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From what I understand, Accutane keeps working for a while even after your last dose. My pharmacist just refilled my Rx and I am now taking 60mg's a day of Amnesteem, up from 40mgs a of Clavaris. I was expecting more dryness but the opposite seems to be happening. Is there anything behind me wondering if Amnesteem isn't as effective as Clavaris? Or should I just be glad the dryness is gone?
Thanks.
To fotoguy. After all the research I did, I havent seen anything that states Amnesteen doesnt work as well as claravis or visa versa. i have seen different side effects though.
Weel 11. So about day 80 or so. Sorry everyone have not been here in ages, mostly because nothing much has changed, everytime things look like they are getting better, 3 days later things look worse again. Today he has about 10 new active from 3 days ago, although they are not huge cysts, they are like just red and huge or white and huge and you can see them from under the skin. What makes it look even worse is the "accutane blush". the skin looks pretty bad and the healing rate is bad also. he was very depressed today> i tiried to stay positive and tell him that since hes on $0mg it will take twice as long to see results. Not that 40 mg is anything to sneeze at. He has his drs appt in a few days so we will check cholesterol again. I hope its as good as last time.
I hope everyone is doing well and their faces are looking better. Be gone acne, be gone!
Mosey mom,
I ran across this forum while looking into isotretenoin because my 17 year old son has just started taking it. I have an older daughter who has taken it before, the first time at age 15 and then again recently. She is 20 now. She had great results and, as of now, no lasting side effects.
My son is on day 20 and is going through the initial breakout period and has a lot of drying and chapped lips. His dosage started at 70 mg per day, but after hearing his complaints of knee and back pain, I began to search online for more info. He is a student athlete and is having a hard time with practicing through the pain. I contacted our derm on day 17 and he reduced the dosage from 70 mg to 40 mg. We go back for blood work at the end of next week.
Being immersed in other web sites containing all sorts of horrible things concerning these side effects, I was so happy run across your posts! Many of your posts concerning feelings about your son, his moodiness, and "looks" he gives you are just like what I am experiencing now with my son! If fact, we are amusingly the same as moms trying to take care of our boys!
I have had my son read some of the posts to help him know he is not the only one dealing with this issue. Many of the responses from others have been great for me to read also and I will be following along to see how it goes with you. Praying for great results with no harmful effects!
Mosey mom,
I ran across this forum while looking into isotretenoin because my 17 year old son has just started taking it. I have an older daughter who has taken it before, the first time at age 15 and then again recently. She is 20 now. She had great results and, as of now, no lasting side effects.
My son is on day 20 and is going through the initial breakout period and has a lot of drying and chapped lips. His dosage started at 70 mg per day, but after hearing his complaints of knee and back pain, I began to search online for more info. He is a student athlete and is having a hard time with practicing through the pain. I contacted our derm on day 17 and he reduced the dosage from 70 mg to 40 mg. We go back for blood work at the end of next week.
Being immersed in other web sites containing all sorts of horrible things concerning these side effects, I was so happy run across your posts! Many of your posts concerning feelings about your son, his moodiness, and "looks" he gives you are just like what I am experiencing now with my son! If fact, we are amusingly the same as moms trying to take care of our boys!
I have had my son read some of the posts to help him know he is not the only one dealing with this issue. Many of the responses from others have been great for me to read also and I will be following along to see how it goes with you. Praying for great results with no harmful effects!
Thank you Mom too, its good to know I'm not alone..although I'm sure this is not something we would wish on anyone else. His dr has prescribed him some antibiotics and said that things are going rather slow. Neither of us wants the mg raised because of the cholesterol. We haven't filled the prescription for the antibiotics yet because I have read mixed reviews, but we may do so on Monday. It didnt help that the dr admitted things were going slow. He will be done with his third month in another week and a half. I also had my son watch some YouTube videos. That might help your son too. That way they can get tips without us nagging them to apply lotion or Chapstick lol. Please keep us updated. I will check out some of your posts.
I know the slow progress must be frustrating for you and your son. Hopefully things will look better soon!
Since starting the isotretenoin, my son has had several complaints that he normally does not have. The dosgae was reduced after the first two weeks from 70 mg to 40 mg per day, but he has continued to have back pain, knee pain, tightening in his chest, and then last night he woke up with a nose bleed. He is convinced that all of these things are from the medicine and I have to say that I feel he may be correct. He said that he may want to stop taking it. We go back to the derm in the morning to have his blood work done after his first month of treatment.
