Is 5 or 6 courses healthy? I keep thinking each course is going to give me a longer 2-3 year period of being clear. I'll spend 6 months doing this, but be good for about 2 years anyway.

Good to hear that it's working well for you! I just started my second course. I went through the exact same thing, my first course cleared my skin up COMPLETELY! I looked great! But after about 2 years it's come back! I've heard a lot of people says that their acne comes back after 2 years... strange!

Day 77

Could it be that I made it past the IB? I hope so. I've been at this 80mg/day dose for a while now, and it's not getting worse. It's actually getting a little better. I have a few nasty, hostile spots/clusters, but I used to have many of those, and most of my skin looks clearer.

Still redness and easy sunburn.

Dryness, esp. lips.

Finished the Keflex, and now i'm getting new cysts on my body. I guess I'll go back to the bleach baths for now, but I like the way that Keflex cleared me up. I might call and ask for another 10 days of that.

Any experience from anyone else using Keflex or similar during accutane?

Ouch! Today I woke up, my mouth is so dry and sore on one corner it hurts to open my mouth.

Been applying aquaphor, no help. Applied some Desonide my derm gave me for ezcema, hoping that will help.

Also only took 1 x 40mg pill today instead of 2.

Day 78

Here's a current picture, mostly of my lips. Notice that crater looking thing on left corner of my mouth. It hurts!

Looks like angular cheilitis, anyone know what to do about that besides vasoline and a topical steroid, or is that all I can do?

Day 83

Acne is erupting all over my face again! And I have a black tie event coming up on the 6th. I smeared desonide all over my face to calm the inflammation, and I started another round of Keflex, since I'm also noticing some cysts. Bathing in bleach water periodically and swimming in chlorine swimming pools.

People are definitely noticing that I'm taking accutane, because my skin has been crazy for the past 3 months between random breakouts and beat red, peeling skin on my face and lips.

Just gotta remember in another 3 months I'll be done, and my skin will look wonderful.

As for the angular chelitis, it's resolved. Basically I just put everything on it. I disinfected it, used anti-fungal cream, cortisone, and vasoline.

Day 88 - Dermatologist Visit

Saw the dermatologist today. He said to use more moisturizer and also use Desonide. He wants me to be more aggressive with using Tazorac for the whiteheads.

I'm also on Keflex for another several days. He says to finish that, but he doesn't really think I need the Keflex.

I need to go to a fancy wedding on Saturday so I'm only taking 40mg Accutane per day this week so it stays pretty calm. Then I'll go back closer to 80mg/day (I'm 73kg).

I have some cysts on my back, which are painful. Tried to drain one, but I only got blood out of it 3 times... it's just inflamed. Anyway, that's all for now...

Insurance problems.

Day 98

Insurance company refilled my Accutane, so I picked up my 4th set of 60 x 40mg pills. Since April 5, I've taken 6,000mg total.

Current dose: 80mg/day

Also using Desonide (corticosteroid cream) and Tazorac every other day on the problem areas (forehead and jawline). Moisturize often, sunscreen often.

Not so clear at the moment... one really HUGE pimple and 3 other large ones. The HUGE one is HUGE, like a cyst on my face... I thought after 4 months this was supposed to be easier!

I'm almost finished with my treatment and last month had one huge zit pop up on the back of my neck. It hung around for weeks and finally went away. Now, I can say I'm 99.9% clear. You'll get there, just have patience.

Hey man Ive been following your log since the beginning. Wish you the best of luck hopefully this clears you for good. I just got a persription for my second course of Accutane yesterday. I took my first course when I was 19. I have a couple questions though. Did you use any topicals after your courses? And do you have oily skin? I myself have very oily skin and I think thats the main cause of my acne..

Hey man Ive been following your log since the beginning. Wish you the best of luck hopefully this clears you for good. I just got a persription for my second course of Accutane yesterday. I took my first course when I was 19. I have a couple questions though. Did you use any topicals after your courses? And do you have oily skin? I myself have very oily skin and I think thats the main cause of my acne..

Thanks for reading! I didn't realize I created about 5 pages of posts... that's a little excessive =p

Yes I have oily skin, but it's been far less oily since the first 2 courses.

I am a fan of Tazorac, a topical retinoid. That works pretty well for me. I think I'll go back to that after my accutane course if I still have acne. My plan is this: I've taken tons of Accutane, so after this round, I'm going to try to combat it with topicals. Retinoids, in my opinion, are the best treatment for acne.

I've had limited success with Benzoyl Peroxide to, combined with either a topical or oral antibiotic... specifically Clindamycin topical and occasionally a course of Keflex. I also take bleach baths (for the cysts), and put the bleach water on my face. It's safe and doesn't hurt. Just mix about 1/2 - 1 cup of bleach in a full bathtub and soak in it a bit.

