Hi all! My name is Whitney, and I am on accutane. Did my screen name give it away??
Well let me start my by giving you a little back info.. I am 22 years old, I have now officially been struggling with acne for 10 years. Started with my face in junior high then to by back by high school then to my chest by college. =/ My skin is nowhere near as severe as some who decided to take it. It's more on the moderate side. Before taking antibiotics and using a retin-a gel, I would have about 10 active pimples at one time on my face. Back was always horrible. Chest usually had about 3 blemishes.
So when the derm put me on antibiotics and the gel, my face really cleared up. Not totally clear but seriously, like 1 or 2 pimples on my face and NOTHING on my body! it was wonderful. I was so clear that the derm took me off of the antibiotics. Then my face went CRAZY! oh my goodness. it wasn't that bad since high school. my back was the worse! So I went back to the derm who told me to get back on the meds. I told him about how I really wasn't happy that I would have to continue taking this medication on top of using the gel every night (which isn't sexy btw..kinda looks like a clear mask or like you have unbelievably oily skin). Also, they seemed to make it oilier which is miraculous because I already am extremely oily.
So he suggested accutane since I was soo oily and my problems seemed to stem from that. I didn't say yes right away. I registered with iPledge and took the pregnancy test since you have to wait 30 days to start anyways. He he gave me a script of solodyn and more ziana and left it up to me to call back and make an appointment to get on the accutane.
Obviously I called back! After much research and prayer and consulting with everyone from my parents and boyfriend to my classmates, I went back to get the blood work and pregnancy test my prescription which was 20mg a day for the first month.
I'm super late starting this log but I realized how much other users' blogs were helping me!
27 days in isn't too late right??! =)
I'm on day 27, But I thought that I could catch everything up with this post.
My experience so far...
20mgs a day. Taking it at night with food or milk since that's what the box tells me to do.
On day 3, I got a headache. Not saying it was the meds, just thought I would throw that out there.
For the first 2 weeks, I slept A LOT. Again, not saying it was the meds.. could've been the fact that school just let out and I didn't have to worry about going to summer school since I finished high school eh? =) So.. Now that I'm totally caught up on my sleep, I am now not sleeping regularly. Probably because my lazy but doesn't do anything allllll day except watch HGTV and OWN. haha
Also, I don't get hungry anymore..but once again.. maybe it's because I don't give myself a chance to get hungry since I'm constantly eating all day. The joys of summer!! I'm sure I'm going to have to buy all new clinic pants because mine surly won't fit anymore come august. =/
products I'm using
The first week that I started taking claravis, I just stopped using my neutrogena face wash and started using my regular body wash since it just plain ol Ivory which has like 5 ingredients in it. I'm into simplicity.
Then I figured...uhh hey you dork, use a freakin face wash because this ain't made for the face...
Sooo I went out and bought the loreal's go 360 clean deep clean cleanser for sensitive skin. I really like it so far.. I've been using it for nearly 3 weeks now and so far so good..I think.. who cares.. i'm on accutane. My face isn't dry and peeling or burning, so I really have nothing to complain about do i?
Around day 15, EVERY PORE ON MY FACE WAS RAISED!! They kinda still are but it's more concentrated on my t-zone area now.. although the sides of my face where I usually struggle with blackheads is pretty bad too. I mean, my face feels ROUGH! Never in all my 10 years of dealing with this acne crap have I had this problem. But thanks to some wonderful people on this wonderful site, I now know that I am not alone with this particular problem. It's always nice to know that you're not the exception ya know?!
Another note: Around day 20..around the same time this nasty pores introduced themselves to the world, I stopped being oily!!! I don't think I will every forget that moment in my life. I have been extremely oily since..well I started getting acne which has been since well...aunt flow came into my life. lol I am known around my part of campus (Communicative Disorders !!! love it) as the girl who doesn't care if any and everyone sees her blotting her face with those little unbelievably non-discrete blue papers. I'd go through at least 5 a day. At least! I bought 5 packs in mid January and was out by late March. Yeah.. So when I went to blot my face after being on the road for 3 hours and then changing and then hustling to get through the gates before they locked them at my cousin's graduation all in 90something southern Mississippi heat AND NOTHING WAS ON THAT LITTLE BLUE PAPER, I was first very confused, then had a ahhh it's working..it's really working moment!! lol it was wonderful.
