hiiiiii. i'm Taylor. 23 year old female from Southern California. 5'6, 150 pounds. starting dose is 40 MG.
this will be my *SECOND* time on Accutane. i took my first round from January-August 2009 and it was successful and i didn't have acne for years until this past June 2012. my acne started flaring up again. i thought maybe it was just the weather or something (because i was living in a different state at the time) so i gave it a few months to clear up and it's just gotten worse so i went to my derm and got accutane easily. thank god i have a cool female derm who's young and understanding.
i had a log on here under a different name (which i fogort) last time i took accutane and it really kinda helped me get through the process a lil easier plus it was good to go back and read about my progress. so i'm back and logging my experience again. i must admit, this time around my acne is not nearly as bad as it was the first time, but my acne is purely GENETIC and nothing else will help it besides accutane. i've tried it all in the past, all the washes, creams, gels, antibiotics, laser treatments. you name it, and i've tried it for my acne. accutne was the only thing that ever helped. my acne is pretty much confined to my jawline/chin area now. i rarely get spots on my cheeks and i hardly EVER break out on my forehead/nose.
i won't bore you with my life story. got any questions, just ask. i'm just here to keep it real and log my experience. so here it goes. hope y'all enjoy. i'll even throw in some pics from time to time. how fun!
DAYS 1-4:
so Thursday, day 1, i go to my derms office to take a quick pregnancy test. NEGATIVE. of course. so the nurse inputs the info into the computer and i leave. i call the iPledge line and answer my stupid questions then i'm off to Target to get my perscription filled. i get it filled without hassle, but i notice the generic brand she gave me is a brand i've never heard of before, Myorisan. this kinda concerns me because when i was taking accutane back in 2009 there were only like 4 generic names and this wasn't one of them. must be new. whatever. lol i payed my $10 and left. went home and popped my first pill that night. nothing exciting to report.
day 2...i wake up with a dull headache that turns into a full blown migraine that lasts all day until i fall asleep around midnight that night. OUCH. no amount of Advil or ibprophen worked. DOUBLE OUCH. i knew it was just the accutane in me so i didn't worry much. i just kept drinking lots of water and hoped it would go away.
day 3...same thing as day 2...i wake up with a faint headache that got much worse throughout the day. it wasn't as bad as day 2 though. so i can already tell my face is starting to explode. i can feel the bumps starting to form all along my jawline and chin. ew. i know what's coming next...THE DREADED IB. ugh. just get it over with already face!
day 4...today...i woke up and yup...my face is starting to explode. already. about 5 or 6 new spots develpoed overnight. awesome. no headache though. i put on my makeup and tried my best to just forget about it and enjoy my day. i feel like i'm a teenager again...going through puberty...face full of acne...it's sooo embaressing to me. i'm too old for this crap!
so overall...4 days in...side effects haven't been bad except for the *intense* 48 hour headache. i know it's really soon, but i'm already starting to have an IB, i haven't had this many spots on my face in years so i know it's my face reacting to the medication. i don't feel the Sahara desert dryness yet though. i knowwww it's coming though!
stay tuned. more to come.
-TAY
Good luck with your Accutane treament. Hopefully tour current breakout is your initial breakout and then you can hopefully start to clear up quickly.
Is your profile picture quoting the Eli Young Band's song Even if it breaks your heart? If it is they're a great band, if not then I still like it.
Hopefully your second time on this medication will leave you clear for the rest of your life. Good luck
Good luck with your Accutane treament. Hopefully tour current breakout is your initial breakout and then you can hopefully start to clear up quickly.
Is your profile picture quoting the Eli Young Band's song Even if it breaks your heart? If it is they're a great band, if not then I still like it.
Hopefully your second time on this medication will leave you clear for the rest of your life. Good luck
thank you. i'm pretty sure this has to be the IB because my acne hasn't been this bad since the last time i took accutane...which was 3 years ago. i'm lookin pretty rough, but it's all part of the process. i swear this BETTER be the last time i have to take this medication.
and yessss it's totally the Eli Young Band. they are amazing. that song is just awesome. it's one of my all time favorites.
DAYS 5 & 6:
DAY 5...face continues to explode. woke up with 3 huge new spots. 2 on my right side and 1 on my left. all together i'd say i have about 10 bigger ones and 5 or 6 smaller spots on my face right now. this is the worst breakout i've had since the last time i was on accutane, which was 3 years ago. so i'm assuiming this is the start of the IB. my face is lookin pretty rough right now. but it's all on my chin/jawline and a few on my neck. nothing on my forehead, nose or cheeks. eyeballs were really dry today. gonna have to buy some good eye drops soon because it's really annoying to have dry eyeballs lol. 
DAY 6...the dryness is setting in. ugh. my lips are getting drier. my eyeballs are dry. and my skin is starting to feel a little tight after i wash and the spots i picked at are flaking. my makeup looked a mess today. yuck. this stupid weather isn't helping either. it's really dry and windy right now which dries my skin out big time. i guess i should note that my skin has always been very very dry. i've never had oily skin or hair or anything. even before my first round of accutane. this time of the year sucks when you have really dry skin. face looks the same as day 5. no improvement. i don't expect to see any improvement anytime soon. 
