I'll be watching this log-your on a very similar regimen to me, good luck!

Thanks you too!

Day 13

First time I needed a moisturizer, minor flakiness. Still redness and acne on cheeks, forehead and chin especially. Scars seem to be lightening. The IB seems to be calming down, still very hard to go to work and socialize. I wish I could fast forward 3 months when i know my skin will be clear!

Hey I see you have a new forum for updates. I'm almost at the one month mark and I have seen a lot of improvement, and my experience sounds a lot like yours so far. but I'm still breaking out..mainly around my mouth like sides of my chin. I have red marks everywhere, but they're going away steadily. I agree with you, I want to fast forward these grueling months of misery to clear skin. My derm said the real retin a improvement would begin after 6-8 weeks, so I guess I can't complain yet.

Its good to know someone is going through a similar regimen and experiencing gradual improvement as I have. I know the 6-8 week mark is tough to get through but im positive that at the end of this treatment my skin will be 95-99% clear.

Day 16

Didn't need to apply moisturizer, seeing significant lightening/smoothing of scars that were bright red for a good 6 months. Still breaking out about a cm away from the corner of my mouth (i dont put retin-a there) and in the cheek/nose areas. I also started taking 2000mg of Omega-3 at night which may also be helping with redness.

Day 24

Went to the derm a couple days ago. She seems to be REALLY pushing accutane, as she thinks it is still the best option, while my current regimen is second best, however i will continue doing this because im confident it will work with minimal side effects. Im going to be moving up to .1% in a couple of days, and will likely be doing .1% every other day and the .04% the days im not using .1% to hopefully reduce the IB. Im very hopeful that the .1% will work alot faster than the .04% and I will begin seeing improvement in a couple weeks. My acne is moderatly severe/ severe (although I hate to say it) and non-cystic. I have alot of acne on my upper cheeks that has been there for about a year and really pisses me off, im hoping the .1% will rip the bastards off my face. Still breaking out on both cheeks, especially left upper cheek. Also breaking out on left lower cheek (small non-inflammatory). Small scars from a ton of small acne still hasnt gone away. Forehead is alot smoother and somewhat clearer than when i started off. God I hope this works.

Day 33

3rd day of Retin-A .1%

Dissapointed yet optimistic. I have the same amount of acne as last week about. My whole forehead is bumpy with clogged pores and acne, cheeks are still horribly broken out and minor chin acne. My face looks terrible. It is less red but VERY slightly. My face is still incredibly oily. My scars are getting better but my face has no chance to look good if I get new acne every day or so. Im REALLY hoping I will stop breaking out soon so my face has a chance to recover and begin improving.

Question (I really need help here): Do I HAVE to rub my face with a warm washcloth to get rid of flakiness? (dead skin) my derm told me not to as it would irritate my face... but Ive read that dead skin clogs pores, this along with overproduction of oil (I have a really oily face) provides a perfect environment for bacteria and therefore acne. But... i have a weird conspiracy theory that she is trying to make this treatment less effective (not recommending I scrub dead skin cells off and saying cetaphil is fine although ive heard it can be comodogenic) just so she can prescribe me accutane, call me crazy but its just a thought. If anyone has any input on whether or not I should scrub flakes off my skin that would be great.

Well, I am also being flaky to some extend, I tried to use washcloth the "scrub" my face and at the beginning it felt really nice but after one or two day I found my face was even more flaky plus irritated. So now I just pass the washcloth and simply use my bare hand to gently scrub the flaky area in shower. I did not read through the whole blog but a reminder that you have to make sure wait at least 20 mins after washing to apply your tretinoin. Or you can refer to my signature to see what I do.

Thanks everyone for replying, i know its been a while but honestly ive tried to just stay away from even thinking about acne... easier said then done. I no longer scrub flakes off with a rag because its irritating, I now only use my hands to gently scrub, as alibaba suggested. Ive just now upped my Minocycline dose to 115mg and was prescribed a sulfur face wash and use that instead of cetaphil (sulfur has helped my acne in the past).