NO chapped lips.. using vaseline at night and aquaphor in the daytime
No dry skin.. using clinique moisturizing gel morning and night (I'm kinda lying.. I sometimes only wash my face once a day because I'm scared it's gonna get dry)
I promise the next post won't be as long! Promise! Who likes to read?? lol not me..
Pictures coming.
haha..silly me. Today was actually day 27...oopsie.. lol I have 3 pills left to take before I start my next 30 days.. I was letting the fact that my next appointment is on Monday interfere with my what day i'm on math. This counting the days stuff isn't meshing well with me. Starting with the next box i'm counting my tens ok?! lol (I'm taking claravis. comes in boxes of 10 so that's what I'm going with)
Anyhoo.. Nothing new to report. I really hope she ups my dosage. I really feel like I've wasted a month being on such a low dosage! Part of the reason I decided to take the plunge and go for accutane is because I knew the first couple of months were probably going to be horrible and during the summer, I wouldn't be in school and could avoid people if need be. Gosh! and I also figured that I would be on a 4-6 month course which would put me at a September or October or maybe even a November ending. I thought that was perfect because I've read post about their grades being affected due to concentration problems and I planned on being off of it well before my finals just in case my grades were horrible and I was in a do or die situation at the end of the semester.. (I'll be graduating with a B.S. in communicative disorders in December!! yayy!)
Anyhoo.. as stated in my previous post, my face has stopped producing oil. Really cool. I've had extremely oily skin since I was 12. ya know, people don't believe me when I say extremely oily. They tend to think I'm exaggerating which makes no sense. Why would I exaggerate a flaw huh??! But when I say extremely oily, I mean that I've been asked if I was sweating when I wasn't in the least bit warm, I'd just skipped blotting my face for about 2 hours.. yeah.. =/
So face is not oily anymore. Hasn't been for about a week now. Stopped producing oil around the same time these little tiny raised pores popped up ALL over my face.
Speaking of.. They are starting to go away!!!! Ahhh! Don't get me wrong.. They are very much so still there but my nose area doesn't feel like sand paper anymore! The other day my dad saw me and was like "Gahh (do you guys watch swamp people because he made the sound when the guy finds a tree shaker) look at all those lil bumps on your face! You ain't scrubbin hard enough!" He saw me again today and didn't say anything at all about my face so I'm thinking that these little bumps must really be subsiding and it's not me telling myself that they are for my sanity.
No change in my lips. I've always had dry lips though. Always! So when I say no change, I mean sure they're dry..but what else is new? ya know?
I have 2 areas of interest on my chin that really hurt. I wish they would make up their mind about either going away or coming up so I can stop feeling this pain! I don't do well with pain. I also have this 1 bump (idk if it's a zit, pimple, fafafjk, I don't know!) that popped up right before I started this process. I think is boycotting this accutane medication. It hasn't changed shape, size, or color at all in a month!
Posting pics soon. Took them with my iphone and can't seem to bring myself to take those steps to get them from there to here.
Just took pill #28!
My dermatologist appointment is TOMORROW!!! Hoping to get my dosage upped to at least 40mg.
I'm not really dealing with any dryness. Nothing new to report there.
Every time I wash my face, those little raised pores/bumps become less and less noticeable! yayy! lol There's still there though.
Ya know those 2 areas of interest I mentioned?? The one in the middle of my chin is growing by the freakin hour! OMG! every time I check on it, it's bigger and hurts worse! I think it's two of those little bumps that got angry and are trying to join together to start some kind of mutiny.
I'm trying to upload photos.. it's not working out too well for me. =/
Hey girl! We're in this together!
Don't worry about the pics... if I can post 'em, so can u! I stressed over it @ first and then came to the conclusion that I wanted documentation on how tane works for me.
My clogged pores confuse me, lol. For the most part they seem to be going away, but there's always some that decide to get angry and go all zitty on me, blah.
Isn't the "no oil" amazing. I was really happy to see that bc the tane is doing its magic!
Lots of love!
Crystal
Xxooxxoo
and Good luck with your course! Day 29!!!! Ahh! This is exciting!
I had a dermatologist appointment today. I was able to ask all of my burning questions.
