Day 23 - I spent all day in the sun yesterday and made sure to wear sun protection. I was still worried about getting burnt, but I was fine. The pimple on my lip is still really angry and is getting pretty dried out and swollen. I have actually been taking mortin to keep the swelling down. My whole upper lip with swell up. My face was a little rough this morning. I noticed alot of blackheads that I havnt noticed before, possibly they were deep down and they are starting to surface. All in all been a good few days.
I started taking my pills every 36 hours to get 80mg in my system ever 3 days(26.6mg/day), and eventually work up to 40 mg a day like when I started. I went down because the side effect were hitting me pretty hard. While I was on 20 mg a day, I really noticed a difference in my mood as well. Literally 2 days at 26.6 mg a day I noticed my mood getting more depressive. It could be this pimple on my lip though. Nothing gets me as angry as stuff wrong with my mouth, just because you use it so much, Its painful. Anyways, my face is still doing ok, no crazy breakouts, I will be very lucky if the breakout I got on day 9-12 was my initial breakout.
I am still flaky as all hell. My scalp has calmed down a bit, its not a flaky but it still gets little dandruff all the time. I will go to work after getting all the dry skin flakes off and within 2 hours I will go check and there are flakes again. I have been using cerave PM moisturizer, which is a pretty light moisturizer. I will move up to the cetaphil once the oil production has totally stopped. It is at about 50% right now.
Day 25 - Played a golf tournament yesterday and was out in the sun from 8am to 3pm, kept the long sleeves on and I bought a big wide brim bucket hat. Applied spf 55 twice, I didn't get burnt which is good. I did have a beer after the round and I felt it the rest of the day, instant headache. I woke up this morning with a headache like I was hung over....all from one beer.
Getting my blood drawn tomorrow morning, appointment with the nurse in the acne department will be Wednesday morning. I have been staying at 26.6 mg a day. I'm assuming they will want me to up my dose. Even if they want me to I think I will slowly increase it. Due to my job, I really don't want to go through another breakout.
Day 26 - I had my blood test this morning. hoping that everything comes back normal. Last time I had my blood drawn my cholesterol was a little high. Nothing new to report, still have the big spot on my lip but it is dried out and just a big red mark, it wont come to head, it will probably harden up and just crust off. Then I will probably get a cold sore from it. I have a couple of very small ones that arent even inflamed, they are just little white heads. You cant even see them unless you look closesly and they wash off when I wash my face.
Like alot of people I have read, I am getting massive amounts of plugs coming out of all of my pores, all over my face and head. If I see a big one I can pull it out of the pore and it leaves a big hole. Im getting this is my skin shedding all the dead skin and gunk in my pores.
Skin starting to get very dry, and my scalp and beard are getting very flaky again.
Day 27 - I got my blood test results and all the numbers are actually better than before I was on Accutane, so I think it's safe to say the doctor doesn't have any concerns. I have my appointment tomorrow morning with the nurse and I will ask her about my seborrhea and see what the doctor thinks.
Woke up this morning and my face looked really good, no real actives that I can see except for the one on my upper lip. It is totally on its way out and is shrinking really quickly. It will be red and leave a mark for a while. It never did come to head, it was just a deep inflamed one I guess.
Yesterday I was a lot more flaky than normal. I did have a beer on Saturday, and I'm wondering if the gluten in the beer has anything to do with it. I have been pretty much gluten free for the most part since November 1st.
Day 28 - Have my doctors appointment this morning in an hour. I will update with what they say. I had 2 very small spots come up last night, they were not there when I went to bed and they were already fully formed little white heads when I woke up. I'm not even going to mess with them because they are so small. Skin is drying out a lot.
Good and detailed log! Good luck~
Also, has your skin always been oily? In the first post you said that it has been at its oiliest as far as you can remember. I am guessing if you did have oily skin before, the accutane reduced it, but it came back after you went off the treatment?
7 hours ago, Vermilion said:Good and detailed log! Good luck~
Also, has your skin always been oily? In the first post you said that it has been at its oiliest as far as you can remember. I am guessing if you did have oily skin before, the accutane reduced it, but it came back after you went off the treatment?
My skin was always on the oily side, but after my second round of accutane which was 10 years ago, I don't think my skin ever got back to how oily it was before. I had to use cetaphil everyday for the last 10 years. It is within the last year or so that my oiliness came back. The doc thinks that this might keep the oil at bay for an extended period even after off the drug.
