So I was prescribed 20mg a day. I'm 5' 8" and weigh 110 lbs. I know it's based on weight but I'm not sure if they take ur height into consideration? I really think they should.. Maybe use BMI or body fat % anyway I'm no Dr so I'll stop Lol. During the course of the first few weeks I felt like the side effects hit me at full force! Here they are...
Less oil production on my face
Chapped lips (ouch) I've never had dry lips like this so this was new for me
Dry /cracked nose (on the inside)
Occasional nose bleeds
Dry/peeling skin on arms/legs (my skin felt tight/sun burned)
Extremely dry eyes ( I wear contacts and it became pretty painful)
Dry/itchy scalp
Extreme fatigue (no matter how much I slept I was soooo tired)
Pretty bad backaches/muscle soreness/joint pain
Constipation: Oh how fun
I felt horrible during these weeks especially because my initial breakout, well broke out.
Here's the breakdown...
FACE:
My face was really red and my breakouts looked inflammed. Overall it was just painful/sensitive.
Forehead/nose: clear as always
Right cheek: Around 5 new whiteheads (pretty big ones)
Right jawline: Terrible! A lot of cystic.. painful
Chin: 1 or 2 whiteheads
Left cheek: 2 or 3 small ones. 1 cystic on cheekbone
Left jawline: some cystic
* my right side seemed to break out the most but overall my acne was the worst I had seen it. EVER*
BODY:
Chest: clear! Didn't have any when I started and thankfully haven't gotten any
Right shoulder: clearing up. No newbies
Left shoulder: clearing up. No newbies
Upper back: clearing up. 1 or 2 new ones
Mid/lower back: broke out pretty badly.. Really painful
During these 4 weeks I really questioned if I could make it thru 6 months of this. I felt horrible. I didn't feel like going out because my initial break out had me so depressed. I work in sales so i see people everyday and honestly I just wanted to crawl in a hole
My skin was so bumpy/red and I couldn't use cover up because my skin was so sensitive. I was always tired, my body ached and I never wanted to do anything. <=== I would say that was the worst side effect of all!! I couldn't sleep on my side because the acne on my face was painful, I couldn't sleep face up because my bacne was painful and sleeping face down has always hurt my lower back. It got to the point where I didn't feel like myself. All I wanted was clear skin.. I never thought it would make me feel this horrible
it was turning my world upside down sooooo i did the unthinkable... I decided to stop taking it!
So for 2 weeks I stopped taking it and let me just say I questioned it every day! My acne just kept getting worse of course. I was waking up to at least 4 newbies. It was pretty uncontrollable. I thought it over and decided to suck it up.. How do you ppl that take 40/60 and even 80mg! do it? You have my respect! Lol anyway so now I am doing 20 mg every other day. My Dr wasn't really on board with this.. And I was scared that it wouldn't work especially because of how terrible my IB was but I was more scared of all the side effects I was experiencing. But I mean ppl are put on low doses and it works for them, I wanted to try it out too in hopes that it would work for me as well. Why do Drs have such a hard time prescribing low dosages? Jeez. Well hopefully my side effects won't be as bad but if my acne doesn't respond to such a low dosage I might have to go back to 20 mg a day. ((fingers crossed))
Since I took that 2 week break I started my count all over. So the numbers reflect the days I have been on my new dosage. Here we go again...
*Day 14/week 2*
Lips are no longer dry because of all the aquaphor I use but they sting!
Skin is still dry but my arms/legs stopped peeling
My eyes are still dry (I'm no longer wearing my contacts and using artificial tears.)
Fatigue seems to have gone away
Muscle soreness/ joint pain not that bad anymore
Backache still there
Constipation from time to time not like before thankfully
FACE:
Forehead/nose: very clear
Right cheek: 1 or 2 newbies
Right jawline: still pretty bad
Chin: 1 or 2 whiteheads/ 1 really big cystic
Left cheekbone: started breaking out pretty badly
Left jawline: 1 or 2 new ones
BODY:
Chest: still clear
Right shoulder: 2 newbies
Left shoulder: no newbies since I started; clear
Upper back: clear!
Mid/lower back: a few cystic but no longer painful
*Day 16*
FACE:
Forehead/nose: very clear, almost glowing
Right cheek: no newbies
Right jawline: clearing up, quite a few bumps
Chin: the 3 very small whiteheads got bigger/ 1 really big cystic (still there)
Left cheekbone: clearing up, some bumps
Left jawline: clearing up, 1 small bump and 1 kind of big one
BODY:
Chest: still clear
Right shoulder: no newbies, the ones I got are drying up
Left shoulder: no newbies since I started; clear
Upper back: clear!
Mid/lower back: a few newbies, cystic still there but no longer painful
I will update tomorrow with a current log.. Tomorrow will be *Day 20*
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