I just saw my derm today and got my 5th and final prescription for accutane. So I have almost 2 months worth of pills left.

I've had a few large cysts, one on my arm, and one on my face under my eye. I also have a lot of whiteheads on my forehead, and a few on my cheek.

For the cysts, he gave me a 10 day course of Keflex, and he took a nasal culture to test for MRSA. He gave me an antibiotic gel to put up my nose. He did this last time and I sort of didn't do it because I didn't understand how putting antibiotic gel in my nose would help.

So I just took the Keflex, but I'm going to wait until the MRSA culture comes back before putting gels up my nose.

He said accutane won't fix the whiteheads, but that Tazorac would fix those. So, I'm supposed to be putting the tazorac on every other day, then once a day, in the areas that have whiteheads.

hang in. about to start my 3rd course soon too. im following this log.

Month 5, Day 1

So, I've been taking the Keflex and putting the Mupirocin in my nose since saturday, and I've taken a couple bleach baths.

The culture results are:

FEW MIXED GRAM POSITIVE ORGANISMS INCLUDING:

FEW STAPH AUREUS - SENSITIVE-METH

Maybe these cysts are from staph infection, and hopefully the antibiotics will help. I remember having this problem on my last Accutane course, and the bleach baths always cleared it up.

Month 5, Day 2

Today, a patient asked me if I had Chicken Pox... I told him, "No, it's acne", and he persisted and said I was too old to have acne. Then he went on to tell me about his shingles. But chicken pox? Do I really look like I have chicken pox? That's a pretty serious accusation, and it was really embarassing.

Are you still breaking out in 5 month or is it just minor pimples? On my last course I was put on 20mg a day and it cleared me within 2 weeks and I only had 4-5 minor zits in those 6 months. I think my acne is fading away pretty good now. 1 month without any medication/face wash and only notiched 2-3 small zits on my forehead.

But good luck.

Are you still breaking out in 5 month or is it just minor pimples? On my last course I was put on 20mg a day and it cleared me within 2 weeks and I only had 4-5 minor zits in those 6 months. I think my acne is fading away pretty good now. 1 month without any medication/face wash and only notiched 2-3 small zits on my forehead.

But good luck.

I noticed that you cleared very quickly on Accutane.

Before Accutane, was your acne associated with oily skin?

 

Are you still breaking out in 5 month or is it just minor pimples? On my last course I was put on 20mg a day and it cleared me within 2 weeks and I only had 4-5 minor zits in those 6 months. I think my acne is fading away pretty good now. 1 month without any medication/face wash and only notiched 2-3 small zits on my forehead.

But good luck.

I noticed that you cleared very quickly on Accutane.

Before Accutane, was your acne associated with oily skin?

My skin was very oily, yes. After accutane my skin has mostly been dry, only with a little oilyness occured in the summer, but nothing big.

Had another derm appointment today. 45 days left to go. Lots of dryness, pealing, still whiteheads.

He says to use the desonide and moisturizer 2x/day, desonide first, then moisturizer. And, at night, put the tazorac on under the desonide/moisturizer.

Continue bleach baths 3x/week, 1/2 cup bleach, 2 feet of water. Also continue dabbing bactroban in my nose to control staph aureus.

Recheck 1 month.

37 Days Left!

With only 37 days left, I'm looking forward to the end of acne. I still have some spots, but I'm concentrating on my regimen post-accutane.

At night my doctor told me to use Tazorac, then a layer of desonide (cortisone cream), then a layer of moisturizer. In the morning, I'm supposed to only use desonide and moisturizer.

So far, most of it has flaked off, I don't really have anything gross or inflamed. I'm debating tapering the Accutane down to only 40mg per day (from 80mg), but that would double the 37 days, and I sort of want to get it over. I'm just worried after 3 courses, it's still not enough to cure my acne.

Also having trouble with skin infections (boils, impetigo, etc). Taking regular bleach baths (every 3 days), and using bactroban in my nose to kill off the staph. I have Keflex, but I'm avoiding it, because I don't want to take Keflex indefinitely. My last experience was the skin infections stopped when I stopped my accutane.

Also need to recheck lipids after my treatment. Triglycerides were high 2 months in, which is when my dr. said they were the highest typically.

Good luck! I just finished my first course today. My progress has been slow. I didn't clear up quickly at all, just went from 3 pimples a day, to a week, then a month etc. Keep us posted!

Why dont you go on a Low-Dose accutane course after you finish this to keep maintance becuase you have been on 3accutane courses I think low-dose accutane you will be great to keep maintance my dear friend.