Hey man, good luck on starting your course! Your skin looks pretty good already man, I'm sure Accutane will completely clear you up! Day 20-30 are the days I saw changes in my skin, so you are getting pretty close to seeing some serious change! I wish you the best and I will surely check your log!

p.s. your English is great, pretty damn impressive you can speak 3 languages

On 23 June 2016 at 10:04 PM, Diamond98 said:

Hey man, good luck on starting your course! Your skin looks pretty good already man, I'm sure Accutane will completely clear you up! Day 20-30 are the days I saw changes in my skin, so you are getting pretty close to seeing some serious change! I wish you the best and I will surely check your log!

p.s. your English is great, pretty damn impressive you can speak 3 languages

Thanks Diamond98! its day 9 and I'm already seeing improvement. My mom however read the information leaflet that comes with the pills and now she's trying to get me to stop taking them after reading about the side effects. The only side effects I've had till now are moderately dry lips and face. However, her anxiety is rubbing off on me now, have you had any worrying or serious side effects? Im gonna talk to my derm about this, he literally didn't even tell me what he was prescribing and told me not to "over analyse stuff" when I called him up.

That is a tough question. I was anti accutane thinking I will grow out it since I was 15. I'm now 31. I'm close to 30 days on accutane and I've seen improvements.Wish I started it sooner is all I can say.

Having said that I still believe it should be a last resort drug. The side effects are real so make sure ur derm is keeping a close watch on you. If I was you I will continue unless it starts becoming unbearable. So far I only have dry lips and my face feels dry all the time so I'm pushing on!

End of week 2

I have moderately dry lips, I've discontinued the BP as of now. saw some initial bumps but they resolved quickly, i thought I wasn't seeing any improvement but then I saw the pics of my cheeks from back when I started the treatment, and I see some slight improvement, I haven't had any new pimples pop up for two days, can't remember the last time that happened. My scars have become red though, so my acne still seems bad, but definitelyno bumps. I'm also on some antibiotics for a cold that I have so maybe that might have something to do with my face improving or maybe its the accutane, don't know for sure.

Interestingly, even though my lips are dry, my face has become a lot more oily, initially it became a little dry and I saw some skin peeling off, but now I don't even need to moisturise my face. 

can definitely see some solid progress, unfortunately, i missed my appointment with the derm, and I'm going off to college tomorrow to a different city, although getting accutane to continue my treatment without a prescription is not too difficult in India, i still need to consult him about my dosage and he needs to see my progress to ascertain that. I'll call him up tomorrow and ask if it is okay to continue taking the meds till I return in august or if i should stop taking them and resume treatment when I come back, He had asked me to send pictures so that he could take a call in case I can'tmeet him before going to college, so ill do that too
 

On 6/27/2016 at 6:31 AM, AverageADIII said:

 

Thanks Diamond98! its day 9 and I'm already seeing improvement. My mom however read the information leaflet that comes with the pills and now she's trying to get me to stop taking them after reading about the side effects. The only side effects I've had till now are moderately dry lips and face. However, her anxiety is rubbing off on me now, have you had any worrying or serious side effects? Im gonna talk to my derm about this, he literally didn't even tell me what he was prescribing and told me not to "over analyse stuff" when I called him up.

Sorry for the delay man, was on vacation. Honestly, the only side effect for me so far has been dry lips. If you notice anything, just stop taking the pills right away.

My derm suddenly changed his mind and said that he is not comfortable treating me through the phone while I'm at college, and he told me to come to the clinic for further treatment and seemed pretty angry when I had called him (even though he was the one who had suggested it) and hung up before i could ask any further questions  . This is just so sad, I was seeing some great improvement, for the first time I could eat the things I love without worrying about breakouts, go through my day without worrying about my face and wasting time on my face routine ( wash twice a day and apply BP etc ;repeat)

I'll have to cease treatment, because I cannot go to the clinic 1000 Kms away regularly for treatment, and my college is in a small town so theres no option of continuing it here. I do have all the pills I need, and getting more wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not sure if I want to self medicate.

Damn, this is, and I don't mean to go on a hyperbole, but this is heartbreaking, and anyone who's had acne for the last 5-6 years will understand why, this was the first time that I went so long without having a breakout. Maybe, Ill find a new derm when i go back in August, and then restart, but until then I'll have to start dealing with this again. 

OK, so my derm is really moody, and I talked to him again when he had calmed down, he told me to continue isotretinoin, he said he mistook me for someone else lol. (He's really good a
t what he does, but he seemsa little crazy)
so yeah, I'm back on isotretinoin for now at a dosage of 30 mg/day.

I had decide to post pics every two weeks but I'm seeing drastic changes every week now, so i'll update this post soon with some pictures. I just have to say that I'm so happy and relieved that don't have to go off this medicine.

End of week 4

Sorry about the late update, been busy with college.

So about 3 days ago my derm put me on 100 mg of minocycline ( I had a talk to him about this, he said i shouldn't be worried because I'm on a low dose) I'll have to continue taking it for a month.

Currently, My only side effects are extremely dry lips (they're dry to the point that its become slightly painful) and some intermittent joint pain in my ankle region. I've also noticed that my whole body has been slightly itchier.

My face has never gone so long without being full of pimples and painful bumps, currently its clearer than it has been for a long time, i had some acne on my upper back, which is clearing up too. Yesterday i went to bed without washing my face, it was a symbolic victory of sorts. 
The scaring is still visible, and the redness hasn't gone away, but I'm thrilled.

sorry about the hair, i had just shaved lol.

