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Hey everyone,
I'm new here and just discovered these forums today. I will start by adding some information about how acne has had a significant impact on my life (I am 18 by the way). Throughout highschool acne was never really an issue. I would have a blemish here and there, and also the occasional break out on one side of my face, but never both sides. About a year and a half ago I started working out regurarly to try and build a better definition in my body which after much hard work has paid off. However, throughout the process of working out and gaining some weight my acne has become much more prominent on my back and face - I assume because of the oils.
The acne has made me very self conscious about myself. I wouldn't call it bad, particularly not on my face, but my back was starting to show signs of cysts and nodules that made me reluctant to show off my body which I had worked so hard for. I took many different pills such as Solodyn and other anti-bacterials, as well as many facial gels like Differin, Retin-A, and so forth but nothing worked. There were a few kids at my school who had acne much worse than myself and had great results due to Accutane. I told myself for months I wouldn't, and that I could not go through with the Accutane treatment, but last week I went to the Dermatologist and decided that I need to end the misery of acne now. She (my doctor) prescribed me 40mg of Isotretinoin (accutane) per day and so the journey began the first day I took the pill on August 19th.
The Adventure Begins - Week 1.
The first few days were easy, I was anxious to see improvement of my skin, but throughout all the research I had done on the side effects of Accutane I had not read anything on the initial outbreaks. I found out the hard way, between today and yesterday my acne has never looked worse. Acne has exploded over my face, it's on my forehead, my cheeks, and my chin... My back has neither improved nor seen much outbreak (it's a little worse than before but not much). I have always been self conscious about outbreaks and this is no different. It's my first week of college and I have not talked to anybody because of how concerned I am with how my face looks. I want to know when this initial outbreak will end... I've heard as long as three months?
Other than the outbreak on my face no other side effects have started yet. I have been religious with my chapstick so as to avoid, or at least delay, the dry and chap lip phase of this whole process. I've also continued my workout routines with running and weights, I have not started using less weight and have not noticed any joint pain... yet. I am a little more tired than I usually am but I just started my college classes this week and have been waking up earlier than usual.
I have not made changes in my daily life though. I have always watched my diet carefully since I started working out so I eat fairly balanced meals throughout the day and I have continued taking my creatine and protein after I workout.
I will continue updating this throughout the process. Keeping my fingers crossed this IB phase dies quickly... for those who have been through the Accutane process before I'm sure you know how I feel.
-Rob
To put it into perspective this was me 4 months ago... pretty clear of acne if you ask me. Can't wait to be back to this.
4 Month Update!
Accutane has certainly been a journey. The initial break out was definitely tough to go through but I tried to keep my mind positively engaged in other things (ie. school, work, friends, etc). That being said however, it has been a fast process. With my transition into my first year of college, my first speeding ticket, and other various aspects of life, the Accutane process has really been as easy as waking up and taking two pills in the morning before starting my routine. The side effects? Honestly for me, not many. Aside from the chap-lips and an occasional headache this has been a breeze. The hardest part I will admit, is definitely the initial breakout - that seemed to last forever. Once the IB started to fade away I slowly regained my confidence again. No girls in my life right now, which is fine - I'm not yearning for a girlfriend anyway, but I am definitely more confident now and can openly talk to girls I haven't met before without worrying about them looking at my skin/acne. Little self conscious about the chap lips though, but that is certainly not that big of a deal and can be easily addressed with some aquaphor.
~Rob
Hey Robby,
How's it going? If you are anything like me, my face changes from one day to the next. Sometimes even throughout the same day! I can wake up in the morning lookin pretty good and by lunch I may have 5 new zits. Also, the red marks left behind are so much more obvious now. It's annoying. So needless to say, my mood changes just as quickly. Went to get blood drawn today and it's back to the derm tomorrow. Almost one month down....4 to go!
I hope things are going well for you!
~Celia
Hey Robby,
How's it going? If you are anything like me, my face changes from one day to the next. Sometimes even throughout the same day! I can wake up in the morning lookin pretty good and by lunch I may have 5 new zits. Also, the red marks left behind are so much more obvious now. It's annoying. So needless to say, my mood changes just as quickly. Went to get blood drawn today and it's back to the derm tomorrow. Almost one month down....4 to go!
I hope things are going well for you!
~Celia
Couldnt agree with you more Celia! its sooo annoying! in the morning i can be so happy, skin looks great..a few hours later and i have something new, and changes my whole mood! its so frustrating! my blood test is saturday, i'm almost one month down too, sometimes its so overwhelming thinking theres 4 months to go...what a journey it is!
Hey Robby,
How's it going? If you are anything like me, my face changes from one day to the next. Sometimes even throughout the same day! I can wake up in the morning lookin pretty good and by lunch I may have 5 new zits. Also, the red marks left behind are so much more obvious now. It's annoying. So needless to say, my mood changes just as quickly. Went to get blood drawn today and it's back to the derm tomorrow. Almost one month down....4 to go!
I hope things are going well for you!