1. She upped my dosage to 40mg daily. 1 pill per day.
2. She suspects I will be on accutane for 6 months. 20mg first month. 40mg for 2 months.. maybe 60mg for the rest but will stay at 40mg if she can help it.. I'm not even trying to do the math to see if I hit that cumulative amount..blah blah.
3. She is in love with CeraVe so when I told her I was using loreal's go 360 clean and clinique's moisturizing gel, she gave me a crap load of samples. Not too excited about trying them.
4. She thinks I have KP. Keratosis Pilaris. Chicken skin.. on my cheeks and shoulders. She advised me to stay out of the sun because this can make it worse. I personally think I have body acne.. but I'm not the doctor and she said we can't do anything about this until I'm off of accutane for a couple of months anyways so I don't really care at the moment.
5. Didn't have to do blood work until my next appointment! yyay! today was a good day.
The person who runs the front desk and schedules appointments annoys the crap out of me! I had to make an appointment for today a few weeks ago. I started on the 9th so she decided to schedule me for June 9th.. Um... that's more than thirty days. I called and told her I wouldn't have enough meds to last until that date so she bumped me up. Today.. She was like ok we have you down for the 11th.. Gosh! Why doesn't she get it?! And it was 8:30 in the morning and I'd been up since 6:30 because the place is out of town and I was hungry so I just said whatever as I tried to get out as quickly as possible to get breakfast. Now I'm going to have to call her back and tell her to bump me up again because I really don't want to skip any days if I don't have to and this certainly isn't an acceptable reason to skip days.
Nothing new to report as far as side effects and my face and whatnot. I was actually almost oily today. It was just a lil sheen from the sweat brought on by this 102 degree feeling weather. The angry area in the middle of my chin is actually starting to go down a bit..or starting to hurt less. either way, it's a plus. Nose feels a lot less rough but it's getting worse on my cheeks. =/ I guess I did have something new to report huh?? lol
Day 29!!!! Ahh! This is exciting!
I had a dermatologist appointment today. I was able to ask all of my burning questions.
1. She upped my dosage to 40mg daily. 1 pill per day.
2. She suspects I will be on accutane for 6 months. 20mg first month. 40mg for 2 months.. maybe 60mg for the rest but will stay at 40mg if she can help it.. I'm not even trying to do the math to see if I hit that cumulative amount..blah blah.
3. She is in love with CeraVe so when I told her I was using loreal's go 360 clean and clinique's moisturizing gel, she gave me a crap load of samples. Not too excited about trying them.
4. She thinks I have KP. Keratosis Pilaris. Chicken skin.. on my cheeks and shoulders. She advised me to stay out of the sun because this can make it worse. I personally think I have body acne.. but I'm not the doctor and she said we can't do anything about this until I'm off of accutane for a couple of months anyways so I don't really care at the moment.
5. Didn't have to do blood work until my next appointment! yyay! today was a good day.
The person who runs the front desk and schedules appointments annoys the crap out of me! I had to make an appointment for today a few weeks ago. I started on the 9th so she decided to schedule me for June 9th.. Um... that's more than thirty days. I called and told her I wouldn't have enough meds to last until that date so she bumped me up. Today.. She was like ok we have you down for the 11th.. Gosh! Why doesn't she get it?! And it was 8:30 in the morning and I'd been up since 6:30 because the place is out of town and I was hungry so I just said whatever as I tried to get out as quickly as possible to get breakfast. Now I'm going to have to call her back and tell her to bump me up again because I really don't want to skip any days if I don't have to and this certainly isn't an acceptable reason to skip days.
Nothing new to report as far as side effects and my face and whatnot. I was actually almost oily today. It was just a lil sheen from the sweat brought on by this 102 degree feeling weather. The angry area in the middle of my chin is actually starting to go down a bit..or starting to hurt less. either way, it's a plus. Nose feels a lot less rough but it's getting worse on my cheeks. =/ I guess I did have something new to report huh?? lol
UGH. My front desk person annoys me too. My appointments are supposed to be on the 31st (if there is one in the month) or the 1st. Well in July I'm going out of town for a week on the July 1st. They basically told me I can't come early --has to be 31 days and when I said I could come early on the 1st & just get a later afternoon flight, they informed me that the 1st is on a Friday and they are closed. So, yeah. I am going to have to go like 10 days without medication! I've got to find a better solution. No way I want to go that long off of the medication. I'm going to call and see if there are any other options. Just ticks me off!
