Acne.org Products
Day 35
Now that my oil production has reduced, I'm cutting my dosage back down to one pill every 2 days. My ultimate goal is to see how little I can take while still enjoying the oil-free skin.
I'm very happy with the results so far. One of the best things is that the sebaceous filaments on my nose, which have been a permanent feature of my face for the past 6 years, are gone. In the past I used to wake up with at least one sebaceous filament every day. It's a great feeling not having to worry about that anymore.
In fact, it's a great feeling not having to worry about acne period anymore. I feel invincible. All those precautions I used to take like being careful not to touch my face, washing my face twice a day, applying acne medications, and being careful about what I eat are irrelevant now. It's extremely liberating, and a just little surreal, to drop a lifestyle that consumed my life for years.
Only possible side effect worth mentioning is that I think my cheeks are a little more red now. My cheeks have always been slightly rosy and prone to flushing in the hot or cold weather, but it seems slightly more pronounced now. It may be in my head though.
Wow, it does seem like it's making a difference already! I have questions though, and excuse me, I don't mean to hijack your thread but...
I'm planning on obtaining accutane also, and I noticed you purchased it online. How did you know exactly what dose/doses to take, and for how long? Hard to decipher without a doctor advising you, or maybe I haven't researched enough.
Wow, it does seem like it's making a difference already! I have questions though, and excuse me, I don't mean to hijack your thread but...
I'm planning on obtaining accutane also, and I noticed you purchased it online. How did you know exactly what dose/doses to take, and for how long? Hard to decipher without a doctor advising you, or maybe I haven't researched enough.
I saw a lot of people on Acne.org having success with taking one 10mg pill a day, so I thought that was a good starting place. I don't know yet how long I'm going to take it. I don't want to be on isotretinoin for a long time, but I'm not ready to declare a specific cutoff point.
Just to be clear, I am NOT endorsing buying isotretinoin online. I know that sounds hypocritical, but I went down this path as a last resort, and only after spending many hours weighing the pros and cons and doing research.
Try to get a prescription from your dermatologist. Tell him how much acne or oily skin is affecting your life, and that you only want to do a low-dose regimen. If he doesn't give you a prescription, go to another dermatologist. Just because one turns you down doesn't mean all of them will.
Just saying. Be smart about it and research. Day 39
Wow. It's only been 4 days since I cut my dosage down to 1 pill every 2 days, and my oiliness is already back with a vengeance. I'm going back to a once-a-day dosage right away.
I'm conflicted because I like the oil-free skin, but I'm worried that the isotretinoin is causing my face to become more red. I definitely blush more intensely than I used to. Part of me is hoping that my cheeks are just slightly sunburned since I have to walk outside sometimes at my job. I'll start wearing sunscreen and see if the redness calms down at all.
Day 48
I FINALLY got my first blood test results back. I've been trying to get an appointment for the past 3 weeks but the office kept telling me to call back next week. Anyway, my doctor says everything looks very good. Kidney, liver, cholesterol, blood sugar---it all checked out. He had nothing negative to say except that he thought my LDL levels could be slightly better. So that definitely puts my mind at ease.
Believe it or not, my oil production still hasn't reduced to what it was a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe that cutting the dosage in half for just 4 days caused such a drastic regression. My oiliness is slowly decreasing again, but lowering the dosage clearly set me back by a week or two.
As for the redness on my face, I'm positive now that it's caused by the isotretinoin. It's not that I'm always red, but that my face flushes much more easily and strongly than it used to. This is particularly noticeable after I take a hot shower and my cheeks glow bright red for 2-3 hours afterward.
Day 58
My oil levels have finally subsided to what they were 3 weeks ago. My advice to someone who has just started taking 10mg a day like me is DON'T try lowering the dosage, at least not in the first month.
I mentioned a while ago that I'm still dealing with shiny skin on my nose, despite the fact that my oiliness has decreased. I found a temporary fix for this by using Monistat Chafing Gel, which has some ingredient that reduces shine. Many women use it as a makeup primer. I couldn't use it in the past because my nose would pump out oil and push off the gel, so it only gave me about an hour of shine-free skin before the oil ruined everything.
Now that I don't get as oily, I can use the gel and significantly reduce the shine on my skin for a few hours. I don't go anywhere without putting it on first.
Great to hear your oil has reduced again. It's more than a bit suprising at what a difference lowering the dose for a few days made, live and learn i guess.
Have you seen any initial breakout by the way? I recall you saying spots aren't you primary problem so I'm wondering if you've suffered or not.
Great to hear your oil has reduced again. It's more than a bit suprising at what a difference lowering the dose for a few days made, live and learn i guess.
Have you seen any initial breakout by the way? I recall you saying spots aren't you primary problem so I'm wondering if you've suffered or not.
Before I took isotretinoin I was mainly dealing with sebaceous filaments (these things: http://tinyurl.com/3eomm6c ) and the occasional pustule, so my initial breakout just consisted of more of those two things. From what I've read, it sounds like the initial breakout people experience is typically a more severe version of the type of acne they already get.
Day 74
Pretty much since the onset of my acne 6 years ago, my nose has had a splotchy redness to it, particularly in the creases on the sides. In the past I always assumed it was due to squeezing acne blemishes and using a bunch of products on my skin. But the absence of oil and acne that I've been enjoying for the past 2 months has brought something interesting to my attention: my nose is red for non-acne related reasons.
After doing a bit of research online, I think I may actually have seborrheic dermatitis or rosacea. I definitely displayed some of the symptoms: redness, oily skin, pustules, rough skin texture. The oily skin and pustules are gone now thanks to the isotretinoin, but I'm still dealing with the other two. Now I just have to figure out whether I have seborrheic dermatitis or rosacea, if I have either one. I can't believe I may have been trying to treat the wrong thing (acne) all this time.