So far, his acne has not shown much improvement, maybe a little, but I do feel like it will improve if the treatment continues.
Right now, I feel like stopping the treatment might be the best decision for my son because he just seems worried about these ailments and so am I. As I said before, my daughter has completed two courses of treatment with no problems. But it may not be right for everyone, so tomorrow we will decide what to do from here.
Does anyone know of any alternatives to the isotretenoin treatment that are somewhat effective?
It's good your son is breaking out bad....the worse the better imo......I went to Rush Dermatology in Chicago (one of the best in IL) and my derm said I was the 2nd worst patient he's ever had out of hundreds (embarrassing yea)......During my Accutane duration, i broke out baddddd twice (1 month after taking it, then 3 months after, not to mention other weird things).......for the last 2 years later my face is clear! it's quite unbelievable.......the worse the break outs the better it is in the future, the body is getting it all out
Mosey mom,
I ran across this forum while looking into isotretenoin because my 17 year old son has just started taking it. I have an older daughter who has taken it before, the first time at age 15 and then again recently. She is 20 now. She had great results and, as of now, no lasting side effects.
My son is on day 20 and is going through the initial breakout period and has a lot of drying and chapped lips. His dosage started at 70 mg per day, but after hearing his complaints of knee and back pain, I began to search online for more info. He is a student athlete and is having a hard time with practicing through the pain. I contacted our derm on day 17 and he reduced the dosage from 70 mg to 40 mg. We go back for blood work at the end of next week.
Being immersed in other web sites containing all sorts of horrible things concerning these side effects, I was so happy run across your posts! Many of your posts concerning feelings about your son, his moodiness, and "looks" he gives you are just like what I am experiencing now with my son! If fact, we are amusingly the same as moms trying to take care of our boys!
I have had my son read some of the posts to help him know he is not the only one dealing with this issue. Many of the responses from others have been great for me to read also and I will be following along to see how it goes with you. Praying for great results with no harmful effects!
Mosey mom,
I ran across this forum while looking into isotretenoin because my 17 year old son has just started taking it. I have an older daughter who has taken it before, the first time at age 15 and then again recently. She is 20 now. She had great results and, as of now, no lasting side effects.
My son is on day 20 and is going through the initial breakout period and has a lot of drying and chapped lips. His dosage started at 70 mg per day, but after hearing his complaints of knee and back pain, I began to search online for more info. He is a student athlete and is having a hard time with practicing through the pain. I contacted our derm on day 17 and he reduced the dosage from 70 mg to 40 mg. We go back for blood work at the end of next week.
Being immersed in other web sites containing all sorts of horrible things concerning these side effects, I was so happy run across your posts! Many of your posts concerning feelings about your son, his moodiness, and "looks" he gives you are just like what I am experiencing now with my son! If fact, we are amusingly the same as moms trying to take care of our boys!
I have had my son read some of the posts to help him know he is not the only one dealing with this issue. Many of the responses from others have been great for me to read also and I will be following along to see how it goes with you. Praying for great results with no harmful effects!
and "Mosey Mom" for what its worth (taking into consideration bodies work differently) i was 150 lbs 6 feet tall wen I took accutane. My dosage was 40mgs the first 2 months, then I made my derm up it to 80 for the rest of the time to get all the acne out of me. Don't think deeply into the "horrible things" accutane causes. What it mostly causes is depression and anxiety because you're going thru the worst break outs ever. I even received a gram negative infection on my face with all the bacteria coming out so fast! my derm has barely ever seen that! but back to "horrible things" it causes, my derm was telling me how the pregnancy issues hold it back from becoming a life changing medicine for people. 2 years later, i agree with his statement
I know the slow progress must be frustrating for you and your son. Hopefully things will look better soon!
Since starting the isotretenoin, my son has had several complaints that he normally does not have. The dosgae was reduced after the first two weeks from 70 mg to 40 mg per day, but he has continued to have back pain, knee pain, tightening in his chest, and then last night he woke up with a nose bleed. He is convinced that all of these things are from the medicine and I have to say that I feel he may be correct. He said that he may want to stop taking it. We go back to the derm in the morning to have his blood work done after his first month of treatment.
