Hi,

I have somewhat of a similar story. I had mild acne throughout high school. At the end of this summer I started getting inflamed acne. I went on doxy and zpack but nothing worked. It was very annoying to start out my 2nd year of college not wanting to do anything social. I started accutane on November 4th. With ipledge I had to have a negative pregnancy test a month before the prescription and another one again before the prescription. Are you getting blood tests? I now have to have a regular blood test and pregnancy test every month.

I have been on 40 mg and will be taking 60 mg in a few days. My derm told me about the side effects to watch out for- mainly the liver levels and depression. A lot of people get joint pain ( i have heard it can be long lasting sometimes but usually not in general), some hair loss, and such. If any symptoms concern you, you should call your derm. As much as I am grateful that this will probably end this odd acne flare up it is a harsh drug. It can have potential for lifetime effects. You should just be aware (: Dry skin and lips is what happens as your oil is reduced. My derm was more open to prescribing me it as well. My skin is scarred now and she wanted to end this as soon as possible.

I am starting to break out again at week 5. My cheeks and my chin get most affected. I guess what everyone says is to be patient. It really sucks but in the end it should be worth it (:

hey thanks for the reply. and indeed it seems that patience is the key with this drug. I am getting blood tests every month and they have all come back fine. I actually think I'll be getting my 3rd one soon. I talked to my derm about hair loss and she said that it was normal, which I know that hair loss is a side effect of the drug but that doesnt make it any better. i guess its just worry me a lot because i have quite fine hair to being with.

also I definitely got break outs in week 5, im pretty sure that months 3/4 are the months where the real improvement comes.

Good luck with your courses guys, we'll get there eventually x x

Good Luck! You'll be clear soon!

day 71

So today has definitely been the worst day in a long time...

im fed up with my face, its been so red for so long, im tired of being so self conscious.

Hasn't been much change. feel like it has plateaued.

my hair is shedding so much i feel like this whole thing was a mistake. I am starting to wish i never took accutane.

im so tired of this. definitely breaking down now

what are peoples experiences with hair shedding?

also just got a haircut,...accidentaly got it cut 4inches instead of 4 cm !

dunno if i like it yet or not, havent really checked it out since im avoiding mirrors lol.

about 2 months into my treatment....before accutane I had NO scarring

I have a few actives and 2 cysts now.

Any idea on how long till this goes away? It's lightened a little bit since the cysts/nodules went away.

I think you should start seeing improvement soon, usually around 3 months things start looking up! Hang in there

day 73

absolutely no improvement. got worse actually. big red zit on my neck? wtf. ive never even gotten zits on my neck!!!!! Nice line of cysts along my jaw, few red zits forming at the front of my cheeks, sort of underneath my eye.

I am beginning to feel like this 'magic' accutane day wont happen. Everyone keeps talking about how one day they just wake up less red and with no actives...i dont think thats possible.

Maybe im just being too impatient? It feels like ive been on this drug FOREVER but i guess 2.5 months isnt THAT long....

anyone have good tips on covering up acne with makeup? whenever i apply foundation it looks worse half the time. but im so red :/

you can lean on my shoulder!damn! i had a huge breakout this month 2 i went to the derm and told her that it gotten worse im just in 10mg and she didnt even up the dose yesterday!!i had like 6 cyst and she maybe pricked like 10 pimple?but now my cyst are gone because she gave me cortisone shots, im hoping i will never have this shots again!!!!!!!!!! please month 3 be kind,,HUHUHUHUHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope it gets better in month 3 like everyone says im 60 days in accutane

and ohh im 17 as well asian male,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

you can lean on my shoulder!damn! i had a huge breakout this month 2 i went to the derm and told her that it gotten worse im just in 10mg and she didnt even up the dose yesterday!!i had like 6 cyst and she maybe pricked like 10 pimple?but now my cyst are gone because she gave me cortisone shots, im hoping i will never have this shots again!!!!!!!!!! please month 3 be kind,,HUHUHUHUHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope it gets better in month 3 like everyone says im 60 days in accutane

and ohh im 17 as well asian male,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

believe that month 3 will be our magic month!!!!!

day 74

So... nothing too new looks like all the cysts that formed at the front of my face are coming to white heads. Anyone have any tips on how to prevent scarring?

I basically just layer on the polysporin like a maniac.

So my hair shedding has stopped, I basically just told myself im causing my hair to fall out by stressing about it so much. Before bed one night i just kept telling myself that my hair will NOT FALL OUT ANYMORE. and voilaa!