As a side note, I'm going to start experimenting with lowering my dosage again, but this time I'm going to take it much more slowly. I'm going to start by skipping a pill every 6 days. If everything still looks good after a couple of weeks, I'll try skipping every 5 days, then every 4 days, and so on until I find my threshold.
Jofo, thanks for the update, I've taken a leaf out of your book - i'm dividing (with some mild difficulty!) a 20mg cap of Iso into 3, so i'm getting 6-7mg a day. No change whatsoever yet though, however i only started 11 days ago.
If i'm not mistaken a low dose of Iso usually sorts out, at least temporarily, rosacea, there's dedicated forums to it and i'm sure i've seen people saying they're taking 1 or 2mg a day and getting good results, so i'm not sure it's that.
Yeah, don't get discouraged if you're not seeing results after just 11 days. It took me 3 weeks to start seeing a reduction in oil, and I was taking more than you are. By the way, how exactly are you dividing a 20mg cap into 3 parts?
With regard to rosacea, low-dose isotretinoin seems to be hit or miss. I've seen people say a low dose helped their rosacea, but I've seen more people say it exacerbated their rosacea. Of course, it doesn't really matter what other people say since I have seen for myself how isotretinoin has made my flushing worse. I'm sure it does help some people in that regard, just not me.
Dividing it into 3 is a very rough science, I heard accutane can degrade with contact with oxygen (no idea how true or by how much) which is why in capsual form it is suspended in oil. I read, most likely on one of those rosacea forums how people used a small sewing pin to pierce the cap and squeeze out a little. It's definatley not great because the first day you obviously get a fair bit of oil with only a little active ingredient, compared with the third day where i finish the cap off and after cutting one open to see i suspect i'm taking about 12mg of the 20 in there on the third day. Perhaps their active ingredient is blended better in than mine though.
Is there a reason you don't just take one 20mg pill every 3 days? I've seen people have success with taking one pill every few days. You probably don't have to physically split up the pill. You might be delaying results by creating exposure to oxygen, not to mention I've heard the stuff inside the pill can irritate the esophagus.
A lack of activity from me means things are generally going well. A month ago I started skipping one pill every 6 days. I think this actually has lead to a slight increase in oil, but it's not bad. I still produce oil far more slowly than I used to, even if it's not gone completely. I've hit a level that I can work with.
I'm still using peppermint oil every night on the left side of my nose. I've been doing this for 2 months now. The peppermint oil is just about my last hope for ever reducing oily skin without the aid of isotretinoin. It's hard to say whether it's working or not. When I blot the oil off my nose after several hours, I frequently notice less oil from the peppermint oil side. But then some days it looks equal. So I really don't know what to say.
I also bought some supplements to help reduce the facial flushing that was brought on by the isotretinoin. I'm taking grape seed extract, glisodin, turmeric, low-dose Aspirin, and astaxanthin. Glisodin and astaxanthin act as a sort of internal sunscreen, reducing photosensitivity in the skin. It's too early to say anything on that front, though.
Day 110
I'm down to my last 10-pill packet. I didn't notice I was running low until it was too late. I've already ordered another batch of pills, but it will take over 10 days to arrive so I'm forced to reduce my dosage this week to make my current batch last. I ordered from a different website this time around since the original website I ordered from has been getting negative feedback recently. I don't know what brand these pills will be so I'm crossing my fingers that they will be equally effective.
Day 113
The redness in my cheeks seems to be subsiding. Taking a shower no longer causes my face to go bright red for 2 hours. It may just be a coincidence, but I didn't notice this happening until I started taking Evening Primrose Oil last week. I have my doubts that one supplement could make such an immediate change, but it might have helped. I'm happy to see some progress anyway.
Only bad thing is that the redness has NOT been subsiding in my nose, which is the one spot where I really don't want redness. My nose gets red incredibly easily now, much redder than the rest of my face. And after my face gets temporarily flushed from laughing or bending down or whatever, the redness lingers in my nose for a long time. My nose has a slight pinkish hue almost all the time.
*sigh* It's just one problem after another. If anyone has any suggestions for me I'd love to hear them. I'm already experimenting with a reduced isotretinoin dosage again, and I'm even starting to look into makeup.
Hi, I've no advice to give really, I just wanted to wish you luck, you have the right attitude to varying the dose to match the oil production in my view. Just one thing drop that silly Filament rubbish, they're comedones, or blackheads as we all know them, light bulbs have filaments well at least they used to until they all went low energy style.
Good luck
Day 157
Things are pretty much the same as when I last updated. Not a whole lot to tell. My oil production is still low, so long as I stick to my regular dosage. Last month I tried lowering my dosage again to once every other day, thinking that maybe it would be okay now that I had so much isotretinoin built up in my system. But no, after a week of this new regimen my oiliness started to increase again. I quickly reinstated my once-a-day regimen, and it took about another week for things to return back to normal. I'm going to experiment with lower dosages later this month, but I'm going to taper things down much more slowly, probably starting by skipping one pill every 5 days.
I had to reorder my supply this month from a new website that I had never used before. The website where I placed my last order hasn't been functioning right for the past two weeks (I literally couldn't place an order). My fingers are crossed that this company sends me a good quality product. The customer service rep said they sell Accutane from multiple manufacturers.
My main focus right now is on finding a remedy for rosacea. I just got a prescription (yes, a legitimate prescription lol) for Oracea and Metrogel. I'm also still looking into holistic solutions. My skin problems are multifaceted and complicated but the isotretinoin was a big piece of the puzzle. It took care of the oiliness, which was the worst part of my skin, and I'm sincerely grateful for that. It has literally improved my quality of life.