Day 48

Well here it is, the 7 week mark. I honestly have more acne than when I started, however the acne around my cheeks is a lot smoother and seems to be fading (I hope). I was *this* close to going off of Retin-A and on accutane, I almost lost it... I was thinking to myself "Ive been dealing with this for years and im fed up, its time to use something that WILL work." I snapped out of it and asked the dermatologist about this decision... (I saw a new derm) and she said that she recently found out one of her patients now has colitis thanks to accutane and that my acne (pustular) isnt the best candidate for accutane, cystic acne is. If there were no long term side effects after using accutane I would be on it tomorrow, although my acne is terrible its not worth screwing myself over when im 40. So ive decided to let Retin-A run its slow painful trek on my face for another 5 weeks until the 12 week mark. The pamphlet that comes with retin-a says that after 7 weeks you should see improvement... im not expecting my skin to follow this exactly but im hoping ill start seeing something to at least give me hope that its working. I hope persistance pays and the breakouts will stop and I will consistently get better.

-- good luck to everyone else using retin-a out there, just remember drugs take time to have their full effect, ESPECIALLY retin a, stick with it and im confident you and I will be thanking ourselves we did this instead of accutane.

Day 60

More acne than last week. Still breaking out horribly on lower cheek area, however breakouts seemed to stop on upper cheeks. Does acne typically "move" down the face to the lower cheeks then neck, eventually "leaving" completely? Im really discouraged at this point, I might try Tazorac or maybe even accutane... has anyone else been breaking out 8 weeks into retin-a? replies are greatly appreciated

Yes! I broke out through week 10... actually even a little bit past week 12, but after week 10 I only broke out a little bit, like 2-3 small to medium size pimples a week. Up until week 10 I was really wondering if this stuff was actually going to work, though! You can check out my log if you want some visuals Best of luck to you! Our regimen is pretty similar... sulfur wash + antibiotic + retinoid. Its worked miracles for me, now I'm just trying to deal with my red marks without messing up my progress!

Thanks for the reply, Im glad that its worked for you, you look great! Ive been taking a multivitamin with minocycline and i just found out it may be negating the antibiotics effects... so yea im going to stop taking them together and see how it goes. If i get results anywhere near as successful as yours ill be happy. Also has anyone tried taking large doses of Vitamin A (5,000-15000 IU)? Im thinking about doing this along with Retin-A instead of accutane.

Day 80

It's been about 12 weeks now and I am disappointed. I told myself if im not happy in 12 weeks ill be switching to tazorac because it worked well for my friend. I will give tazorac until my derm appointment which is around 2 and a half weeks away. If i dont see improvement by then I will be going on accutane. I dont know if its the right decision but I honestly cannot stand acne any longer and have tried just about everything. If it was mild i wouldnt mind but it takes up a good portion of my face... very upset right now.

im sorry ram isnt working for you,i hope u find something that will work for u. I am using 0.04 ram and my forehead,right side.of face is breaking out with pus filled pimples and micro size white heads that u cn remove with light pressure. looks like a small grain of rice. question what is tazorac? a greater strength version of ram. I cnt wait till I get.the 1 percent. hugs I will keep checking up on ur log.

Good luck with Retin-a, i believe if you give it enough time it will work in all cases, its just that time period can be more than 3 months in some cases. I just need to get clear before i go to college and room there next semester. Tazorac is a different retinoid, very similar to RAM , im using the .1% cream, ive been led to believe it is stronger than RAM. thanks for the support

Clear.

Its been almost 2 years since my last post, Ive been acne free for a while now. I did end up going on accutane for about 6 months, then I received laser treatment for my scars. I can honestly say I look great, I have never been more confident in my life. I would recommend my regimen for those of you who have moderate-severe acne and have tried it all. Good luck to everyone, and thank you for your support through all of this.