Well, I just got back from my dermatologist appointment and I got some "not so good" news.
It seems that my white blood cell count is becoming low. When I started my count was around 5.4 or something. The second month it dropped to a 3.6. Last appointment she did let me know about that but it wasn't that big of a deal at the time. She said she will be watching it but she upped my dose to two 30's a day. Now, I am at 3.4. She said there isn't a big difference between 3.6 and 3.4 but it is really getting low now and she asked if I had any infections on anything or if I am getting sick. I told her no, I have been feeling great. I haven't been sick since the first day I taken the pill if you all remember from my blog. No infections. She said okay well it should be from 4-10 and I am at 3.4 so she is going to be watching that. She prescribed me still, two 30's. Here is where it gets worse. She said next months blood test, if it's lower then she is going to pull me off Accutane for a month, see if I get a higher blood cell count and if so then she will put me back on Accutane with a smaller dose for a longer period of time.
This is horrible. I am so worried. I am worried about the low blood cell count and how I could get sick at any minute but I am worried even more about them taking me off Accutane. I DO NOT want off Accutane, I DO NOT want to break out with pimples anymore. I'm so stressed right now. It's funny how I was on top of the world today and now I feel like shit. Well, at least I get another month with taking this miracle drug.
I asked her if maybe it was my diet and I wasn't eating properly and she said no, Accutane tends to decrease blood cells, so we will have to wait and see.
What should I do guys? Do you think maybe it will stay around the same or can it get lower? Anyone ever hear of something like this or experience something like this?
Accutane can play with the immune system, it is well known. Please don't come off the drug to abruptly, i think accutane should be like steroids as in people should be weaned off it.
I personally would lower my dose now to 30 mg every day, saves you coming off the drug for a month.
Maybe even lower down to 30mg for a week, take a break for a week and then resume at 30 mg per day. Get your white blood cells up again, why wait to see how much worse they get and have to mess about with starting and stopping when you can just carry on at half the dose, which is still perfectly theraputic and will bring about immediate improvement in WBC count. Not to mention you will have a much lower chance of other side effects...
In case the OP ever reads this or anyone is similar situation is reading, I am a 31 yr old woman, I was on roaccutane once when I was 19. I had moderate acne, the drug worked well on me, I can't remember the dose but I believe it was probably a fairly moderate dose. Anyway, after about a month and a half the drug had perfected my skin, but my white blood cells were down, they were so low they were off the charts. The dermatologist back then said she'd never heard of white blood cells lowering due to roaccutane. By the way I'm in the UK and back then roaccutane was the brand name of the drug. Anyway, we went another couple of weeks and my white blood cell count dwindled to an alarmingly low number, so I had to be taken off the drug immediately. Fortunately the drug had pretty much done it's job, I was acne free. I stayed acne for over ten years. I've only just recently with high stress in mylife started having problems again, but not quite as bad as the first time, but bad enough for a new derm to suggest roaccutane. I'm trying Duac and trying to calm the f down lol. I think stress is the cause for me. I would love to go back on roaccutane but am frightened because it affected my WBC count so much. The dermatologist didn't have a white blood cell count for me before roaccutane, so no real way of tracing it back to the drug, but as I wasn't ill at all then I would say it was due to roaccutane, I don't even remember having so much as a cold back then. The good news is, I've been prety healthy for ten years since, after coming off roaccutnae my WBC increased only a little (it was still off the charts low) but they were happy with the increase and didn't bother monitoring it. I have never (knock on wood) had any major illness or lots of viruses in the 11 years after coming off roaccutane, so surely the WBC must have gone up. I've carried a baby without problems. I've only just had my first real flu this year, that was the first flu of my adult life. So anyone in the same situation don't worry too much, I think the durg does most of its work in the first two months and after coming off it I think WBC should increase, although it may be a slow progression.