1 hour ago, JessicaE89 said:Hi girls,I'm glad I found this. Ugh!!! I am in the same exact boat. I am currently on month 3 (about 15 weeks). First of all, my dermatologist will only prescribe me with two weeks worth of medication at a time, and checks my bloodwork every two weeks so it's a constant to and from doctors. But I get it-Accutane can really change your body and they're keeping me safe. At first I was so happy with the results-not because of the clear skin but because I was less oily. Well ....I'm on week 15 and my face is so broken out. My hair is so dry because I'm not producing oil and it's so brittle and I don't know what to do! I'm starting to develop little dry patches of skin on random places like my arm, my hands, behind my ears! I'm wondering how much longer they'll keep me on this stuff before they call it quits. I'm terrified this won't work and I'll have to live with bad skin forever I've been upped to 80mgs a day (40mgs am/pm). My acne was never bad-it was just close d comedones that were under the skin and just sort of bumpy. But now I'm wondering if I made a mistake in taking this medicine!
Hi Jessica!! First off its better your derm is being safe. mine tested my blood once after my month 1 and then never tested it again and i questioned her about it and she said it didnt matter which i know is not true, i should have been getting monthly tests.
Anyways, so i wrote that post about a month ago and finished six whole months of accutane about 14 days ago. you can read my longer post about my experience with it, but it was a ride from hell for me. my derm said my closed comedones would clear right away and id have such an easy course....that was so false...not to mention prevented me from going back to college because of how bad it got. I broke out in severe cystic acne the ENTIRE 6 months. acne literally everywhere, when i only started with flesh colored bumps. I didnt notice any improvement in my skin until i stopped taking the medication. I thought in the first few months my comedones were purging, but by month 6 on 60 mgs yeah thats not purging anymore. Now my skin is healing and looking better and better every day. i have two healing spots and thats it. but while i was on it i kept breaking out and kept breaking out and no one could figure out why. Throughout my course i saw 10 different dermatologists...all of them said accutane would work theres nothing i can do....and after 6 months my skin still looked awful. They chalked it up to overdosing on accutane essentially...and actually causing inflammation with too much. So as soon as i started getting it out of my system, stuff is healing and I'm not getting anything new thank god and knock on wood. Im hoping from here i clear up for good.
My side effects were also from hell too. I used to have super super thick long beachy hair that took 4 pony tail holders to hold up...i lost 75% of my hair and still lose it daily even though I've stopped the medication two weeks ago. its horrific. my hairdresser asked me if i had cancer. Also, i got painful itchy eczema patches on my arms......id wake up and have scaly patches that were bleeding. bloody noses. peeling skin. burned skin. constant redness. bleeding lips. back pain. had to get a new glasses prescription because my eyesight changed THAT much with the dry eyes, constantly being a bitch, fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, you name it i had it.
so bottom line; ill be beyond happy if i clear up now and stay clear and it might be because i took the accutane and just had to stop taking it to see the benefits. However, if i were to have stayed on it my inflammation would have continued and i never would have stopped breaking out. sometimes too much is just too much...and its NOT always better...ESPECIALLY for closed comedones. a lot of people with mild/moderate acne do low dose longer term and don't experience the horror i went through. I had previously been on accutane for only 10 mg a day for just one or two cysts every few weeks and it cleared me from day 7 and i never had a pimple again or side effects, but my new derm said that the dose was too low the first time and thats why i developed this new closed comedone acne....so she said i needed a high dose. Given the success of my first treatment i didnt believe the horror stories people wrote about accutane....well now I've lived one. the entire time i was on it i was broken out terribly on top of the terrible side effects i had to endure. not clearing after all that caused a MASSIVE deal of depression. now that it appears I'm clearing I'm starting to feel more optimistic.
Month 3 however is still considered "early" and derms will likely tell you to wait out the 6 months because you've already come that far. i wish you all the luck with your course!:)
I have the EXACT. SAME. ISSUES. I love my hair. It's my crowning glory. Long, thick, natural hair, compliments all the time. Dream hair. Now, my hair is like straw. It's made me extremely sad. Plus, it is always falling out...so I totally understand why your hair dresser says its like a cancer patient.
I cut the ends to help repair it, but think I might go even shorter because of the damage. The damage has already been done. I am 27 years old and I am continuing with the medication only because I am getting married in July and I really want to be semi-normal by then. I am praying that this works, and if it doesn't....well at least I know I tried. Everyone tells me "oh, your acne isn't even that bad!" But to me it is...I always used to have perfect, glowing skin and I just wanted that back. I also have those little eczema patches, they're very weird but easily go away with this lotion called SkinFix Eczema...it really works wonders. I got it at CVS on whim and its worked better than anything I've tried before!
Thanks for your input. Keep me updated, I will continue to follow your page! This website really does help you get through times you feel down about skin issues and the medicine we take as well! <3
31 minutes ago, JessicaE89 said:I have the EXACT. SAME. ISSUES. I love my hair. It's my crowning glory. Long, thick, natural hair, compliments all the time. Dream hair. Now, my hair is like straw. It's made me extremely sad. Plus, it is always falling out...so I totally understand why your hair dresser says its like a cancer patient.
I cut the ends to help repair it, but think I might go even shorter because of the damage. The damage has already been done. I am 27 years old and I am continuing with the medication only because I am getting married in July and I really want to be semi-normal by then. I am praying that this works, and if it doesn't....well at least I know I tried. Everyone tells me "oh, your acne isn't even that bad!" But to me it is...I always used to have perfect, glowing skin and I just wanted that back. I also have those little eczema patches, they're very weird but easily go away with this lotion called SkinFix Eczema...it really works wonders. I got it at CVS on whim and its worked better than anything I've tried before!Thanks for your input. Keep me updated, I will continue to follow your page! This website really does help you get through times you feel down about skin issues and the medicine we take as well! <3
yeah so i definitely relate to you there! my dryness and eczema are gone now that I've stopped, just while on it was really bad. Like i said I'm improving now, but don't want to jinx myself! just these two awful healing spots still sticking around but ill keep you updated. Congrats on your wedding how exciting!!!