Day 135

Skin feeling a lot better today. For the first time, those megaspots I had on right cheek and right jaw have actually made real progress and are 99% flat now!

Day 136

Skin still looking good. Closed comedone count is down to about 5 which is amazing considering I started with hundreds and hundreds!

Been waking up with a bloody nose again since I started back up?

Day 139

Skin looking great  can™t wait to finish. Final few packets of the meds now. 

Day 140

Skin still looks and feels great. Its a battle to try not to touch it constantly!

I should have 10 days left but I only have 7 days worth of medication so Ill be finishing in a weeks time! Im so excited. My hair has gone particularly dry and coarse recently and Im so curious to see if this is relieved at all when I stop taking accutane

Day 141

Ive had threevery small pimples pop up on my right cheek today. Frustrating, but one of them at least is from the remnants of the megaspots that are still flattening, so I guess its not exactly new acne. Not feeling too bothered by it at the mo

Day 142

Bad day  the 3 spots on cheek have gotten bigger. 2 popped very easily, one didn™t, it just poured blood and now hurts  feeling very sorry for myself.

ive also had a hard lump pop up bottom right of chin  

Day 143

The main spot on right cheek is huge. It™s swollen so much and painful. No visible head, just red with a bit of green and nasty. Looks infected and like it will scar  lump on chin has got worse as well.

Ringing derms office later.

Day 144

Megaspot on cheek leaked greeney yellow pus last night! Its flatter now but keeps bleeding and I know it will scar.

lump on chin still huge with no head.

Derm squeezed me in tomorrow afternoon. She will take a look at this new flare up and see if it warrants a further prescription. Im torn between stopping and carrying on!

Day 145

Spots continue to flatten.

Today I went to visit my derm. She was about to prescribe more accutane but then suggested a topical with tretinoin in it as a compromise. I agreed (I hope I dont live to regret this decision!) and she prescribed Tetril which is part tretinoin, part Clindamycin.

ill be honest, Im slightly terrified at the thought of using a retinoid again but also weirdly optimistic that it could be a good maintenance cream long term? Mixed feelings.

Day 146

Well, here we are. I just popped my last two 20mg pills.

I have completely mixed feelings about it all.

My skin is okay, closed comedone count is still at about a 5 though so I dont think Im quite done purging.

I cant wait until the side effects wear off! But at a total dose of 5,840 Im just not sure its enough.

Day 3 post accutane

My skin is SO oily. This isnt to do with coming off accutane, either, its been oilythroughout my whole course. So weird!

Side effects wise, lips still very dry.

Skin wise, on day 1 post accutane I had a very small spot pop up on bridge of nose.

My skin isnt looking too clever around my left chin and jaw right now as I squeezed some of those remaining closed comedones that werent budging!

Apart from that, all good! Troublesome spots from last weekhave completely flattened.

Day 4 post accutane

Chin still looking spotty due to squeezing of closed comedones. I think theyre done now so Im hoping to see them flattening down over next few days. Skin should then be clear!

lips still very dry today

Day 5 post accutane 

Skin still looking spotty around chin as as a result of squeezing Closed comedones in the area. I™ve been staying in a hotel this week with really bright lighting and I think I™ve got more closed comedones left than I originally thought

Lips are still really very dry. This relieves me as I hope it means accutane is still doing its thing and will clear all these inflamed comedones. 

Generally skin feels ridiculously smooth. 

getting slightly worried though - day 5 post accutane with non perfect skin  who would have thought?

Day 6 post accutane

I think the spots are starting to die down a bit now.

Lips are still very dry but they havent really peeled today: first time in a while!

Day 7 post accutane

The aftermath continues. There are still 5 closed comedones yet to come out around chin.They are SO stubborn. When I squeeze them, a little bit of hard pus comes out and nothing more. Then they just re fill themselves! The other two remaining arent even squeezable.

im annoyed, but not hugely concerned having read my second blog when the accutane carried on working weeks after Id finished.

