Hi guys!
As you can see in my blog, I took 40mg/day accutane for 4 weeks and 5 days of accutane at 60mgs/day. I developed pretty severe superficial punctate keratitis (basically eye ecxcema...ouch) and had to go off. Things went back to normal pretty quickly except for my eyes are now a little drier than they were and I don't tolerate contact lenses as well.
My skin was clearing beautifully on the tane and I had no other effects, but since my course was so short I was back to my extremely oily skin and hair and acne within weeks. It had been so nice having crystal-clear, all-day-matte skin and bouncy, voluminous hair instead of being a pizza-faced, stringy-haired greaseball, if only for a few weeks! It was really like living in a dream for a while there, I got to see how "the other half lives" and it really makes an impression. Life is easy when your hair and skin look effortlessly good! I've been off for 3 months now and have begun to develop some serious cysts just in the past week--right now i have 4 painful cysts, 5 garden variety pustules and a smattering of clogged pores and blackheads. Not pretty.
While the whole experience freaked me out, I am also at the end of my rope with acne and want to try it at an ultra low dose, such as 5mg/day. My eye Dr. says I can try it with close supervision but that there is obviously a real chance that I won't be able to tolerate it again. I don't want to end up not being able to wear contact lenses at all! That would be awful, especially if my acne also came back again and it was all for naught.
I'm quite torn between wanting to give it another shot and not wanting to risk it.
I am currently using Atralin and a salycilic/glycolic wash which used to work well for me but now isn't doing much.
I have literally tried everything pharmeceutical, natural and otherwise, so please no suggestions on other things I could try, I really have tried everything from the conventional to the hippie-dippie to the borderline insane. My acne is classically hormonal (developed after I went off Yasmin and centered on the chin) but I cannot at all tolerate any sort of birth control or spiro due to a high risk of breast cancer and stroke.
Thx for input xoxo glitz
I think that is pretty clearly encapsulated in "everything from the conventional to the hippie-dippie to the borderline insane." 
I'm glad the basic stuff works for you though...if only! I actually developed disordered eating from obsessively eliminating foods to try to cure my acne, and spent tons of time and $ doing hours and hours of yoga as well as running...no avail. A healthy diet certianly doesn't hurt, but for people with the serious 'ne it just ain't enough.
Have you tried using gentle skin care products & making changes to your diet & lifestyle? Personally it's the only way I stay clear for the long run.
Feel great as well.
I think that is pretty clearly encapsulated in "everything from the conventional to the hippie-dippie to the borderline insane."
I'm glad the basic stuff works for you though...if only! I actually developed disordered eating from obsessively eliminating foods to try to cure my acne, and spent tons of time and $ doing hours and hours of yoga as well as running...no avail. A healthy diet certianly doesn't hurt, but for people with the serious 'ne it just ain't enough.
Have you tried using gentle skin care products & making changes to your diet & lifestyle? Personally it's the only way I stay clear for the long run.
Feel great as well.
A lower dose might help. Eye eczema does sound pretty scary though!
From personal experience low doses of Accutane can work wonders, I think the high doses for 4-5 months that a dermatologist would advise are to try and eliminate peoples acne for good in one hit which did not work for me, it is also a lot harsher on the body doing it that way. Did the 40mg affect your skin or did the irritation only start as you went up to 60mg? What I did (not saying this is correct as I am not a doctor) was start on 20mg a day, if that kept my acne away for a few months I would reduce the amount of days I took the medication, so I would drop from every day to every other day, if my acne stayed away for another few months I would reduce it to every 3 days and so on, I think that way you are taking the minimum that your body needs which I think is beneficial long term, there is no point taking a 20mg pill a day of a very potent drug if you can get away with taking it only twice a week for example. I also found tapering my dose helpful when deciding to quit taking Accutane completely, once I had got down to taking 1 20mg pill a week I had a good idea that I could cope without it.
From personal experience low doses of Accutane can work wonders, I think the high doses for 4-5 months that a dermatologist would advise are to try and eliminate peoples acne for good in one hit which did not work for me, it is also a lot harsher on the body doing it that way. Did the 40mg affect your skin or did the irritation only start as you went up to 60mg? What I did (not saying this is correct as I am not a doctor) was start on 20mg a day, if that kept my acne away for a few months I would reduce the amount of days I took the medication, so I would drop from every day to every other day, if my acne stayed away for another few months I would reduce it to every 3 days and so on, I think that way you are taking the minimum that your body needs which I think is beneficial long term, there is no point taking a 20mg pill a day of a very potent drug if you can get away with taking it only twice a week for example. I also found tapering my dose helpful when deciding to quit taking Accutane completely, once I had got down to taking 1 20mg pill a week I had a good idea that I could cope without it.
Thanks for the response, I'm glad it worked for you! Were you doing this under medical supervision or was it a personal experiment?
Thanks. No I did it on my own, I had used Accutane when I was younger supervised by a derm, unfortunately my acne came back but was not deemed severe enough to go back on Accutane, it was at that point I decided to go it alone. I had no adverse affects with the long term low dose use but everyone is different, you know your body better than anyone though so if you don't feel right consult your doctor. My theory behind what I did was that I would minimise the side effects and the overall effect that the pills would have on my body whilst getting the results I wanted. If you want to ask any other questions feel free to message me.