So far, his acne has not shown much improvement, maybe a little, but I do feel like it will improve if the treatment continues.
Right now, I feel like stopping the treatment might be the best decision for my son because he just seems worried about these ailments and so am I. As I said before, my daughter has completed two courses of treatment with no problems. But it may not be right for everyone, so tomorrow we will decide what to do from here.
Does anyone know of any alternatives to the isotretenoin treatment that are somewhat effective?
Hi Mom Too, the side effects your son is feeling is def from the accutane. Try having the derm lower him to 20 mg a day, before you decide to stop. FYI Nosebleeds are pretty common though and is caused by the accutane drying the body out. My son puts a little vaseline in his nose at night and drinks a ton of water and no more nosebleeds. Before you do anyt hing have your son drink more waters. Drinking water is very important and also helps with the joint pain. I could tell if he wasnt drinking enough because I could tell his back was sore when he would get up from lying down or sitting in one position too long. he sprained his wrist a few weeks back and still has to wear a wrist wrap. The dr told him that yes this is all a part of the accutane and would clear up as soon as he finished treatment.
if you are still determined to stop the accutane there is another alternative. I draw a blank now on the name of the treatment (maybe someone here can chime in) but I believe it has to do with applying vitamin A to the face and using a light therapy. I will research it some more and post it.
It's good your son is breaking out bad....the worse the better imo......I went to Rush Dermatology in Chicago (one of the best in IL) and my derm said I was the 2nd worst patient he's ever had out of hundreds (embarrassing yea)......During my Accutane duration, i broke out baddddd twice (1 month after taking it, then 3 months after, not to mention other weird things).......for the last 2 years later my face is clear! it's quite unbelievable.......the worse the break outs the better it is in the future, the body is getting it all out
Mike09 thank you for the words of encouragement, right now it means more to me than you know. In fact its been all the words of encouragement here that has kept me positive for my son. I am so sorry to hear that the dr said you were one of the worst , but so glad you are clear and doing well. I think may son may have an infection also. The derm said he def needs to take two antibiotics to help clear up because it was so bad. They also gave him more cortisone shots. he said that things should have been looking better by now and has rarely ever had a patient go so slowly on treatment. (i think this also has to do with the fact that they give most of their patientss 80 mgs a day and my son can only tolerate 40 mg a day). I am keeping my fingers croosed and will update everyone if i see any changes while on antibiotics> Just incase anyone is having the same problems down the road they can read this and hopefully this helps them in their journey.
Just wanted to update everyone, when I got home today my son was in good spirits. The antibiotics seem to have made a difference over night and things looked better this afternoon. I hope it stays on this path, as things have looked up before. Just before they got bad again. Will keep everyone updated.
Mosey Mom, glad to hear that thinks are looking better. Hopefully you will see more improvement very soon! Thanks for info on side effects and drinking more water. I will definitely have him add more water and see if that helps.
Mike09, thanks for the info. My son is almost the exact same size you were when you began taking it.
Derm visit on Friday went well. He was very encouraging and reassuring and so we have all decided to continue the treatment at 40mg per day. May have to extend treatment longer than first anticipated because of lower dosage. Could possibly up the dosage at some point. Blood work results came today and everything is good! Glad for that!
Funny that my son told the doctor that I was the one worried about everything, not him! Not true, I just try and pay attention when he says something hurts so that we stay on top of things. Guess I need to keep my thoughts to myself so that I don't put worry in my son's head every time he has a pain somewhere!
Doc said he thought my son's face was showing improvement. Some days I think so too, some days not! We will see what happens from here!
Hi mom too , I am laughing because my son initially told his cute girl PA almost the same thing . Yes I am a worrywart but he had questions too lol. I learned to come here and expressy concerns because I also did not want to put things in his head. It is just us being moms. We are looking out for there best interest . We also thought things looked good then got bad again. I hope that your son improves. At first I would ask him everyday if there was improvement but since things just got worse and worse I stopped. Now I just wait for him to bring it up. Because I could tell my questions were bothering him. I did make a deal with him that if he was having any weird symptoms he would let me know and I would research.
i got a lot of acne scar...im suffer because the acne scar,now it about 6 year acne scar at my face,i use many product but nothing change at my face,now i want to use this product because i heard many said this product was so good,i just want to know which one among the products that are most suitable for me,can you give any suggestions?
