Seen a lot of logs that gave me the courage to start up Accutane and I would like to share mine to help others make the decision.
Background:
I have been an acne sufferer since I was 12 years old. It began very light, mainly around my forehead where my hair touched my face. It progressively got worse and by 14 I was at a dermatologist for light/moderate acne with the occasional cyst. I have a long family history of sever cystic acne on my mother's side and on my dad's there was the occasional breakout in the teenage years, but lasted for 3-4 years and was very light. In the past 3-4 years I have been on about 12 different antibiotics, epiduo, differin, retin-a, and acanya. None made any serious impact until I discovered Bactrim and Retin-A worked extremely well. Sadly after two years, 15-17, my now moderate/severe cystic acne has returned with vengeance for suppressing for two year. Now that brings me to the past couple of months.
About 3 months ago, the Bactrim abruptly over 3 weeks stopped working. My derm between 3 months and 6 days ago had me try minocycline and cipro, my 11th and 12th antibiotics, before he brought up Accutane. My mother had great success in her younger years, but she caught hers too late at 24ish and she had SEVERE cystic acne. I would post pictures but I do not want to put them on the internet without her permission.
6 days ago on 6/14/16, I visited my dorm again. He had brought up Accutane last appointment and said that would probably be the next step. 6 days ago i made the decision that the pros outweighed the cons of the medication. He gave me the prescription and signed me up on iPledge, I got my blood work done and picked up my prescription by that night and took my first dose that night as well.
Weekly Update:
6/14-6/20-
Not sure if this is just luck, but my face has been getting better already. I am waking up with about 3-4 new whitehead/cyst type zits (not sure what they are, they feel like a cyst, but have a white head and are popable), but they are doable and once I pop them, they hardly look red. I got a couple zits on the back of my neck which I never get but they are okay too. The worst part of this week was the fact i had a huge white head smack dab on the back of my neck and I hung out with friends and went swimming and stuff some I'm positive they all saw it but didn't say anything.
Already there is some pretty bad dryness. I use cetaphil gentle cleanser morning and night and moisturize in the morning with my elta md UV Daily 40 SPF moisturizer/sunscreen and at night with acne.org moisturizer. Acne.org is NOT enough moisture for how dry my face is already. I know 80 mg a day, 40 in the morning and 40 at night, is quite a bit for a 76 kg male, but i trust my derm completely. No lip drying yet, but I am sure it is bound to come.
Feeling extremely optimistic about this medication. The drying is nice because I have extremely oily skin so that is a side effect I can live with. Going to start putting on Curel Ultra Healing Lotion at night just so i can get rid of the flakiness on my face, especially around the dried pimple scabs. For now I am going to be popping any pimple that is a white head because I can not go into public knowing i have a big old white head on my face. Good luck to everyone getting their faces clear
These pics are Day 1 pics, not the worst my acne has ever been, but pretty close. I will use these photos to compare against changes.
Hey man, welcome to your accutane journey! Accutane has slowly but surely helped the condition of my skin, and I'm sure it will do the same for you! Try not to pop spots, as your skin become very fragile and more susceptible to red marks and scarring whilst on accutane. Keep the optimism and this medication will work wonders for you! I too am keeping a log, I'm at about 110 days. If you have any questions feel free to message me.
Day 7:
The dryness everyone is talking about is starting up. Expect to get side effects quicker than most since I'm on 80 mg a day. As you can see, the acne has gotten somewhat worse. It was looking much worse yesterday, but since i went ahead and popped all my whiteheads this morning, it doesn't look as disgusting. No forehead acne yet (knock on wood) and I'm very thankful. Forehead acne is the worse only topped by on the nose and between the eyes.
Face is definitely drier, but moisturizing every morning and night is helping quite a bit. Had a really gloomy day today, but I believe it to be because not sleeping well. Went to sleep at 1 woke up at 8, went back to sleep 930-12ish waking up extremely dizzy not sure why then took another nap 4-530. Blew off plans to one of my friends graduation parties because she's joining one of the military schools so she is having to leave earlier than most. Still going on right now, but really did not want to go with my face like this. Most of the people there i haven't seen since my face began breaking out bad again. My face was COMPLETELY clear probably 10-15 white heads and maybe 2 cysts in the 2 years i was on bactrim and retin-a combo (Would highly recommend). Needing to regularly put on chapstick because I can feel them cracking a little bit. 7 days went by fairly fast, faster if i don't think about accutane throughout the day. Luckily I have yet to have anyone point out my acne in a group situation yet but I'm sure it will come. Couple of my friends talked to me and told me I should not touch my face and yada yada. Told em I'm working with derm and he said acne might get worse before gets better and these genetically zitless friends of mine could touch their faces all day and probably not even wash it and never break out. Some people are so lucky.
QUESTION:
Can I shave with all of this breaking out? I shave my chin and lip every other day or so but my cheeks don't grow as fast and i only do it like every week and a half or two weeks. I have a lot of sensitive zits and scabs that i don't want to shave off. Any advice?