Day 29 - Ok I will use this day to go over how my Derm appointment went. With Kaiser you don't have to see the actual dermatologist to refill your prescription. They have an acne clinic where all the nurses and derms do is deal with acne patients. My nurse was super helpful and was much better at answering questions than my derm ever was. Plus the acne clinic is free, so that saves $30 a month. My blood test came back really good, better than before the treatment, so the nurse said I don't have to get my blood drawn next month, which is cool/weird. I told her how I have been taking the drug and she suggested not to increase the dose because i was experiencing some seborrheic dermatitis flare ups. She said I might just have to stay around 40mg a day for the treatment and it was totally up to me if I wanted to increase the dose. One really cool thing was the nurse gave me a brand new tube of aquaphor lip repair, which saves me $4 lol.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading this log and sending me private messages, if you ever have any questions feel free to ask. I don't know everything, but I've been through this a few times so I'm here to help.
Day 30 - Skin is doing ok, I will recap.
I am back up to 40mg a day. One thing I changed is, I started taking my pill at night instead of in the morning. I like this a whole lot more than taking the pill in the morning. The reason for this is, I feel like there are some effects that take place right after I take the medication. If I take it a night, these things happen while I am asleep, so it doesn't bother me. Its also a lot easier to get a big fatty meal in at night.
My seborrheic dermatitis has not gotten much better. My patches that I get around my nose have improved, but my scalp is still very flaky. The derm also said that the seb derm could be going away and you could just be experiencing dry flaky skin from the accutane. The dryness is unavoidable.
I had a little flare up on day 9-12 and those lasted a week or so, I still have the red marks from that breakout. It seems that some days my red marks will be super red and indented and other days they will look like they are barely there. I can honestly say that if my skin looked like this the rest of my life, I would be happy.
On 2/4/2016 at 7:03 AM, Jones4545 said:Day 29 - Ok I will use this day to go over how my Derm appointment went. With Kaiser you don't have to see the actual dermatologist to refill your prescription. They have an acne clinic where all the nurses and derms do is deal with acne patients. My nurse was super helpful and was much better at answering questions than my derm ever was. Plus the acne clinic is free, so that saves $30 a month. My blood test came back really good, better than before the treatment, so the nurse said I don't have to get my blood drawn next month, which is cool/weird. I told her how I have been taking the drug and she suggested not to increase the dose because i was experiencing some seborrheic dermatitis flare ups. She said I might just have to stay around 40mg a day for the treatment and it was totally up to me if I wanted to increase the dose. One really cool thing was the nurse gave me a brand new tube of aquaphor lip repair, which saves me $4 lol.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading this log and sending me private messages, if you ever have any questions feel free to ask. I don't know everything, but I've been through this a few times so I'm here to help.
I was with Kaiser as well and pretty much have the exact same experience as you. I have like a bag full of free samples they gave to me.
52 minutes ago, Vermilion said:I was with Kaiser as well and pretty much have the exact same experience as you. I have like a bag full of free samples they gave to me.
Kaiser is good and bad. They are bad becasue every patient is pretty much just a number. They are good becasue I havnt had a problem getting an appointment or having my doctor not email me back.
I think a private dermatologist is more likely to tailor your procedure to fit your particular circumstance, where Kaiser is a one size fits all.
Day 33 - The last couple of days have been good. Nothing new to report, I spend 6 hours in the sun Saturday and 5 hours yesterday. No sun burns, I have been staying up on the sunscreen though. Skin is really dry all over. I spend a good 3-4 minutes in the morning putting moisturizer all over. My seborrheic dermatitis is not too bad at all right now. I have not had a breakout on my face in a couple of weeks.
The most annoying part of the dry skin is when it gets hot out, which I live in SoCal, so it was 80 degrees yesterday. My whole body starts itching because of the dry skin. It's so annoying, and if you start scratching it just gets worse.
I had some wine yesterday, so I didn't take a pill. I am still on 40 mg a day.
day 35 - Nothing new. I did skip a pill on Sunday night because I had a few glasses of wine. The next 2 days my skin was noticeably more oily. Can it really work that fast? I have added a step to my routine recently. I moisturize right out of the shower and then I have to moisturize again right before leaving the house, my skin dries out that fast.
