intoxication I've ever experienced has felt as good as clear skin looks .

Well thank you for reading over my whining and I hope all of you are well!
please let me know if you have any advice for being on accutane in college or if you have a recommendations for products for dry skin (my skin is normally pretty horribly dry so on accutane...Eeep! I already afraid!)
Thanks again and good luck on your own journeys! (Im sure you'll hear from me again soon )
-rosybear

I know exactly what you mean. I dunno how many times I've went to try on clothes, I try to avoid looking at my face in the mirror but it's kinda hard to do. And when I do look at my face it just crushes me and I go home. It really is horrible, you shouldn't have to live like this. I used to have this really great coat that had a maaaaasive hood and would hold my hair in place so the wind wouldn't blow my hair and reveal my cheeks lol! Loved that coat!

Anyhoooo, best of luck to you and your course

[rosybear]

@aracon504 Im so glad to hear the end results are that good, but that sucks that it came back! Good luck on your second treatment (it's nice to hear you were able to complete your first treatment while in college ).

@ heather135 i must find me a coat like that!

[rosybear]

Day 4,

Let me just start out by saying EWWWWWW my face was hella F**king gross today...seriously just beyond. Maybe I put on too much moisturizer or something because my face was the kind of pizza oily that would look gross even on a pizza; I literally felt like the oil on my skin added legit weight to my face. The make up Ive been using usually sucks up any and all oil I would naturally accumulate on my skin during the day...but NOT TODAYYYYYY. I was sitting at my desk (at work=nasty florescent lights)all day and had to fight the urge to rip off my skin and boil it/ take a bristol pad drenched in rubbing alcohol to it!EW EW EW. After work my friend was having a going away party (before college begins) and it literally took EVERY BIT of my will power not to bail on him in favour of spending the night alone crying to angsty music. Im glad i didnt bail in the end, though, because hanging with all the awesome people at that party actually helped me temporarily forget the condition of my skin .
Oh lovely and the boy im seeing FINNALLY texted me back so yay...-ish. Eh he is actually kind of a poop but...Eh, such is life right?
Can any of you lovely people tell me when i can expect anyyyyy improvement?
I hope you guys are making much better / happier progress than I currently am, And thank you guys so much for your lovely comments its so nice to have people to complain to who actually know what i'm talking about !!!
Be back very soon!
<3 -AJ
dosage: 20 mlgs a day (month 1), 30 mlgs Months 3-4 1/2


products:
simple-moisturizing face wash
simple-Replenishing rich moisturizer
cover FX- water based liquid foundation
Cover FX-powder
nivea-mint and minerals lip balm

[spots_go_away]

different people improve at different rates but personally it took 3 months of treatment before my acne significantly improved and I stopped getting new spots. The first couple of months are a drag but hang in their just be patient.

[aracon504]

Day 4,

Let me just start out by saying EWWWWWW my face was hella F**king gross today...seriously just beyond. Maybe I put on too much moisturizer or something because my face was the kind of pizza oily that would look gross even on a pizza; I literally felt like the oil on my skin added legit weight to my face. The make up Ive been using usually sucks up any and all oil I would naturally accumulate on my skin during the day...but NOT TODAYYYYYY. I was sitting at my desk (at work=nasty florescent lights)all day and had to fight the urge to rip off my skin and boil it/ take a bristol pad drenched in rubbing alcohol to it!EW EW EW. After work my friend was having a going away party (before college begins) and it literally took EVERY BIT of my will power not to bail on him in favour of spending the night alone crying to angsty music. Im glad i didnt bail in the end, though, because hanging with all the awesome people at that party actually helped me temporarily forget the condition of my skin .
Oh lovely and the boy im seeing FINNALLY texted me back so yay...-ish. Eh he is actually kind of a poop but...Eh, such is life right?
Can any of you lovely people tell me when i can expect anyyyyy improvement?
I hope you guys are making much better / happier progress than I currently am, And thank you guys so much for your lovely comments its so nice to have people to complain to who actually know what i'm talking about !!!
Be back very soon!
<3 -AJ
dosage: 20 mlgs a day (month 1), 30 mlgs Months 3-4 1/2


products:
simple-moisturizing face wash
simple-Replenishing rich moisturizer
cover FX- water based liquid foundation
Cover FX-powder
nivea-mint and minerals lip balm

You know my first round I didn't stop with the IB until approximately 90 days in...Most people who get an IB seem to feel that after completing 3-4 full months, you are in the clear, and somewhere in between that 90-120 day range you stop getting new acne and the old scars start to fade. This round I'm almost two weeks in- and I've seen nothing but improvement. The Accutane has pushed out the under the surface milla, and most aren't resulting in pimple, but rather just purging. It goes different for different individuals, so don't fret yet. You really need to give it at least 7-14 days before you start building up enough of a cumulative dosage to feel any affect.