Worst part of this acne week(Just wanna throw something like in here every week to show we all have those embarrassing acne moments)
Was at dinner with my parents on fathers day at decently nice restaurant and I had an itch on my left cheek. I lightly rubbed my cheek on my collared shirt because my hands were kinda dirty from the food and my lucky self popped one of my big zits. I looked at my white collar and there was now a blood stain there LOL. Dad asked what was wrong and I told him and I jokingly said "i hate my life". Acne is becoming less of a taboo subject for me. Before I was scared that if someone pointed out a zit or something of mine I would light up red and not have anything to say, but now I think if that were to happen I'd just shrug it off and tell them I'm working on it. Getting a little more accepting of it, but not to the point where it doesn't bug me, I mean I didn't go to my friends party today because of it.
Just wish there was a shot you get one time to prevent acne like the flu haha. Any questions for me feel free to PM, I'll be back in about a week to post another update
Day 10:
Experiencing some new side effects. Nose has been pretty dry a little bloody, but no full on nose bleed. Scalp is getting extremely itchy and dry little dandruffy which I had no problem with before accutane. Surprisingly the tops for my ears are also getting pretty dry.
Only gonna be posting pics every week or every other. Still getting plenty of acne, but I think it might be getting a little better. My mom told me my zits look like they're drying out but I'd love for her to see me right when i wake up. Every morning 4-5 brand new white heads;( I pop them if they have a head and i have some proactive salicylic acid .05 percent cream thing I'm putting on them starting yesterday after popped and it seems to help a lot. Keeps them from getting infected and helps them go away completely rather than somehow get something else in the zit and it gets infected again.
SO much acne all around my jaw line to where if you're looking at me from the front don't have the defined jaw i once had. Looked in the mirror and was like " dang I'm getting fat" but quickly realized it was just my 15 cysts running up and down my jaw. That is the main area, followed by the cheeks, then chin. Feel a cyst on my forehead coming in and what I think is 2 right on the tip of my nose..... Not a good day to be me. Face feels a little less oily and I'm pretty much expecting it to dry up completely. Probably gotten more comments in my lifetime about oily skin than acne. "Why's your face so oily?" "are you wearing sunscreen?" "are you sweating?" Girl I was talking to actually bought me some of those blue things that wipe up oil ahaha. She would say things every now and then and i would just act like a didn't care but i did just a little.
Think back to the first time someone made a comment about your acne or oily skin. It was EXTREMELY embarrassing. Is it just me or after every time someone says something, you toughen up a little. Thickens up you're skin a little which I think is a good thing. Gotta find the good things about acne hahahah
Will have update pic this tuesday
Week 2:
These are update pictures.
Scalp is getting really dry so I am putting in leave in conditioner after every shower. That helps a lot, as does washing every other day. No sign of it getting better, but no more side effects besides dry lips and dry nose.
Have a big zit in my left ear incase anyone knows how to get rid of that. Also getting quite a bit of acne on my back which I never get.
Honestly, it looks like it is getting a little bit better hoping it keeps going that way.
Here I am, about to hit 2 months
On 7/14/2016 at 0:42 AM, unbroken94 said:Have you considered using the regimen bro ? My acne was a lot worse than yours and within a month it was no longer problem , I did two round of accutane and still had acne , I was skeptikal about the regimen but it actually worked haha
I have tried the regimen. Worked great on my bacne, except for my bleached shirts. Tried it on my face for about 2 months and it just got worse and worse. It was the final thing I tried before accutane. I think I may have done the regimen wrong. I used glycolic acid morning and night instead of lotion because I thought they were the same thing. Anyways, I'm gonna stick out a round of accutane and see where it takes me. This is my first round and only 2/5-6 months in and my acne has been improving dramatically.
I have like 2 active pimple that I actually just popped 1 so that makes 1 left! The dryness is TERRIBLE, almost as bad as the back pain and sore muscles after working out.
The scarring is pretty depressing, so if anyone knows how I can start working on that right now would be amazing. Starting up school again in two weeks, so having all this scarring and not being able to hide at my house is pretty daunting, but as long as active zits are slowing down and I don't have to worry about looking in the mirror and seeing i had 3 white heads all day, I am happy.
TIPS: Washing my hair with conditioner only and shampoo once a week has helped with the dry scalp. I have also been using Garnier leave in conditioner every morning.
Aquaphor has been a life saver for me. My lips could not survive without it. Around zits I have that are popped and getting flaky, I put aquaphor on a q-tip and put it on the dry parts but not on the zit itself.
WELLBUTRIN USERS: I have blamed my mega flare up on wellbutrin and I still do. I started taking it to counteract the side effects of Lexapro, but it didn't make a difference. When I started it up, my acne mysteriously got worse to the point I had to go onto accutane. I have been weaning myself off past week and I am finally off for about 5 days. Since my last pill, I have not had a single new zit. I blame wellbutrin for my acne even though my dorm says thats "impossible". Even if wellbutrin caused this break out, I am still happy to be on accutane so that I'll hopefully no longer have to worry about acne.
Cheers