~Celia
Sorry I haven't updated this in a long time! But thank you Celia. It's become apparent to me that nothing very noticeable is going to change in the first month as far as the appearance of my acne goes. Each week I am taking pictures of the sides of my face to see progress, but after this first month I haven't seen much. Tomorrow I am getting bumped to 60mg/day so we will see how that works. I have learned to not care as much about the acne on my face, that might be easier for me though because I am a guy. If it helps anybody here the way I think about it is like this: most people have gone through or go through acne at some point in their life. If people are judging me based on my acne alone then I really don't care cause I wouldn't be friends with a person like that anyway. I'm not saying people shouldn't allow acne to affect their emotions and such, but I just wouldn't let it affect me too much. In a few months my skin will look great and right now that's what I'm staying focused on.
Couldnt agree with you more Celia! its sooo annoying! in the morning i can be so happy, skin looks great..a few hours later and i have something new, and changes my whole mood! its so frustrating! my blood test is saturday, i'm almost one month down too, sometimes its so overwhelming thinking theres 4 months to go...what a journey it is!
Yeah the acne thing is definitely a hit or miss with each day. The blood tests freak me out for whatever reason, nearly fainted again today getting my blood drawn. In my defense she kept the needle in my arm for what felt like 10 minutes though.
1 MONTH ROUND UP
So today was the official mark of my first month on Accutane. My acne has not really improved, and my initial breakout is still occurring. It's up in the air for how bad my acne will be each day. So far I've experienced chap lips and fatigue from the medicine, but other than that not too many notable side effects. I have noticed that when drinking (I am a college student... give me a break) that my body reacts to the alcohol much faster than previously. Because of this I have knocked down most of the drinking I do to once/twice a month to avoid doing any damage to my body. I have also noticed that I sweat much easier when I go to the gym to workout. Furthermore, I noticed my acne is better on the days that I shave, which is weird for me. Normally I break out when I shave as opposed to when I don't. That being said my skin is also a little drier on the days that I do shave. Anyway, I am looking forward to this upcoming month, and am praying to see some improvement on my acne. As I had mentioned I am taking pictures of my face each passing week. I will upload these as soon as I am comfortable with my acne and start to see improvement. Until then I hope you guys can deal with my written summaries!
Good luck rob! Will you be posting photos of your progress?
Thank you! I will be uploading the pictures once I am comfortable with my acne. For right now I'm using them as a personal record to see my progression. Once I think I've progressed a fair amount I will start sharing the pictures with everyone on here. Until then I'm going to stick to written summaries.
Robby!
How's the face? I think it's great that you took pics of your progress...I really, really wish I would have, even though like you, I may not have posted them at first. Things have gotten SO MUCH better for me this last month. TONS of progress! I just started month 3 and I honestly am just psyched about how things are going. It's not perfect, but certainly going in the right direction. Still a lot of PIH, but even that is fading. Dryness not too bad at all, lips are annoying but manageable. Aching back is the worst part at this point. Like I said in my own log, this journey has not been nearly as bad or scary as I thought it might be. I'm glad I did it, even though I can't wait to be done! I hope you are making progress as well and you are feeling better about things too.
~Celia
Robby!
How's the face? I think it's great that you took pics of your progress...I really, really wish I would have, even though like you, I may not have posted them at first. Things have gotten SO MUCH better for me this last month. TONS of progress! I just started month 3 and I honestly am just psyched about how things are going. It's not perfect, but certainly going in the right direction. Still a lot of PIH, but even that is fading. Dryness not too bad at all, lips are annoying but manageable. Aching back is the worst part at this point. Like I said in my own log, this journey has not been nearly as bad or scary as I thought it might be. I'm glad I did it, even though I can't wait to be done! I hope you are making progress as well and you are feeling better about things too.
~Celia
Hey sorry I've been so inactive on here, I'm really glad to hear you're skin is doing so well! Last week was a huge week for me, everything is starting to finally clear up, except my back did have a little bit of an outbreak... hoping that will clear when I get my dosage upped next month. Right now I'm still on 60mg/day, which is kind of unfortunate because I thought she was going to bump me up to 80mg/day but that won't be happening until mid-November. Overall so far so good! Dry lips are a pain, and the acne on my back kind of hurts to lay on when I'm trying to sleep, but other than that not too many side-effects that bother me.
It's so nice to finally rub my hand on the side of my face and feel smoothness and not feel like the Appalachian mountains are running through. The clearness is good, you can still tell there is some redness from where the acne was. And I also have a few active areas, for example there's one on my forehead and one on the side of my face, I'm just focusing on not touching them as I have learned that never ends well! Overall, I would say that initial breakout is finally over with. In comparison to before the accutane process I would say my skin is a little bit better, the initial breakout really flared up my skin. So I'm excited to see what happens moving forward.
Oh yeah and the blood tests... passed out last month I don't do well with those, haha
Passed out? -__- Robbyyyy....Man up! hehe. Just giving you a hard time 
I guess tattoos and body piercing would not be your thing, hu? haha
I'm glad you are alive and well (except for the needle fiasco) and that your skin is improving. I just love the idea that if someone were to touch my face, it would feel so smooth and soft. I didn't dare to hope for such good results so quickly. I hope for both of us (and everyone else on Accutane) that the results last.
Hang in there! Let us know if you get bumped up and how it's going for you.