I only wish that would work for my face but I dont know if thats due to my worrying.... unless its stress-marks

you can lean on my shoulder!damn! i had a huge breakout this month 2 i went to the derm and told her that it gotten worse im just in 10mg and she didnt even up the dose yesterday!!i had like 6 cyst and she maybe pricked like 10 pimple?but now my cyst are gone because she gave me cortisone shots, im hoping i will never have this shots again!!!!!!!!!! please month 3 be kind,,HUHUHUHUHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope it gets better in month 3 like everyone says im 60 days in accutane

and ohh im 17 as well asian male,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

believe that month 3 will be our magic month!!!!!

day 74

So... nothing too new looks like all the cysts that formed at the front of my face are coming to white heads. Anyone have any tips on how to prevent scarring?

I basically just layer on the polysporin like a maniac.

i have been working non stop for the past couple weeks and im only getting busier because of the holidays! Geezeeee being a cook is so stressful ive started smoking again! and definitely been indulging in more than just a couple drinks a week :/ can't be good for my face!

So my hair shedding has stopped, I basically just told myself im causing my hair to fall out by stressing about it so much. Before bed one night i just kept telling myself that my hair will NOT FALL OUT ANYMORE. and voilaa!

I only wish that would work for my face but I dont know if thats due to my worrying.... unless its stress-marks

 

hmmm im kinda wondering if smoking and drinking is related to acne because i smoke and drink socially i dont want to end it because it cause acne

i doubt it has that much of an effect.........

day 76

man whoever said an accutane course is a rollercoast is SO right. Every single day I switch form depressed to joyful. Today being one of my better days, startd off a bit crappy but i kept telling myself to not worry and just have 'fun' SO I did, went and bought a chord that enables me to connect my laptop to a stereo system in my basement (where ive been dwelling for the past 2 months) and now im blasting music all day long. Although cant say my parents are too happy about it. Also bought gta4....need something to keep my mind and hands occupied

Well my face....im pretty sure im clearing up....maybE? Still have tons of red marks, scars, hyper pigmentation, got a couple cysts that are finally dying down, few scabbies here and there, my forehead has been clear since like day 30 but still lots of red marks :/ hopefuly those will go away after my course.

But overall im just trying to stay positive! Ive been watching som youtube vids of other accutane users and they're giving me hope! Found this guys videos particularly helpful seeing as my course seems to be going similar to his and my acne and his look very similar. In the end even his red marks were gone!

day 79

woke up to a wonderful GIANT red zit pulsating right by my mouth. How wonderful!

Definitely thought that taking BC would help my acne but it seems like my breakouts are so much more severe during my period than before BC :/

my chins a battleground at the moment, lookin like the himalayan mountains over on the left side, extending all the way to the craters on my cheek and the galapagos islands over on the right that lead ya to a few volcano type whiteheads ready to burst at any moment!

nose is peeling, chin is peeling.

I have about 50 more pills left.

FIFTY!

Somehow I don't see my future becoming much 'clearer' in the next 50 days,.....

day 83

nothing too new with my face, no new actives! Still have this big cyst at the front of my cheeks thats taking FOREVER to go away, but ive noticed it get slightly smaller the past couple days. Hopefuly it wont scar.... :/ PIH still there.

so I discovered the magic of MAKEUP today! omg what a difference. I bought some smashbox green primer, bare minerals makeup and a tinted moisturizer. A lot of the redness is gone or at least less red. I have so much more confidence now, I mean as much as I dislike using makeup to get that confidence at least its something while I wait for my hyperpigmentation and inflammation to go away. Might even go out tonite

I had never really used much makeup other than a liquid foundation from Mac. But it reallly didnt help with my acne/redness, made it look worse most of the tiime in fact and probably caused me to break out more. Im going to make sure to only use it when im going out because I dont want to clog my pores / slow down healing. But a lot of the ingredients in my products seem beneficial in that.

So as for side effects, dont have much to be honest....dry lips only. some hair loss yet again....which im SURE is because of my stress. I've been working so much lately, cant be good for my skin. Ive cut down my alcohol intake to next to zilch and seems to help. Drinking ridiculous amounts of water.... taking biotin and vitamin C supplements.

