I have been looking everyone online to see if there was any information on Absorica, since it is generally new and a tad different than Accutane, etc.
BACKGROUND
I am a 27 year old female who developed very painful cystic nodular acne in the past five years. I had great skin in High School and Proactiv helped me in college, but the summer I got married (2008) I started getting the nodular acne on my chin and forehead. I have done almost everything it feels for the past five years but to no avail. The only thing that seemed to work was Doryx, but you cannot take that long term and as soon as I got off it the acne came back.
After the ridiculous process of getting started on the Absorica, I finally got the pills and am now on Day 2.
DAY 2
I am itchy everywhere, like I have dry skin. I don't notice my skin being too dry, but I think this is a sign that it's coming.
The only thing on my face I am noticing is my eyes are super dry. I got some drops and they help, but I'm surprised my eyes have been this dry, but I am on 40MG pills, so it's a pretty high dose.
I have noticed today that the inside of my mouth has some patches of dry areas on my gums and inside my cheeks.
I am vegan and eat extremely healthy, and I also make my own lotion and face lotion. The face lotion has vitamins a&d, chamomile, lanolin, beeswax, coconut oil and shea butter...so I don't anticipate too much dry skin, but we shall see.
My brother did Accutane while in high school and only experience dry lips, so we will see.
Till later!
My copay for the meds was $70. This on par with everyone else? I'm not complaining since it was close to $2,000 for my insurance company!
I am not sure how to make another post and have it connected to my first one...so I am just going to reply to my first one.
I will have been on the absorica a week tomorrow and the side effects have been on and off.
The dry eyes have stopped. The itchy skin comes and goes, but the the dry spots on my face went away. Today after I showered I noticed my skin was peeling on my nose and around my eyebrows. I am assuming this is the drying out process beginning.
The only new thing that I think is attributed to the medicine is I get a really red heated flush on my face after I take my pill. It lasts for about thirty minutes after each pill. I work at a City Hall and had the fire department check my blood pressure and it was fine, so I am just assuming it's a side effect.
That is all I really have to report now. If you know how to properly start a new post, let me know. I know how to start a new post, but I want it to be connect to my previous ones so people can stay in touch with all of them.
Night!
On my 3rd week of using Absorica and I came across this forum researching relief for the dry lips caused by this medicine.
I am in my mid 30s and I have tried everything in the past 5 years short of this medicine to treat my skin -- which seems to have gotten progressively worse with age.
So far my skin went through a breakout phase last week (Wk 2) which seems to be thankfully tapering off. There was some skin peeling, lots of dryness, not only of the skin, but of the eyes and the inside of my nose. I use Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturing lotion and that seems to help if I apply it in the mornign and before I go to bed. I've also experienced some weird muscle, joint and all-body pain a couple of days ago, but the most annoying and persistent side effect of all for me is the chapped lips. I cannot function without some sort of lip balm or chapstick and I am still to find one that will make this problem more tollerable. My lips feel like cracked sandpaper. What have you used successfully to help with this?
I am really determined to stick with this and see it though to the end, so I am happy to see others posting their experiences here.
oadija, on 03 Mar 2014 - 15:28, said:
On my 3rd week of using Absorica and I came across this forum researching relief for the dry lips caused by this medicine.
I am in my mid 30s and I have tried everything in the past 5 years short of this medicine to treat my skin -- which seems to have gotten progressively worse with age.
So far my skin went through a breakout phase last week (Wk 2) which seems to be thankfully tapering off. There was some skin peeling, lots of dryness, not only of the skin, but of the eyes and the inside of my nose. I use Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturing lotion and that seems to help if I apply it in the mornign and before I go to bed. I've also experienced some weird muscle, joint and all-body pain a couple of days ago, but the most annoying and persistent side effect of all for me is the chapped lips. I cannot function without some sort of lip balm or chapstick and I am still to find one that will make this problem more tollerable. My lips feel like cracked sandpaper. What have you used successfully to help with this?
I am really determined to stick with this and see it though to the end, so I am happy to see others posting their experiences here.
Hey there I finished my 5 month absorica treatment a few weeks ago. I found that having aquaphor on my lips all day, everyday helped the most. When my lips got severely chapped, which they did, twice, I put maximum strength OTC cortisone cream on them followed by aquaphor. I did that several times a day for about two days and they healed nicely. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or want advice, I had to (and still do) deal with a ton of side effects during my course.
GigEnDave -- check with your derm and see if they do not have some special coupon to help with the $70 copay. My prescription was going to be $60 without it, but I rmemebered mt dermatologist giving me this brochure-looking coupon and I used it. Now my co-pay -s $10.
This is week 6 for me. I take 30 mg and I am not seeing the type of results I was expecting. I still break out, not as bad in number, but significant in size. Derm said that they will probably increase dosage to 40 mgnext month. My 1st month bloodwork came back and cholesterol and something else was pretty high, so I must do a fasting blood test next time.
As far as effects of the medicine so far, my lips are still extremely dry and not getting any better. I cannot live without Aquaphor. I'll take OilyAcneQueen's advice and double up with cortisone cream. My face is still peeling on and off. The tip of my nose peeled over and over and looked terrible. I also developed a weird rash on one of my hands, multiple tiny red dots. I was given a steroid creme by my dr. to use but it's not really helping. I am also experiencing body aches, especially in the morning when I get out of bed.
I really need this medicine to work. I hope the increased dosage will do.