DanaLynn Why don't they get it?! They work in a derm's office.. they must know a little bit about accutane. And while I do understand that the meds stay in your system and blah blah blad.. going 10 days is 10 days past the date you thought you were gonna finish. ya know?!
And why does it have to be 31 days? they couldn't make an exception for this instance?? My first 2 appointments were 28 days apart. ipledge says you can take the pregnancy test before that...
But yeah.. I see you really get what I'm talking about. I'm more frustrated for you than me right now! lol
Hey lovely you said your skin was peely on ret-a too. How dry were you pre-tane? How is your skin now? I'm so nervous to get on accutane. I know I have to do it. I still break out in blackheads, whiteheads and the occasional big zit.
Hi! I wasn't all that peely on the gel. Really just on the area right below my lip and kinda on the sides of my mouth. But really it made me kinda oily at the same time so the dry spots that weren't flaking didn't really have a chance too. but that area one area was a problem.
I have extremely oily skin. I'm like the only person I know who hasn't had a real problem with dryness while taking an antibiotic and using a retin-a. So I was still pretty oily when I first started taking accutane. I stopped using the gel and antibiotics for a week before I started though. I still don't have a problem with dryness and i've been on accutane for a month. I'd say I have normal skin now. But I was only on 20mg. I start with 40mg tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
I think it's normal to be nervous. I know I was. We have no idea how we're going to react to it. That's pretty scary! My sister is 38 still struggling with acne and refuses to take accutane for it. So go you for taking that step! When do you start?
Month 1 DONE!
Ahh! so exciting! I start 40mg tomorrow. Kinda weird to me that it's still gonna be 1 pill a day. I thought it was going to be 2 20mg a day but whatever.. less pills to take right?
I'm not looking forward to the increased side effects that come with the upped dosage (if any).
I have been getting more headaches since starting accutane. I've had about 2 per week. 1 I know for sure was not cause by the medicine. I have pain behind my eyes when it's allergies or sinus but lately it's been just my head.. idk. I can handle it. They haven't been bad enough to take anything for it and I have a low tolerance for pain.
Nothing new to report. Everything would be a repetition of the previous posts. So....later. =)
Take that back! Angry chin pimple/zit/swollen pores/blah blah blah is nearly gone! I just noticed as I was about the press the button to submit this lol
So exciting!
Side Note: Am I cheating because I'm saying I'm on day 31 but I take my pills at night???
Nothing really new to report. I took my very first 40mg pill a few hours ago. My hands are becoming really dry. Well not really dry. I've always been one to be lotion happy, but it's just kinda weird to me to NEED to put on lotion.
Something for the darker skinned individuals since I haven't seen many on this site but they must be on this site because I was once just a person who came on this site but didn't actually sign up or post anything..
Anyhoo.
Like I said, something that I have not seen on this site or really any site is how to deal with the sun if you have darker skin and are on accutane.
I've always been told that being black, especially on the darker side, you don't have to worry about sun block because our skin doesn't burn and blah blah blah.
I know this is a sensitive topic but just because we may not burn, we are still very sensitive to the sun due to our skin "tanning" quite easily. This is heightened while on accutane just like everyone else! And most people who are black do not want to be darker. Well maybe some.. definitely not all.
So just a word of caution if you have dark skin and don't want to get "black": stay out of the sun or wear a sun hat but always wear some type of sun block! I was in the sun for a total of 15 min on Monday, and my face darkened I'd say 3 shades. What kinda sucks is that I didn't get this "golden glow" I just got darker and not more brown, just darker. What also sucks is that I only "tanned" on my face and neck and not my chest or arms because I was wearing a t-shirt and a jacket.
Just an FYI.
Hey Whit,
Any changes on the 40mg yet?
I've only taken two, three tonight.
Have you still been breaking out, or do u find u r clearing up?
Hopefully 40mg will do a better job of stopping the big ones from coming. My poor skin is never going to heal at this rate. Also, most of clogged pores are still under my skin... how r urs doing? R they coming out yet?
Thirtyforthirty - Thanks for reading! Good luck with your course! Idk if it was because I was on antibiotics (solodyn) before I started accutane or what but my skin isn't necessarily breaking out but it's definitely not clearing up. I've had some pop up and go away since starting but just about ALL of the ones I began accutane with are still there! very weird.
