brinyoung - burning, not so much. The redness, it's the usual but not as bad. Right as I take shower it is at its most redness but it subsides. As I've approached the end of the regimen, all these has either become usual for me to not notice or maybe it's gotten better...? haha

Back to the updates...

Mar 27 - Day 116

I've not updated in a while. It's a testament to the fact that this works. I still get occasional one spot breakout per week but it is very small and usually goes away. The best part of all is that I don't really think about it anymore. It's not on my mind.

The side effects that I've been dealing with for the past 2 weeks are the peeling fingers and cracked mouth (yet again!). Cracked mouth seems to come back with a vengeance whenever I lack in sleep (ALWAYS). it's more about the quantity than quality of sleep for me, so even if I've had the worst sleep of my life, if I sleep 8 hours then my mouth seals up fine. The finger peeling may have been the case of the dishpan hands so I've decided to use dishwashers instead. The doc has told me that accutane will make healing take twice as long, so I'm hoping it will heal soon-ish.

Anyways, I just met with my dermatologist this morning. Few good news: 1. He has RXed the usual doses, but told me that this may be the last one. HOORAY! 2. He has declared that all deep-lying problems have disappeared and that these superficial ones will subside as well. 3. He has never treated a patient for more than 18 months (only one) and that most of his patients ended in 6 months and never had problems again.

So this means that I can probably finish the Accutane with these new doses...!! Will keep things updated more frequently.

April 1 - Day 121

I'm going to try to update at least once a week from now on since it is the last month of my Accutane (so I've been told).

I began my last monthly dose on Monday. I skipped Sunday not because I ran out, but because I forgot... It was a long day of sleeping off all the alcohol over the weekend celebrating one of my closest friend's birthday.

Lately I don't worry about how my face looks too much. Curiously enough, and I should have documented more frequently here for this, I am not experiencing hot flashes on my face out of showers as often as I used to, if any. For instance, this morning I took a pretty hot shower because it was too cold in Seattle... but I came out with barely any sensations on my face. I still use my CeraVe face moisturizer religiously after every shower but the random rashes that used to come up on my body and my arm are now completely gone.

As breakouts have gone, I do notice that my skin is as fragile and sensitive as ever. I get open wounds easily on simple cuts and if I ever hit my finger on an edge of the table, a chunk of skin comes off rather easily (and blood spilling ensues...) Dishpan hands come and go, simply because I can't NOT wash my hands after doing stuff and all wounds just take longer to heal.

Other long term problems include chapped lips (happens to all of us that use accutane) and cracked corner of mouth (this one came on around 2nd month of accutane and has been here ever since)

Longer recovery thing also goes with my energy and strength I think. I work out about 4-5 times a day lifting heavy weights, and even though I'm in a strength program, my numbers have gone up at a snail pace compared to how it should be. However, I'm hoping that once I'm off accutane my powers will come back...!

April 4 - Day 124

I woke up a couple days ago with slight blemishes on my forehead and I was worried that something had triggered it... But this morning it seems to have gone. It was small red marks (about 3-4) around my right temple and lower forehead area by the eyebrows. I think it may have something to do with the facewash. I ran out of my usual CeraVe and Cetaphil facewashes so I went to go get another one, but then I couldn't find either which was weird. I ended up picking Aveeno foaming wash.

I may have applied too much of that and caused some rashes. It is always hard to get used to applying the right amount of face wash when changing product.

April 14 - Day 134

I've been getting a few hairline pimples lately and drier skin overall once again. The weather's been crazy in Seattle (stretches of sunny, BBQ type days followed by heavy rainy days, with temperatures all over the place), so my skin's having tough time as well. Otherwise it is going really well. I'm surprised at how little "internal" side effects I've had. Sometimes I take the pills without eating and I don't feel a thing in my stomach.

The 2nd and hopefully final blood test is set for Friday and I should see the dermatologist next friday for what is hopefully a final check up on Accutane.

Glad all is going well. Would love to see before and after pics!

April 20 - Day 140

Last Friday I ended up doing the 2nd blood test. Those are always fun time to get out of the office for a bit, except the fasting beforehand. One interesting this was that the lab technician who drew my blood knew that I was there for accutane. I was very curious how she knew and she said that a lot of people come in. She also saw the improvements in my skin, which speaks to its effectiveness. Anyways, after the blood test, I ended up binge eating at the Mariners baseball game (lots of beer, garlic fries, etc.)