DAY 7:
7 days down...about 173 more to go. i'm planning on doing a 6 month (180 days) course this time. last course i did 7 months. yesterday i went to the pharmacy to pick up my birth control (the Nuva Ring) and the lady told me it was going to be $40. for the past 3 months it's been $20. so i guess my insurance increased the price on that medication and i wasn't about to spend $40 on something i don't even need/want. i'm single right now and i'm not seeing anybody and i don't have any plans to anytime soon, but if i do start seeing somebody i have a bunch of birth control pill packs laying around in my room that i can start using. so no more birth control for me for the time being. yay! i hate birth cotrol. i feel like it does nothing to help my acne. bye bye birth control.
face is looking slightly better today. the active spots seem to be healing. still nothing on my forehead/nose or cheeks. just my chin/jawline and 1 on the right side of my neck. last night i put NeoSporin CREAM (not the ointment) on my healing break outs and i'm not really sure if it worked or not, but my face is looking better than the past few days. so i'm gonna continue to put the neosporin cream on any healing spots from now on. i got that tip off a few other girls logs on here. thanks!
not much else to report. no weird side effects. just some dryness on my face/lips, but nothing crazy. the inside of my nose isn't dry yet, in fact it's dripping because of the stupid weather here. dry and windy. and i think i have allergies. soooo annoying.
i'm gonna post some pics of products i'm using. i REALLLLLY need a good suggestion for EYE DROPS. i have no idea what to buy, i've never needed them before. help, anybody?!
this is the only thing i wash my face with. once in the morning and once at night. i like it a lot while taking Accutane.
Cetaphil daily facial cleanser:
since i wear makeup pretty much daily, i moisturize with this during the day. it's alright, nothing amazing, but it works for me. it's light and not greasy and works well with makeup, yet it still does a pretty good job at moisturizing. AND has SPF in it.
Aveeno positively radiant daily moisturizer:
at night i use a much thicker moisturizer. i absolutly HATE the way this stuff feels on my skin, it's so thick and just ugh. but i apply it before bed so it's no biggy. then i put a clean towel over my pillow so the greasy residue doesn't get all over my pillows. it works pretty good. it's a must have for Accutane users.
CeraVe moisturizing cream in the TUB:
right now i'm using a 2 things for my lips. i can't seem to find my FAVORITE chapstick in any of the stores around here. they are ALWAYS out of it. it's the Nivea "a kiss of moisture" in the dark blue tube. it's amazing. i need to find some and stock up. they always have the other colored Nivea tubes but never the dark blue one! i guess everybody else knows how amazing it is too. but right now i'm using this. it's pretty good.
Blistex medicated lip balm:
and sometimes i use this stuff even though i break out around my lipline sometimes while using it. ew. everybody SWEARS by this stuff though if you're on Accutane. it's pretty good stuff. i just gotta be careful when using it so that it doesn't break me out.
Aquaphor lip repair:
sooooo as you can see, i keep it pretty simple. nothing fancy about my routine. i just wash in the morning, then moisturize. then i wash at night and moisturize before bed. and i use lip balm pretty much all day. it's a habit of mine. you can find all of this stuff at your local WalMart (wayyyy cheaper at WalMart than Target or CVS. i checked). i take vitamins and supplements too, but i'll save that for another day. i'm tired. goodnight acne.org!!! sooo happy to be done with my first week! <3
Hey, good luck with your 2nd course!! Im on my first, 3 weeks in. So far so good. I use that Cetaphil face wash too, really like it, seems to be quite popular among accutane users! x
thank you. good luck to you too. it'll totally be worth it in the end! 
and yeah i really like the Cetaphil wash. it's simple and gets the job done without drying my face out.
DAYS 8, 9 & 10:
wooooo i'm already in the double digits. yay. i guess that's something worth getting excited about.
day 8...honestly i don't remember what happened on day 8 so i assume nothing out of the ordinary.
day 9...lips were REALLY dry and tight. to the point where it started getting annoying. but they aren't cracked yet, just dry. chapstick or aquaphor didn't even help. i used my toothbrush to "brush" my lips to get some chunks of dead skin off. it works okay. better than nothing. face looked a lil better today. a lot of the bigger spots are healing, but new smaller whiteheads keep sprouting up. they are tiny and gross and take a few days to go away. so far i've been doing an okay job at picking. i just try to avoid mirrors, but some spots are too gross and full of white stuff that i just can't leave them alone. all of my acne is still on my jawline/side of my face and chin. nothing on my forehead. it was a friday night so i went out with a few friends and had a few drinks. 4 beers and 1 shot all together, but spread out over like 4 hours so i didn't even really get a buzz. i didn't feel any different drinking on accutane. i'm not a huge drinker anymore but i figured it would be good to go out and see some friends and have a lil fun since i've been kinda avoiding the world lately because my face is sooo broken out right now.
day 10...double digits. yay! woke up today feeling dehydrated because i didn't drink enough water last night after drinking. my fault. but it went away after a bottle of water. woke up with a couple new spots. 1 bigger one on my left side jawline and a small whitehead on my chin. yuck. nothing horrible though. same side effects. nothing new or crazy. my face isn't that dry, probably because i do a good job at moisturizing my face morning and night. i'm starting to get that gross rough accutane texture on my face. i think the blackheads on my nose are starting to come out. purge purge purge! nothing else interesting to report. so far so good. i'm just excited for the clearing to start!
DAY 25:
Yay I'm already at day 25! Time is flying by. Thank god for that. Everything is going pretty good so far. The side effects aren't too bad. I go in for my monthly blood test in a couple of days and then I have a dermatologist appointment later in the week. My skin is pretty dry but nothing that moisturizer cant fix. My lips haven't been bad at all. my face looks pretty good. Everything is pretty clear except my jaw line. I still keep breaking out there. My face is really smooth. I think I might stay at 40 milligrams but maybe I'll bump up to 60. We'll see. Hope everybody is doing well on their journey.
-Tay Tay