Hi, I had very minor acne issue in my teens, like a spot here and there every now and then, other than that I had flawless skin. When I was 19 I had a bad breakout, so, my doctor prescribed me Retin A. After IB for 2 or 3 weeks, my skin got much better and I enjoyed that skin till this May, I am 22 now. I stopped using Retin a this March because my skin was in pretty good condition(Maybe, the worst mistake ever). But, at the begining of this May, I started breaking out. It was not that bad though. I started to use all those home remedies like turmeric masks, Aloe Vera Gel, etc. It became better for a week and got back and stayed for 2 weeks. This cycle continued and I started using Retin A as well by the mid June. But my skin kept on getting worse and worse and the begining of this month I had the worst breakout of my life. Retin A was not working well like before..
So yesterday, I finally made a visit to this new derm(my old derm left town) and because the condition of the acne was pretty bad, so he wrote the prescription for Isotretinion 20 mg for 3 months, and a topical gel with Clindamycin and Nicotinamide(to use at night after cleansing). Also a foaming face wash with 1% salicylic acid(to be used twice a day) was recommended. And he asked me to keep myself as hydrated as possible and to religiously use sunscreen and chapstick and that I should not get pregnant while being on it. He asked me to visit him after 3 weeks and assured me that my skin will be totally clear in 3 months.I bought the prescription, went back home, I looked through the internet and found out that ISOTRETINOIN is none other than world renowned ACCUTANE and got a little scared.
After the first pill yesterday, all the breakout that I had, got whiteheads on them and just 1 new acne on my forehead. My acne is not that severe as I looked at other pictures on the internet. There is a small cluster of red bumps on either sides of the cheeks. But I am scared that the way Accutane works might make my face look horrible than it had ever looked before. I could not sleep till 4 am yesterday because I was so afraid and since I have never met anyone ever who has or had been on Accutane and also because I read so many terrifying reviews online. So, I felt sleepy the entire day, I do not think that this was because of the wayits side effects work.
I just took my second pill at night here and have decided to write my journey with Accutane daily for 3 months here. and I am much positive that it will work for me.
Just 1 question, is 3 months of 20mg pills enough for someone who weighs 50 kgs? Since he is my new doctor, so i am having trust issues
Don't be terrified, its all safe if you stay in continuous contact with your derm. and no 20mg for 3 months is not at all enough, I am sure your derm will increase your dosage and the duration, you should get a cumulative dosage of atleast 120mg/kg. First month will be rough, but those topical stuff should help a bit with that. Good luck.
Day 4- I feel like my skin is more oily than usual. My pimples have gotton itchy and a little painful. 2 or 3 new pimples appeared(not huge ones). I do not feel any sort of dryness, whatsoever.
And i feel sleepy and tired all the time. Don't know if all this is normal or not. Let's see what happens tomorrow.
I started on 30mg and I weigh 62kg. I felt the side effects most at week two.
It's normal for your skin to itch, so don't worry about that - it will go away, or at least get a lot less persistent. My face still itches occasionally, but normally only when I go from indoors to outdoors. My face also seemed to get oilier at first, but it's drying out now. I'm over two months in and my face still isn't that dry. Apparently it works differently for different people.
Yeah.. I read somewhere else too that your face may get oilier before it gets to that dryness.. I literally need to wash my face at least 3 times a day because it gets way too oily by the evening.
Day 5- I feel a few more pimples coming near my jawline... and the white heads are still there.. Is there any way to dry those white heads out as soon as possible because I have no intentions of popping them, but I need to go out for meetings and stuff and they are pretty embarassing.
Day 6-Don't know if my skin is drying out or not. Maybe i am not feeling those effects because i was on retin-a before starting the accutane.
Today, i kind of removed two of the whiteheads.. I did not pop them to be exact.. They had this dry scab over them. I removed the scab and as it turned out most of the gunk of that whitehead was the scab. The remaining little gunk, i removed it with tissue paper.A little blood came out,very light. And then i washed my face and covered those spots with clindamycin gel.
Maybe, I should not have touched the whiteheads. But, I had this really important meeting and i prefer not to wear any makeup. And they literally looked like mushrooms on my face.
Day 8,9,10 - My whitehead scabs fall off usually when i am bathing.. I got 2 or 3 new pimples(very small size) but I feel like my face is getting better.. I mean, it doesn't seem dry at all yet but the face seems clearer than it was before i was on accutane. I am washing my face with 1% Salicylic acid 3 times a day, may be that is doing the trick of keeping the oil of my face at bay. Twice a day was definitely not enough for me. I am not sure if the accutane has started to work yet or not, but i feel like it has. IDK, i have always been such an optimist that i always feel like a medicine is working.
No side effects yet.
You must be almost clear by now if it's your 4th.. That's great. All the best to you as well.