Crystal - Hi again! I think it's so cool to have someone on the same day as me! lol I'll be taking my 3rd pill tonight also. I'm not breaking out more than usual. I guess it's somewhat less often.. but I can't say for sure because it seems like I get a new one everyday. And they are the ones that are deep under the skin that hurt like heck! They are going away faster though. Nothing has come to a head since around week 3-4. My pores are literally spitting out these little seed things! It's absolutely gross! I'm so glad my skin isn't "dry" yet because I can still get away with kinda scrubbing my face with my towel. Since just about all of those pores that were raised are now "unclogging" themselves, every time I wash my face, my skin is feeling a lot smoother and a lot less like sand paper! lol but you can still see these little white seed things that don't know if they want to stay or go. So annoying! But this is mostly around my nose and chin area. On the sides of my face, they are still very much so still under the skin. =/ How's your skin doing? Are you dry yet?
Month 2: Day 4 (Technically.)
I haven't taken my pill today. Just wanted to note a few thingss:
1. My eyes are very sensitive to the sun all of a sudden.
2. I woke up to 3 blemishes that I didn't even realize I had come to a head over night. Not something I want to wake up to ever again.
3. The sun feels soooo hot! Oh my goodness! It feels like the devil is licking me every time the sun hits me.
4. I'm slightly oily! WTF! well it's fine. I am not dry at all. Today, I was able to put on the same amount of moisturizer that I did when I was oily with no problem at all. Also, forgot to put something on my lips last night and woke up to nice, normal lips. Put some aquaphor on as soon as I realized (not gonna lie, I definitely went into a state of panic) and it's as if I didn't forget.
Today is going well!
I'M OILY!
I have a breakout on my lower right cheek. It hurts. =(
Those little seed things are still coming out.
I hate the way my face looks right now.
AND I'm oily. Today/just now, for the first time in a couple of weeks, I felt the urge to wash my face. So I passed my fingers over my nose and to my confusion, they had oil on them! But with that being said, my nose is the area that is clearing the fastest.
The pimples that were on my back are gone but my upper back is still covered with blackheads. No change with my chest either.
Uhhhh! Not feeling this right now.
I've been cleaning for the past couple of days and my back is getting achy. I've always had back problems since I have scoliosis as well as wedging between a few of my vertebrae. (TMI??) Anyhoo.. I can't pin my back pain on the accutane.
I'm not dry. I'm still oily! I think I have defected pills. Why would I be oily when I'm taking a higher dosage?! I'm not breaking out more than usual or less than usual. To be honest, it looks and feels like I'm not on accutane. My back is still the same also. =/
And I am indeed taking my pills with food and/or milk.
Well. That's all.
I'm on month 2 day 3 (i think)...i take at night also. I started with the 60mg & remain on the same for the 2nd month. I have had headaches...sometimes I wake up with them....as for the back aches....it can cause joint/muscle aches esp if vigorous exercise is involved.
the sun burns me....just driving in my car & having my left arm near the window...keep sunscreen with me all the time....not the spray but the dry touch (neutragena). i got a big hat too.
at about the beginning of week 4, the oiliness began to subside for me....so did all the big cysts that came up over night & turned into pustules (gross). i had a gumball sized cluster on my jawline for 4 week.....my derm gave me predisone and it shrunk to 3/4 of it's size in 24hrs. it was fantastic!! good luck to you!!
I'm on month 2 day 3 (i think)...i take at night also. I started with the 60mg & remain on the same for the 2nd month. I have had headaches...sometimes I wake up with them....as for the back aches....it can cause joint/muscle aches esp if vigorous exercise is involved.
the sun burns me....just driving in my car & having my left arm near the window...keep sunscreen with me all the time....not the spray but the dry touch (neutragena). i got a big hat too.
at about the beginning of week 4, the oiliness began to subside for me....so did all the big cysts that came up over night & turned into pustules (gross). i had a gumball sized cluster on my jawline for 4 week.....my derm gave me predisone and it shrunk to 3/4 of it's size in 24hrs. it was fantastic!! good luck to you!!
Hi! Great to know I'm not the only one going though these things. The oiliness stopped for me around week 2 and 3 but I upped my dosage and I'm back to being oily!
I hope your course goes well!