I've been on accutane since mid April, so almost 3 months now. I was on 40 mg the first month and 60 mg since then. I weigh around 165.
The good news is that so far, I have hardly had any side effects *knock on wood. I've had some fairly dry lips and dry skin, but overall everything has really been going great side effect wise. I am very grateful to have minimal side effects as I've read some of the horror stories and I'm pretty scared of them. I often take my dose and then completely forget I'm on it which is awesome. And yes, I am taking it with food.
What's really bothering me though is that I've been on accutane for almost three months, and it's practically done nothing for my skin. Up until about a week ago, I had a brief period of about 10-14 days of fairly flat skin with no actives (still a lot of red marks though). I was pretty excited about this as I thought it must be finally doing something. But about a week ago I started breaking out again, and I still have a few things coming up every other day or so since then.
Did this happen to anybody else during their course? I almost want to say to my derm why am I even taking it? My skin is really dry (yes I'm moisturizing) which makes it look worse, and I'm still breaking out a decent amount.
If anyone can give any insight I'd really like to hear. Hopefully this is pretty normal and I will be clear soon. It's just frustrating to be on it for this long and really not see any improvement.
The thing that I've learned about accutane from reading a bunch of blogs and logs on here is that the reactions vary a lot. The most constant thing though, is that just about everyone ends up clear. How long they stay clear is another story but for the most part, people have really good results by the end of the course and way beyond. Just enjoy not having side effects and maybe ask the dr to up the dosage at your next appointment. Some people would be ecstatic to have a two week period with no actives that early in their course. You should be fine.
I took me 5 months before I stopped getting new acne and I didn't get fully clear until near 6 months, but like Tim mentioned I did get clear. Like he also mentioned the results vary, I broke out 3 months after finishing my course. Super depressing, anywho my skin is manageable now though. Nothing ever ever cleared my acne, just accutane. I now take spiro and am treating my acne hormonally which is keeping me 98% clear but I don't think I'd be here without accutane first.
Hang in there and you'll see brighter days soon!