Day 11, 12, 13- Nothing abnormal yet. I don't even feel like i am on any kind of medication. Skin is the same. My mom says that it got better though. One new thing, I have never had itchy acne, like ever, but these days i want to scratch them so bad. I've been hydrating myself a little more than enough. And, I created this lip balm with vaseline, coconut oil and honey. Tastes straight up like coconut oil, even though i used a tiny bit amount, but it is wonderful. My lips have never been softer in my entire life.. I was almost starting to get chapped lips on the 11th night, but i applied it and by the morning they were all repaired,
I had a realization though, that most of the acne on my face right now is in the area that somehow comes in contact with my hair. Like I have a few on my forehead(I have got side swept bangs) and quiet a lot on the hollows of my cheek (closer to my ear, I rarely tie my hair and rarely tuck them behind my ear so that they can cover that acne area when i am in public, since i never use makeup to cover). So, I am gonna change my shampoo and start to tie my hair no matter how embarassing it gets.
Question - Can anyone recommend how to reduce the redness near the acne while being on this med?
No, not clear yet. Still a way to go. Back is improved but not clear. Face is still breaking out and even getting some spots on arms which never had b4. It's still purging it appears. Good idea re hair.
Give it the best chance. It is improving overall tho.
Really good progress to forehead which was full of closed comedones with acne breakouts too.
Have no idea re redness. Anyone??? Lips get much, much drier so be prepared. All the best.
I think you just have to accept the redness - part of the experience. Although, if you mean redness from active, irritated spots I would try sudocrem. Put it over the spot and it will help calm and heal it. It won't make it go away overnight, but it seems to help.
Also, my skin got super itchy at the end of the second week. It was almost unbearable how weirdly itchy it was. But it pretty much stopped by the end of the first month. My face does itch occasionally, but not like it did before.
Also, did you say you're using clindamycin and salicylic acid as topicals? You may want to wean yourself off these later - that's a lot for your skin to be dealing with. Talk to your derm. (I personally believe all antibiotic topicals are evil, but that's just my personal opinion).
A
The doc himself prescribed me to use them. I'll talk to him though. The weird thing is the little bit of breakout that i got on my forehead at the beginning is completely clear now, but those two patches on both the sides of my face they are still there. My whole face is clear. Just those 2 areas. Everyday old pimples disappear from those areas and new one appears. It's frustrating because rest of my face is clear. I'll attach some pictures of one of the sides of my face( The other side looks the same).
I mean I am supposed to get IB, and that dryness. Earlier I believed that those 5-7 small pimples on my forehead are the result of Ib, but idk anymore, since they already disappeared. i don't feel any change. I just feel itchyness on these pimples, but that's about it. And I also feel this weird texture with tiny tiny very tiny multiple bumps (most probable blackheads) on my nose while I wash my face. But they are not visible. I want to believe that it is working but I don't know when I don't see any change.
Most of the reviews that I read had really different experience from me. So, i am confused. In 4 days my 3 weeks will be over with Accutane, Let's see what my derm has to say about it.
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Day 22- I couldn't meet my derm since he had to go somewhere immediately for 5 days. And my lips are dry, i noticed it this morning when i woke up and they are dry just around both the corners and maybe i didn't notice earlier because the lip balm i made is fab. I didn't apply it for 2 days just so that i can notice some difference and yes, i did. And i noticed that flaky skin on my face but only on the areas where i have acne. So, i finally feel like the meds are working and i am so grateful. And i got 2 new tiny pimples on my chin, but since i'll be on my periods on a day or 2, so they must be the hormonal ones. The rest of the story is same, the acne still leaving and appearing on the same areas on my cheeks.
BTW, can i use nose strips while being on accutane? because i am afraid that these tiny bumps might become something big later on. Or should i just scrub it? or just leave it be?
day 25- I am dry to the point i need more frequent application of lip balm and i finally had to begin using moisturizer on my face. I stopped moisturizing my face earlier because my face got really really oily at the beginning of the treatment. I am using citaphil btw. Got few very tiny, like even less than half a millimeter diameter, whiteheads around the chin area. They are so tiny that they are not even bothering me. And those, many tiny bumps on the nose disappeared after i started moisturizing. Have no clue what kind of sorcery it did, but so far so great.
Day- I don't know what xD It's around 2 and a half month since i started the treatment. I totally cleared up like 15-20 days ago. Just light red marks are left. I've been applying sunscreen with spf 50 and pa+++ religiously everyday even though i barely go out in the sun. A little bit flakiness started on one side of my forehead and the sides of my nose a few weeks ago, but it was easily controlled by citaphil moisturizer(I wasn't using moisturizer before that)and for chapped lips, I've been using self made lip balm which is as effective as Burt's bees beeswax. I made it using petroleum jelly, coconut oil and honey, that's it. Applying it even thrice a day is more than enough for me. But I will tell you, that my lips get dry, like hella dry with all those disgusting cracks if i skip applying it even for a day.
Can anyone tell me how i can pace up the process of fading these marks?
and my derm still doesn't want my treatment to be more than 3 months, so i am going to stop it after 3 months.