Day 10 post accutane

Lips are getting drastically better now. I woke up this morning with normal looking lips, still havent applied any balm yet! I feel like this has more or less happened overnight.

Skin feels so smooth and amazing. I still have three or four stubborn closed comedones that just refill when squeezed though!

Day 12 post accutane

Lips feel nearly back to normal! I keep forgetting to apply lip balm in the morning as my lips dont feel like they need it?

My chin is speckled in red dots. These are where Ive squeezed closer comedones. Some of these marks are now flat and fading, but there are a few that are still active and so stubborn no matter what.

also, concerningly, ive had two (albeit TINY!) whiteheads pop up near my mouth!! Hmmm!

Day 16 post accutane

Hi everyone. So the pasttwo or three days lip wise have been perfect: been waking up and not even having to apply any balm whatsoever!? Only applying twice a day. However today they seem a little dryer for some reason, Ive applied balm about 5 times or so.

Skin: still good, but some concerns. Closed comedones still not budging (5 or so stubborn ones). Stuff comes out when squeezed, but they just refill. I have also had a weird clogged pore come up on my nose which is such a weird place to get acne for me, so not sure what thats about!

Your condition will still continue to improve when off Accutane. Give it a couple more months to work on your skin.

I never actually stopped breaking out when on Accutane or have I yet stopped, but instead of getting 10 new spots a week, it's more like 2 and they go away quickly. Don't be disheartened. Things will get better.

17 hours ago, jPablo said:

Your condition will still continue to improve when off Accutane. Give it a couple more months to work on your skin.

I never actually stopped breaking out when on Accutane or have I yet stopped, but instead of getting 10 new spots a week, it's more like 2 and they go away quickly. Don't be disheartened. Things will get better.

Thank you  always nice to get that reassurance.

Day 20 post accutane 

I had two very, very small whiteheads pop up above mouth yesterday.

Nothing else to report. 

Day 22 post accutane

The two small whiteheads are going. The stubborn closed comedones are still around, bar one which I think is finally going after constant squeezing for probably 9+ MONTHS!

My hair as of yesterday is feeling softer, but I have no idea if this is because of coming off accutane or use of new hair products!

Starting second course of Accutane this week so ended up back on here..

For somebody that's been on 3 courses of acc and probably dealt w acne a long time (as have i) I'm surprised that in almost every one of your updates youre mentioning picking at or squeezing spots haha isn't thatthe number 1 no no

'constant squeezing for 9+ months' ahahaha WAAAAAAAAAA

8 weeks post accutane

Hi everyone, sorry for delay! So last few weeks ive been living in that post accutane bliss when your skin is clear and you dont need to worry about your products, diet, stress... bla bla bla, because your skin still looks great!

Dont get me wrong, Ive had spots since but theyve been very VERYsmall whiteheads that come and go by themselves quickly.

One issue Ive noticed recently that may well have been there towards the end of my accutane course is spots on upper arms (weird spots, not acne) which I think is called chicken skin probably as a result of dry skin from the accutane. Hope it clears soon!

Great news! Congrats

On 8/27/2019 at 11:02 AM, jPablo said:

Great news! Congrats

Thanks Pablo.

10 weeks post accutane.

Im not having the best time right now. Last week (and the tail end of the week before that) I had very small whiteheads pop up one after another: one above lip, one below lip, and two on chin. They were small and disappeared very quickly so at any one time I only had one active one.

However, today I™m on vacation and feel my jaw and feel a huge, flesh coloured, slightly itchy bump? A little tender to touch. Now it may not be acne at all, but it feels a heck of a lot like those pea sized bumps I used to get along my jaw that took ages to budge and never really came to anything.

Whilst inspecting this bump in the hotel mirror (lighting is very unforgiving), I notice two closed comedones also on left jaw. I squeezed one. The other isn™t squeezable but I can clearly see œstuff in it.

Getting slightly worried. The whiteheads I could handle but what if I™m relapsing into closed comedones?

The only positive I have to say is that I finally have an NHS Derm appt in a few weeks, a year nearly after I went to the doctor for help.