Went to get my blood test today, had to get stabbed once in one arm, and twice in the other!!! Never had such problems with blood tests before but my veins are pretty hard to find and it was particularly cold in this clinic. No blood flow to my extremities

in other news I STILL HAVENT FINISHED MY XMAS SHOPPING!! im such a procrastinator.......

so yeah guess thats my life at the moment if anyones keeping up with my blog

day 90

so its been a pretty busy week, didn't wash my face before bed a couple of times because I had been out all night, definitely didn't keep up with a good anti acne diet as well :/ ahhh the holidays. Guess my face hasn't gotten worse but I have these two cysts that just won't go away. I get a few occasional white heads but they go away quickly. Right now my chin / front of my cheeks are my problem areas. With zits all over. Back of my cheeks and hairline are basically clear but it doesn't look like it because of the hyperpigmentation. Grrrrr I would be so much happier with the state of my skin were it not for this hyperpigmentation and shallow scarring.

Symptoms

-minor hair shedding

-slightly sore lower back (but that might be due to me not taking my omega 3's as I normally due and sleeping on the couch all the time)

-rashes on hands but they're really easily taken care of with moisturizer and wearing gloves when I go outside

-dry lips

-mood swings - I have been having problems with changing from severely depressed and not leaving my room for a couple days to feeling fine and hopeful for this course, the tiniest things can set me off.

I cannoot wait to get off this drug.

Does anyone have tips on what to do to make cysts go away?? I've been putting BP and tea tree oil on them but all it does it make them red! I keep contemplating on just poking them with a needle......dunno. Ones quite deep underneath the skin as well so it would be quite painful to pop.

with NYE coming up I think I will skip two pills, day before and day of. Because I don't want to put my liver through anymore stress than it needs to go through and I plan on going out to some NYE parties.

That's about it, my life and face seem to have reached a plateau at the moment...maybe after new years i'll see some real change. Gee 90 days into it and I would have assumed i'd be much further along...guess I didn't expect the scarring. I am thinking of lowering my dose to 30mg, I don't like having my face constantly red and slightly inflamed from this dose.

day 96

so a big cyst thats been at the front of my cheek for about 2 weeks has popped! it popped last night when i was applying a hot compress to it. Its gotten a bit smaller but this morning after i washed my face it popped again....I don't know what to do! I;m so worried it will scar.

Does anyone have any tips to prevent scarring???

Ugh I am sooooo tired of this. Already in month 4 and still having these problems......

Is the cyst still filled with liquidy white stuff? If it's not and just needs to scab over and heal at this point then I suggest you try Neosporin. It really helped diminish my cysts super fast and it should also help with scarring. I saw it reduce my cyst by 40% the first night I used it.

Your like my twin i tell you!

Were at similar stages on our course iv only just read your log. Lets hope we get clear soon. Like yoi, Iv just discovered primer and face powder i usually only just use mac foundation and my skins almost acceptable with makeup, good luck honey!

@brown bag

It never flattened out no matter how much of that whiteish crap came out, pretty gross I must say. But I guess i don't want to aggravate it too much more, so I left it. Although i've been applying polysporin on it anyways, I apply that stuff ALL over haha, I am not going to let myself scar!

Went to the derm today and she was so happy with my skin because of how slow my progress was before as soon as she saw my cysts I got some cortisone injections, she seemed really liberal about it and didn't worry in the slightest about scarring from it. So im crossing my fingers I won't get any indents from that.

@restrictions

Oh I know right girl, makeup is amazing nowadays! I agree my skin is smooth and really nice to touch but looks pretty horrible due to redness.

We'll get through this!

So my derm said that with a course that has as low of a dose as mine (40mg) that I need to be on it for 9 months at least.....ummmmmmmm WTF! I didn't expect this at all! I see people here with even lower doses getting clear, staying clear and finishing in <6months

I guess its all up to me in the end....I don't want to deal with chapped lips for so damn long!

What do you guys think? 40mg isn't even that low....

@brown bag

It never flattened out no matter how much of that whiteish crap came out, pretty gross I must say. But I guess i don't want to aggravate it too much more, so I left it. Although i've been applying polysporin on it anyways, I apply that stuff ALL over haha, I am not going to let myself scar!

Went to the derm today and she was so happy with my skin because of how slow my progress was before as soon as she saw my cysts I got some cortisone injections, she seemed really liberal about it and didn't worry in the slightest about scarring from it. So im crossing my fingers I won't get any indents from that.

@restrictions

Oh I know right girl, makeup is amazing nowadays! I agree my skin is smooth and really nice to touch but looks pretty horrible due to redness.

We'll get through this!

So my derm said that with a course that has as low of a dose as mine (40mg) that I need to be on it for 9 months at least.....ummmmmmmm WTF! I didn't expect this at all! I see people here with even lower doses getting clear, staying clear and finishing in <6months

I guess its all up to me in the end....I don't want to deal with chapped lips for so damn long!

What do you guys think? 40mg isn't even that low....