This Friday will be another dermatologist appointment, and I'm hoping he could get me off this finally so that I could say I finished it! I certainly won't miss the dry skin and cracked lips...

Sherri1225 - Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, the phone that I took the very first picture ("before") was lost in Vegas in February. I can't remember if my dermatologist took pictures or not (I can ask) or I can dig through my cloud to see if I stored it... As for the "after" picture I guess I can put one on after I'm officially off and then as updates for some time afterwards.

Updates...

Jan 14 - Day 44 (I need to start doing this to keep the count)

The breakouts on my forehead are healing and fading much faster. On another note, I've been getting strange rashes on my left wrist. I think I may have scratched it from itching while I was sleeping because it got worse overnight on Monday. It's been healing for the past couple of days so I should be good. It looks like this...

Otherwise everything is smooth! except my skin...

I also got that strange rash when I first started Accutane. I got it across my chest and on my arms. Glad I'm not the only one.

April 27 - Day 147

So the dermatologist says we should stay on one more month (more like 5 weeks since I have some leftovers from 5th month still)... Not sure if he just wanted to get through 6 months to complete it or if he saw something that didn't clear completely. It made me a little disappointing because I had a lot of summer plans for mid- to late-June and wanted to have some time to recover from Accutane before going out. It still puts me for completion by late May but a month of recovering skin would have helped for sure. I could use some extra cash that I wouldn't need to spend as well haha.

Anyways, not much updates besides the blood work checking out fine. Off to month 6!

May 7 - Day 157

I came back from Vegas over the weekend. It was a crazy weekend, full of events and of course the Fight of the Century that wasn't all that great. I think I went there unprepared as far as my skin goes. I put on sunscreen and generally tried to wash my face and moisturize whenever I can; but I just couldn't avoid my skin getting patches of bad red burns and getting really dry when I came back to Seattle. It also didn't help that I was sick the whole trip and still chose to drink anyways.

I've been sweating it out the past few days slowly recovering my body from the crazy weekend. Fortunately burns are fading away slowly but the skin is still somewhat patchy (mostly in my arms) and dry. I'm glad to be back to my most comfortable environment for my skin, where I know the stuff I'm using is working fine.

May 14 - Day 164

I've been slowly recovering from Vegas two weekends ago, and I can say the burns from the hot weather there is completely gone. Some eczema on the wrist has come back (haven't had those in a while), and one breatout spot on my forehead, near the hairline as well. I'm not sure if it's from the hair wax I've been using more often lately (new haircut requires pulling back hair).

May 19 - Day 169

I've noticed recently that I don't poop as much recently. This has been going on since last week. I don't feel constipated, but my stomach do hurt when I wake up in the morning. I'm not sure if I am developing some kind of stomach issues, but I am trying to drink water and stick with the medicine since I only have a couple weeks to go (also avoiding spicy food if possible). In the mean time, I'm looking into maybe taking fiber drinks temporarily if the problem persists...

August 5 - Day 247

It's been a long time since I last updated. Life was busy the last couple of months and I totally forgot about updating my log. Here's what's been happening since the last time:

- After 6 months, my doc decided that I needed continuous care, much to my chagrin. We had seen this as a 6-month regimen from the start and didn't seem to change course until 6 months passed. He determined that I had some minor breakouts that he's been monitoring and had not disappeared. I agreed that complete eradication is probably for the better.

- Since I mentioned the slowness in getting rid of the final few minor ones, he suggested upping the dose from 40 to 60mg a day. This meant 3 doses vs 2 doses. As it turned out, 90 doses of Amnesteem was the same price as 60 doses of Amnesteem. So costwise it did not really affect me at all. I said let's do it! So for the past two months I was on 90 doses per month.

- At the last appointment on 7/31, I was told to go off accutane finally!!!!!! He saw that I had no breakouts at all (didn't have one on my back for the chest anyways). Face was much better, although now it's time to think about the scars it left. When he said that I was so happy because the treatment has come to full circle. However, he has asked to monitor the situation for the next month to see if going off accutane would react negatively. I'm hoping for the best.

If I don't come back to this log, it probably means I am done with accutane. I hope to look for the regimen in the future to mediate the scarring that's left.