Day 36 - My skin has become much more dry. My face has stayed oily, but the rest of my body has become very dry and flaky. I have to put a lot of moisturizer on once I get out of the shower to not look like a lizard. Still have really bad dandruff but it seems my seborrheic dermatitis around my face has calmed down a lot, I have not used hydrocortisone for a good week/week and a half. Black heads still being pushed out and I am still getting very tiny white heads. Non inflammatory ones that you can just pick off the skin.
I must have had some really deep clogged pores around my mouth because I am getting these very large plugs from 3-4 pores that are just pushing their way out, I have taken tweezers to a couple of them and they just come out like a cork.
4 hours ago, Vanbelle said:3 rounds of Accutane...I couldn't imagine! I couldn't even finish my first round, it just destroyed my health and skin. I hope it all works out for you
I'll be checking in here again.
I would consider this my second round, my real second round was short lived and was just used to clear up a little back acne. Spread out across 13 years, it isnt that bad. Thank you for the well wishes!
Day 37 - These past few days I have noticed joint pain. I have had joint pain in some degree my whole life from just living. Whether it is sitting too long, or golfing too much or lifting weights or running, Ive had joint pain. But these past few days the joint pain has been very different and much more sharp. I am used to a dull joint pain, but these past few days it has come on very intense and sharp and will go away after a few minutes. Im assuming this has to do with the medication because I havnt been doing any strenuous activities.
Skin looks good
Thanks for the detailed log and for keeping it real. Are you still just using the Cerave PM moisturizer? What about for the morning?
I noticed you were put on 40 mg daily at first. I was too (just took first dose today) but I weight much less than you and am much shorter (115 / 5'6). I wonder the logic behind that.
Anyway, good luck!
1 hour ago, Stephen23 said:Thanks for the detailed log and for keeping it real. Are you still just using the Cerave PM moisturizer? What about for the morning?
I noticed you were put on 40 mg daily at first. I was too (just took first dose today) but I weight much less than you and am much shorter (115 / 5'6). I wonder the logic behind that.
Anyway, good luck!
The healthcare system that I have here in California pretty much prescribes the same amount to everyone. They think it's a one size fits all approach. 40 mg is pretty low dose for me, I should be at 80 mg right now, but I don't want to increase any side effects.
Day 39 - Nothing new to report. My skin has been the same for the past week or so. I have really dried out recently. My whole body is super dry and I have to constantly moisturize my hands or I look like a lizard. When I wake up my face is very flakey and full of dry skin. My scalp has been very dry as well, I can see now how people go days without washing their hair. My is not oily at all. I still have bad dandruff, but it's manageable. My scalp is still very itchy if the temperature goes up. If I feel like I'm about to sweat my scalp feels like someone is pricking it with needles. I am tempted to go try the Scalpicin that the acne nurse recommended.
I have still been getting very tiny white heads, they will come up and be completely gone within a day. Some of them if I just brush them with a tissue they will pop and go away. Very strange.
On 2/15/2016 at 2:50 PM, WittySock said:I'm pretty new to this forum, and I just wanted to say its really nice to read your log. You seem very down to earth and rational about everything, which is great to see. I'll def be following the rest of your log.
Thank you for the kind words. As down to earth and as rational as I am, I still get emotional over my acne. Its crazy what something as superficial as acne can do to your attitude. It is probably the most common skin condition out there and it is totally normal, but when I have a breakout it feels like I am an alien and everyone is looking at me. Thank you for the follow and I hope in some way my log can help.
Cheers!
Day 43 - So my skin has just become more dry and my lips have become more and more chapped. I thought I was getting a cold sore the other day because my whole lip was swollen and puffy on one side. I have no idea what it was but it ended up calming down. I think its just from my lips being supppppppper chapped all the time. I have gone through 3 tubes of aquaphor and its only day 43. My skin has been very dry and I am still dealing with very persistent dandruff. I will say I have still not had to use any hydrocortisone on my face at all for a couple of weeks now. So all is good in the world. I hope you all have a great rest of your week.
Andrew
Hey Jones4545, just wanted to say that I so understand the getting emotional over acne. The first thing I do every morning is look in the mirror, and I hate that I start my day that way--usually by stressing about what new zits have cropped up overnight, and by feeling ugly. It really does take a toll, and I can't wait to not feel like I have to look at my skin every day.
Thanks for writing all of this. I'm about a month behind you, and I see that my current breakout corresponded to your breakout (day 9/10 ish) so we may have similar patterns.