 

lucky you i want to be in your situation im only in 10mg and gonna finish up at 6 months,im not clear yet hopefully i get higher dose and longer time

Day 100ish

so no new actives!!! holy craaaap! I am so happy about this, other than that pesky cyst at the front of my cheek im clear! The hyperpigmentation has probably gone down 50% since I stopped getting nodules/inflamed cysts all over my cheeks. So about a month ago....Wow I can't believe how much progress my skin has made in the past 30 days. It's amazing, I am finally not getting any worse and i feel like from now on my skin will only look better and better : D

Back in October I had a bad forehead breakout which left PIH and some shallow scarring but the PIH is almost gone and the scars are filling in, the scarring on my cheeks is also lessening. I thought I would have these scars forever, I can't believe how fast they're going away.

Although this has been the hardest 4 months of my life it seems as though since 2012 has began it's really picked up, I hope that this year will be a good one! I've been waiting ever so patiently for a moment like this, my skin is far from perfect but now I have hope that it will get better.

So with this cyst that I have at the front of my cheek, it's gone down in size considerable since being injected with cortisone, but now it seems like all that's left under it is some blood, not really any of that liquidy white stuff. It's quite red and sensitive.

Would it be best for me to just leave it alone and let it go away or should I try to drain the blood??

I'm just worried about scarring for this one. The other cysts I got injected have almost vanished, and they were all non inflammed, just those pesky ones that take forever to go away.

day 102

so nothing new to really say, my skin just keeps improving, redness is slowly going away, altohugh now that all the inflammation is gone I am starting to notice very shallow rolling scars from where my cystic / nodular acne was. (all over my cheeks)

Will my rolling scars fade in time? They're very shallow and hard to see that they're even indented unless you look in the correct lighting and really know what you're looking for. I know that my skin at the moment is thinned because of accutane so I'm hoping that it will plump up after I get off.

Anyone have experience with something like this after their course(s)?

Also what I've learned to be the best supplements for a person accutane course to minimize side effects and keep yourself as healthy as possibly when your liver is working hard for months.

- MILK THISTLE, I have been using this stuff for almost 2 weeks now and its amazing how much better my liver seems to be handling accutane. Previous to this I could barely drink 2 glasses of wine without getting drunk and on the verge of getting sick (spins, nausea, ect). I am not exactly at where I was before accutane in terms of the amount I can drink but at least I don't get tispy off of a beer or two. This stuffs herbal and there's no negative side effects.

- Garlic, this is a natural antibiotic that doesn't kill off your good bacteria as well as the bad stuff like tetracyclines and other prescribed antibiotics. It helps your body fight off the acne bacteria and keeps your intestines healthy.

- Omega 3's ! These are great, I only cook with coconut oil, use hemp seed butter for toast, have 2 tablespoons of flax seed a a day. I've had minimal joint pain my whole course so I think this is what's been helping. I've noticed that when I skip my fish oil pills for a few days my joints hurt much more.

- Fish, specifically salmon. I live on the west coast so sashimi / raw salmon is quite popular and delicious! I eat it constantly. It helps keep my triglycerides low, my doctor said I could skip my next blood test because of how good mine were showing up. It keeps your good cholesterol high.

day 108

so nothing to much to say, no new actives. Well I have 1 little zit that popped up but i dont even count ones like that. (im supposed to get my period tomorrow anway) I mean who really cares about a little zit....

My cysts are disapearing, and my redness has gone down soooooooooo much. Seems like my skins getting better daily Im so happy this is the first time in like 4 months where I dont feel ugly and embarassed because of my face. And slowly my lifes coming back to me! im no longer hiding away. and i have no anxiety that my acne will come back.

Side effects

-sore joints (mainly my ankles/knees and occasionally my lower back at the end of the day)

-dry skin ALL over

-the backs of my hands turn blue when it's very cold

-thinned skin, i really dislike this one. Im hoping it goes away fast once I finish my course. I assume my hands turn blue because of this (veins are more prominent too)

-very minor hair shedding, in fact a lot of my hair has grown back since it first started to shed. I can also feel tiny hairs growing in when I run my hands through my hair.

-fingers are peeling

-dry lips, but not too bad

-redness/flushing I flush extremely easily when someone tells me something that makes me anxious

-depression, im not sure if it's because i've been stressing out because of some things going on in my life at the moment or because of the drug. You would think I would be skipping around because my skins looking better than it has since I can remember....

overall the side effects are worth it, im only worried about my skin thinning. I really hope it goes back to normal after this course.

I have about 2.5 months left.