Hello all,

My name is Jeremy and I am going on accutane for insanely oily skin, large and very clogged pores, and some small whiteheads.

So here is my story:

In highschool I had what my derm called "the worst comedonal acne I have ever seen". She was awesome, that was just a mean quote out of context and she didnt tell me until I was all cleared up! So I tried everything and finally she put me on accutane for 2 courses and my skin went from bumpy and oily and disgusting to amazing and it honestly changed my life. For 7 years I had pretty much no skin issues whatsoever besides very mild breakouts here or there. It was great.

Now come last spring I was just graduating college and was just starting my first out of college salaried job. I never thought I was stressed but I'm sure I was even if I wasn't crippled by it. Skin was still smooth for the most part but I was getting very big dark pimples and whitehead breakouts. Was immediately given retin-a by my doctor and that is where everything went down hill. I took it from beginning of July to October and it ruined my skin. Got rid of all of the pimples but I had these huge gaping pores all on my cheeks and nose and they were 1.) getting bigger and 2.) multiplying down the sides of my face. My oily oily skin was clogging all of these pores up and then I could not unclog them despite using every product I could research. It was terrible, I was literally watching my face age every day that went by and all of these clogged pores were slowly joining to form scars. My confidence was shot as I was once above average at meeting girls and then I was relieved every time my friends opted to not go out. I started drinking a lot just to cope with the facial damage.

I found a new Derm (UPMC in Pittsburgh, PA and is one of the best hospital networks in the country) that was a big believer in accutane and had physicians assistants in office that researched accutane as well. I told him about my oily skin and clogged pores and the changes that had occurred from retin-a and I told him how well accutane had worked in the past and he agreed that if my body responded so well the first time then it is very possible that it could help my skin again.

Now:

So I am almost 2 weeks in to the treatment and I am feeling pretty great. No major improvements yet but definitely no further damage and further decay from what I had been accustomed to look like for years. My skin is definitely less oily and its great, I hated having to blot my face all the time. A couple of my pores unclogged and the clog inside kind of just came out and sat on my nose, I noticed as I got home from work and used my cetaphil cleanser. Additionally it kind of seems like the pits of a few of my pore scars kind of moved up very so slightly towards the surface of my skin? Might be exaggerating but who knows. Yes some of my skin is dry but I've been through all of this before and know the deal. I also have stomach problems and am aware of those but I am going to spare you the details of that one hahaha XD . I think the best part so far has just been being relieved that I am on the regimen that has been the only thing that has ever worked and just kind of a relief, you know?

Accutane isn't the devil like some people may say it is. I believe it just works very differently for everyone. It won't kill you, and the chances of it doing permanent damage to your insides are so insanely low. Because it is a relatively (kind of) new drug that isn't completely understood, any time somebody comes out in the news and says "this bad thing happened to me!!" everybody freaks out. Every drug you take has uncommon side effects, news flash. I am sick of people saying "No don't take it!!!!" as if someone is about to jump off a cliff. It helps a lot of people and my biggest advice to people thinking about it would be to just give it a try. If your body reacts very poorly to it look for outside factors that could be triggering that and if not then quit it. You're doing damage to your body as well while you sit and consider taking the drug for 3 months as your face gets worse and worse and no products are working. Sorry about the rant!!

I will update on here every so often if anybody wants me to. This post is also to help me kind of track my state of mind through the whole process. Thanks!