Also, I'm not sure how much you weigh...I was always strictly against asking a female that (the unlisted rules!). But 20-30mg for a dosage is extraordinarily low- even if you are competing with Kiera Knightley for that awesome look. Generally, you want at least 1mg for every kg of body weight. Some dermatologists prefer upward to 2mg, but most dosages wind up being between 1-2mg/kg.

Focus on college and let the Accutane do its thing, it will work out in the end! I know it's easy for me to say cause I've been around the block, but fretting about it just makes it worse. You'll stare more...and be overly critical of the results in a small sample period of time.

P.S. All males are douches, especially in their late teens/early 20s. So goodluck with that!

[poptartie]

"P.S. All males are douches, especially in their late teens/early 20s. So goodluck with that!"

Amen, aracon504

Edited by swingin2, 18 August 2012 - 06:16 PM.

[rosybear]

@aracon504 Thank you so much that was super helpful!!!!!! Im really glad your second time around seems to be progressing much easier ! Oh also I weigh 125 so...eep ... looks like I gotta go whine to my derm to up my doseage.
also I say amen to your amen @swingin2, Good Lord! I officially harbor an extraordinarily powerful dislike for the male species today because Yay!...the guy I've been seeing (drumroll) ... just got back together with his ex! yay! somehow he is mad at me for not wanting to stay friends...lolz. I keep having fantasies about having clear skin again and looking my ultra finest and seeing him in like a year and, well ... i dont know, but something to an effect I'm sure you all can imagine. Tra la la oh well.
I hope you guys are having an awesome weekend and making serious progress on your treatments!
-AJ

[aracon504]

@aracon504 Thank you so much that was super helpful!!!!!! Im really glad your second time around seems to be progressing much easier ! Oh also I weigh 125 so...eep ... looks like I gotta go whine to my derm to up my doseage.
also I say amen to your amen @swingin2, Good Lord! I officially harbor an extraordinarily powerful dislike for the male species today because Yay!...the guy I've been seeing (drumroll) ... just got back together with his ex! yay! somehow he is mad at me for not wanting to stay friends...lolz. I keep having fantasies about having clear skin again and looking my ultra finest and seeing him in like a year and, well ... i dont know, but something to an effect I'm sure you all can imagine. Tra la la oh well.
I hope you guys are having an awesome weekend and making serious progress on your treatments!
-AJ

AJ,

Wanted to note that perhaps your derm is trying to avoid the horridly dreaded IB by beginning with such a low dose. However, I recall reading somewhere throughout this read, that only a gradual dosage increase was planned. Clinical studies show that low(er) does of Isotretinoin can be equally affective In showing results as the higher dosages. BUT! The longevity of the efficacy of the drug seems to be proportionate to a higher cumulative dose. I'd want my overall dose to be at least 1mg/kg/day. Ultimately, per 6 month course that equates to 120-150mg/kg of body mass.

So if you weigh 125 lbs, let's convert to kilos (I find saying kilo in determining drug dosage highly amusing for some reason considering its connotation in drug weight!)

1 lb = .45 kg (rounded to the nearest hundredth)
125lbs * .45 kg/lb = 56.25 kg

So if you're shooting for the 1mg/1kg/day you'd want at least 56.25mg. Or 2 (30mg) capsules. It will put you slightly above that range. I would've expected your derm start you on 40mg month 1- see how your body (liver mostly acclimated, and then raise to 60).

Or if you wanna look at total cumulative dosage:


If you want to look at total cumulative dose, at a bare minimum to reach your 120mg/kg dosage, you'd need 6750mg of Accutane. If you were on 60mg a day- you'd reach that in 113 days. However, it's normal to keep going beyond that. As the research shows its a range and that's the low-end. My advice is to play the length of your course by ear. At that point you may just be clearing. I'd want to do at least two months personally post 100% clearing. Nothing wrong with having to do it again... But seriously eff dry lips! I'd just ask your derm what his thoughts are on you reaching your cumulative dose; decide if you want a more prolonged treatment at the risk of less side effect, etc. unfortunately it's never easy to contradict a physician since most are egotistical.


Onto men: I'm almost 22 and I'm still a douche, it's my job! Kidding. But it isn't just men, it's men, women, and probably any Inbetween! But you women should have men all figured out, we have a pretty one-tract mind. We are kind of silly. You women are much more complicated! But in my opinion it's all age and maturity. Females can be just as douchey as men, I swear- the stories I could tell! I'd focus on yourself and say eff them all if I could do it over. That's what I'm doing now any way! Never put th idea or actuality of your happiness or success in the hands of another. And never let em determine how beautiful you think you are- if they aren't interested in you for who you are- it isn't real and it's their loss any way. Alas, I'll stop hijacking your space! Trying to keep my mind off of this 21 hr semester....beginning in a dayish.