Hi appleloli right now we are not doing any treatments for acne scarring. This is a thread for accutane the acne treatment. I have heard that laser worls for acne scarring. Check with your derm for suggestions. If you just have dark spots you should try an over the counter skin lightner.
Update my son has been on antibiotics for about 4 days now. Things look so much better. I don't see any new acne and the ones he did have , have cleared up about 90 %. I would say this is the best his skin has looked since he started accutane over 3 months ago. I hope the acne oesnt come back after finishing the bactrim and prednisone .
Things still seem about the same. Looked better yesterday, doesn't seem to look better today. My son has been going about his sports activities and working a job that is also somewhat hard physically and has not been complaining of any back or joint pain. Not sure if pain has subsided with lower dosage or if he has just gotten used to it and is not talking about it. Really wish things would improve soon. I think it would help encourage my son and assure us that we are making a good decision with the treatment.
Mosey Mom, I am sure things will get better and stay that way soon. We haven't had any antibiotics since starting the isotretenoin, only before, so we are not going through that at the moment. We had great results with my daughter, but I can't remember how long into it I would say we turned that corner of continuous improvement. I will have to ask her and see.
So glad our boys seem to be so much alike! It makes me feel like I am not so overprotective to know that you are having the same conversations that we are!
Hi MomToo. I know what you mean by one day it looks better and the next day bad again. That is what happened most of the past 3 months. Looks bad, then worse, same, same, not as red, worse again, drying up, worse, worse again, same, same, same, better, worse... I could go on and on lol . Ask ur son to write down the days he has pain. Sometimes it's hard to remember days later, my son sprained his wrist 6 weeks ago and it still hurts. He does construction so it is constantly irritated. I read it prob wont get better until he's off the meds . Because of the lower dose and how slow he's rogrrssing he won't be off there's until another 4 months now. Please keep us updated on your sons progress. You are not alone and there's nothing wrong with being overprotective. Just don't let them know it lol
My 13 year old daughter is on her 11th day of taking accutane 20mg.She weighs 110lbs..Her doctor said she starts her patients on a low dose and then gradually increases to avoid or minimize IB and other side effects. So far she has slightly dry lips and has complained about headaches for the past 4 days. I am thinking she needs to drink more water. I totally understand how worried the other moms are. I am such a worry wart. Ugh. I just want this to work for my daughter with as little side effects as possible. Everyday I am staring at her to see if the IB is starting. I am counting down the days.
Mosey Mom,
Somehow, I am expecting our progress to be slow like your sons too due to the lower dosage. I just keep hoping that one day it will look better and then better each day after that! Writing down pain days is a good idea! We may try that, but doubt my son will be thrilled about it! Haha! It is good to know I am not alone, it makes me feel so much better to be able to voice concerns here.
Smjour,
My son did start drinking more water at Mosey Mom's suggestion. He also drinks a lot of Gatorade when he is playing sports and working. The liquids seem to help. He has not complained of pain as much since, but I have quit asking so much because he didn't like me constantly asking him how he was!
My prayer since the start has been exactly what you said, please work with little or no side effects!
Good luck! Keep us posted on the progress!
Yes to both smjour and mom too, lots of water. It helps with the headaches because most people get headaches from dehydration and it helps lube the joints to help with pain.
Progress still slow. Four actives in total on the face, so we are close to preaccutane ( approx 6 actives) skin. With the exception of thin red skin and scars and that they are smaller. they are not huge like before or very cystic. they are just under the skin red bumps that eventually come oozing out. Man, accutane sure makes the skin red and thin. I think he's becoming a little disillusioned with the Accutane the past couple of days. I haven't asked him because like all the mothers on here know, they don't seem to be thrilled when you ask. But he seems a little down. I am going to keep an eye out, and see if he's interested in going somewhere this weekend, if he is things are not as bad as I think they are.
Mosey Mom
I know you are anxious for things to improve, as am I. Most all of the end results I have heard of have been good as far as clearing up the acne.
Is there a possibility that it does not work for some people? I had not even thought of that until I read your last post and began thinking...
My son's breakout is still as bad as ever. We are in about week 7 of treatment.