16 hours ago, AverageADIII said:

End of week 4

Sorry about the late update, been busy with college.

So about 3 days ago my derm put me on 100 mg of minocycline ( I had a talk to him about this, he said i shouldn't be worried because I'm on a low dose) I'll have to continue taking it for a month.

Currently, My only side effects are extremely dry lips (they're dry to the point that its become slightly painful) and some intermittent joint pain in my ankle region. I've also noticed that my whole body has been slightly itchier.

My face has never gone so long without being full of pimples and painful bumps, currently its clearer than it has been for a long time, i had some acne on my upper back, which is clearing up too. Yesterday i went to bed without washing my face, it was a symbolic victory of sorts. 
The scaring is still visible, and the redness hasn't gone away, but I'm thrilled.

sorry about the hair, i had just shaved lol.

 

He has you on minocyclin while taking accutane? That seems extremely strange, most derms say not to take any other acne medication while on accutane. But, I cannot argue with a dermatologist they are the ones who went to school for this stuff.

On a side not your face is looking extremely good, amazing progress for just 1month. My derm says that the accutane makes the redness more visible, and once off it that will most likely disappear.

for your dry lips make sure to have a lipbalm, apply this any time you notice the lips starting to feel dry or uncomfortable. And at night something I use is Aquaphor. I apply a good amount before bed, and my lips have been much better. For the ichyness i'd sugges you apply mostirizer everywhere, its not just your face that gets dry but your whole body is getting dry and so its smart to apply it everywhere.

6 hours ago, savo0057 said:

He has you on minocyclin while taking accutane? That seems extremely strange, most derms say not to take any other acne medication while on accutane. But, I cannot argue with a dermatologist they are the ones who went to school for this stuff.

On a side not your face is looking extremely good, amazing progress for just 1month. My derm says that the accutane makes the redness more visible, and once off it that will most likely disappear.

for your dry lips make sure to have a lipbalm, apply this any time you notice the lips starting to feel dry or uncomfortable. And at night something I use is Aquaphor. I apply a good amount before bed, and my lips have been much better. For the ichyness i'd sugges you apply mostirizer everywhere, its not just your face that gets dry but your whole body is getting dry and so its smart to apply it everywhere.

Yeah I was worried about that since the information leaflet that comes with the pills explicitly mentioned that the combination should be avoided, However, A lot of terms do prescribe them together on low doses, it might also be that different countries follow different procedures. I am watching out for any adverse symptoms, and will stop immediately if I notice any.

Thanks for the tips about itchiness, it worked, The Humidity has been really high since the monsoon arrived, thats been helping too. Aquaphor isn't easily available here, i'll ask my derm to suggest something when I see him next. I think the reason why my face got better so quickly is because the acne wasn't that bad to begin with, I've been lurking around here and some of the Pics I've seen show accutane being prescribed for really severe acne, My doc said that I won't have to go for the full 120mg/kg dose and my treatment will be stopped much earlier.

I think I'm witnessing my first worrying side effect, i'm typing this at 7:00 am, no I did not wake up early, I couldn't sleep! yep, Insomnia. I know for sure that this is because of accutane, in my entire life I have never had trouble sleeping, ever. Atleast not to the point where I go the entire night without sleeping! which is why this is worrying.

week 6

I've been seeing great results, haven't had whiteheads in weeks. However I do see bumps sometimes,  they're not painful, not red, I'm not sure what kind of acne it is. But they're ok, they resolve within a day or two without me popping them. My skin looks great, just a bit dry! Dryness in my lips is gone though, thanks to the moisturiser I'm using. My skin looks a bit red, the derm said the redness will go away gradually.

I've decided to go off Accutane and Minocycline for a while, because I'm having some serious side effects (Due to some irresponsible actions on my part (read: drinking)) I've had trouble swallowing/painful swallowing for the past one week, kind of like sore throat, but it just won't go away. I've been having persistent headaches and intermittent impaired vision (These may have been caused by Pseudo tumour cerebri), swollen lymph nodes, especially in my underarms. Most of the symptoms disappeared gradually after halting Minocycline (about a week ago), however the painful swallowing persists(although decreasing in Intensity). All of these symptoms showed up the day after I got sloshed, which was extremely stupid and risky on my part. 

I will be resuming my tablets on the 11th of August, till then I'm taking a break.

Week 10

Ok so its been about 3 weeks since i gout back onto Accutane and Minocycline, however my dosages have been decreased to 20 mg Accutane (previously 30 mg) and 65 mg Minocycline (Previously 100 mg), because my derm thought I didn't need such high doses as my treatment was going really well.

I have noticed slight increase in acne, now I get about one white head in a week, which is still much much less than what i was suffering from just 3 months ago, so thats great. My skin looks great! The side effects I had have decreased since my dose was lowered, I still have moderately dry lips, and occasional pain in my ankles. Apart from that I'm not seeing any side effects. My skin is great, but i think its condition has plateaued , I don't notice any changes over the last few pics, then again, the acne is gone, so I don't know what changes I'm expecting. 

The scarring is still present, doesn't seem to get better, although I've stopped getting new scars thanks to accutane. I did get off accutane for a week after a 40 day course. Subsequently, I had a small breakout, although it went away quickly after i resumed, it worries me that this might just be temporary, and the acne might come back after I'm off accutane.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the acne on my back which was still there uphill  2 weeks ago is now gone.