On 23/11/2015, 23:20:36, Isogirl123 said:

Sorry to see you have had such bad luck on Roaccutane! Joint issues is one of my biggest fears with this drug and I agree with you, joint problems are not worth it for clear skin.

I reacted terribly to Epiduo also, lasted a week and had to come off it, broke out in itchy rash all over face, awful! I found Skinoren OK but it certainly didn't clear acne  

Someone told me about something called Light Therapy - it's new and some interesting stuff online. It's by Leo  who do loads of derma stuff may be worth asking dermatologist about although I suspect it will only be available privately and v expensive.  Not sure if you or anyone else for that matter has heard about it?

Been off it for almost 2 weeks and my Joints are more or less back to normal, still a few twinges in my knees when working out but I honestly feel so much better just generally since being off it, definitely not for me, I hope you have better luck haha! If you do start getting joint/tendon pain don't take it lightly, way too many stories of people that let it go on too long! But you seem to be tolerating it well so hopefully it's all smooth sailing!

Yeah I have heard of light therapy, IPL etc. I don't think my Derm offers it but there are quite a few 'Cosmetic' places near me to get it done but yep very expensive! 

The Paulas Choice seems to be working fairly well for me (Cleanser, 2% BHA exfoliant and 5% BP spot treatment), active pimples dried right up, red marks lessened and havn't had a new breakout since starting it, will be staying on the antibiotic too as I seem to be tolerating it pretty well. So I am planning on just doing what I'm doing for the next couple months and see where it gets me, thinking about experimenting with a AHA peel or something once my skin has adjusted to the new potions haha

Good Luck with it all 🙂

5 hours ago, gms08 said:

 

Been off it for almost 2 weeks and my Joints are more or less back to normal, still a few twinges in my knees when working out but I honestly feel so much better just generally since being off it, definitely not for me, I hope you have better luck haha! If you do start getting joint/tendon pain don't take it lightly, way too many stories of people that let it go on too long! But you seem to be tolerating it well so hopefully it's all smooth sailing!

Yeah I have heard of light therapy, IPL etc. I don't think my Derm offers it but there are quite a few 'Cosmetic' places near me to get it done but yep very expensive! 

The Paulas Choice seems to be working fairly well for me (Cleanser, 2% BHA exfoliant and 5% BP spot treatment), active pimples dried right up, red marks lessened and havn't had a new breakout since starting it, will be staying on the antibiotic too as I seem to be tolerating it pretty well. So I am planning on just doing what I'm doing for the next couple months and see where it gets me, thinking about experimenting with a AHA peel or something once my skin has adjusted to the new potions haha

 

Good Luck with it all 🙂

Hey that's great you have found something that works  long may it last. Acne is such a curse! Never heard of paulas choice. I was on Lymecyline for 6 months before the iso and it did clear quite a lot of my skin, I had massive breakout about  a month in though skin was woeful but then cleared.  Was just cheeks that really persisted and forehead was still bumpy. 

That lighttherapy isnt actually IPL it's a totally new thing if you google Leo pharma light therapy you can read about  it (I don't work for Leo, lol)  Probably just as expensive though! 

Yeah so far OK with the iso but started 40 mg yday so shall see how it goes now... eek. If I have to give up sports I'll go crazy :/

Best of luck!  🙂

So it's been about 9 months since i last posted.

3 x PDT treatments kept everything kind of under control but It's been a few months since the last one and the breakouts only seem to be getting worse. Deffinelty seems to be a hormonal thing as breakouts seem to come with new facial hair growth.

Have been on Minocycline for the past three weeks, as a last ditch effort before giving Accutane another shot. I had to stop Accutane 3 weeks in because of joint pain and side effects hit me extremely fast at 20mg every second day but thinking back i did stupidly start a workout programme around the same time and was doing barbell squats, so could explain the fast onset knee pain.

The plan is to give Minocycline another 3 weeks (6 weeks all up) and if there are no signs of improvement I will be starting Accutane, very slowly at 10mg every second or third day.

Lifting weights and keeping fit is a massive part of my life so the Joint pain has me rattled but at this stage i am 100% willing to give up the gym for clear skin, this shit is relentless!