This will be my second course of Accutane, my first was finished January of 2010. It's been
5 years since I took it last, and I have almost no progress photos (or even beginning photos) to speak of... mostly because of my severe self conscientiousness about it when I was 16-17. I just tried to look for some and it seems that I edited every picture so my skin looks better than it was. Teenagers....
5 years since I took it last, and I have almost no progress photos (or even beginning photos) to speak of... mostly because of my severe self conscientiousness about it when I was 16-17. I just tried to look for some and it seems that I edited every picture so my skin looks better than it was. Teenagers....
I cannot figure out how to make these pictures align. This is the best it's going to get for now.
It started coming back around a year ago, just a little break out once a month (damn you hormones!). There would be one or two pimples, but they would go away. Each month there were more and more.. and they started going away slower and slower. And I would get black heads in the most random spots, like the usually smooth skin under my eyes.
So this is my skin as of today. It hasn't gotten as bad as it was when I went on Accutane 5 years ago, but it's on it's way there. It seems to get a little bit worse each month. Basically it feels like every pore in my face is clogged up, especially my nose and around my mouth and chin. They aren't even traditional white head pimples, just mostly black heads and clogged pores. My face is much more oily than it was, although not as bad as before Accutane, but my lips are dry from the cold winter air.
I had a variety of side effects the last time I was on Accutane, including very dry chapped lips that burned like hell if they weren't moisturized. They would also peel excessively. I could feel the sun burning my skin if I got in direct sunlight. I still can't wear contacts from eye dryness, and I could barely see in the dark despite the length of time my eyes had to adjust. The first or second month I lost my appetite and the smell of meat cooking made me feel nauseated. I got very irritable.. I'm still not sure if this was caused by the Accutane, or me being a teenage girl. Probably both. My stepmom and I fought viciously. She was going through some severe postpartum depression and so that combined with my Accutane 'depression' (it manifested itself more as rage than sadness) made the perfect shit storm. I think that the Accutane took away my ability to suck up and pretend like things didn't bother me when they actually did. I really hope this side effect doesn't come back. Towards the end of the course I had joint soreness in my hips and knees. At first it wasn't so bad, but at the very end there I felt like an arthritic elderly woman. I got out of chairs slow and even walking was a bit uncomfortable.
TMI Warning. Accutane makes everything dry. I had an incident when I went to the bathroom to go number two and when I wiped there was a little blood. I freaked out thinking it was crohn's, but it was just from where my poo was dry and then also my skin was dry and weak and that combination caused a little tear...
I will be going to the Dermatologist next Wednesday for my baseline blood work and my pregnancy test, and so starts my second Accutane journey.
I had a variety of side effects the last time I was on Accutane, including very dry chapped lips that burned like hell if they weren't moisturized. They would also peel excessively. I could feel the sun burning my skin if I got in direct sunlight. I still can't wear contacts from eye dryness, and I could barely see in the dark despite the length of time my eyes had to adjust. The first or second month I lost my appetite and the smell of meat cooking made me feel nauseated. I got very irritable.. I'm still not sure if this was caused by the Accutane, or me being a teenage girl. Probably both. My stepmom and I fought viciously. She was going through some severe postpartum depression and so that combined with my Accutane 'depression' (it manifested itself more as rage than sadness) made the perfect shit storm. I think that the Accutane took away my ability to suck up and pretend like things didn't bother me when they actually did. I really hope this side effect doesn't come back. Towards the end of the course I had joint soreness in my hips and knees. At first it wasn't so bad, but at the very end there I felt like an arthritic elderly woman. I got out of chairs slow and even walking was a bit uncomfortable.
TMI Warning. Accutane makes everything dry. I had an incident when I went to the bathroom to go number two and when I wiped there was a little blood. I freaked out thinking it was crohn's, but it was just from where my poo was dry and then also my skin was dry and weak and that combination caused a little tear...
I will be going to the Dermatologist next Wednesday for my baseline blood work and my pregnancy test, and so starts my second Accutane journey.
I am sorry about your suffering and I can totally relate to what might be going through since I was in your shoes until sometime ago. I had a similar story with a happy ending and here it is. I suffered from acne for 8-10 years until they stopped coming 2 years ago. I visited many dermatologists with no relief. Had similar symptoms of extreme dry and burning skin because of the medication but no results. I stopped using the medication after a while. However, a doctor put me on anti biotic, that totally solved cured the symptoms but the root cause remained untreated and I had to stop anti bios after 6 months of use since they are not good to use for long term. By then I could see that the anti bios have weaken my immune system. So I stopped all medication and left with no options but to suffer. I happen to accidentally watch a documentary called "earthlings", which talks about animal cruelty, inspired by that I stopped eating all the animal products (I used to eat chicken, fish and dairy products). Within a week I could see that I wasn't getting any new acne and the old acne are healing quickly. Then I tasted a bit of dairy a few days later to only prove that the dairy is the killer. Dairy also caused a lot of other problems for me (Dandruff, Hair loss, sinusitis related symptoms, bloating, quick weight gain etc.). IGF-1, a substance found in dairy, is the substance, which causes a lot of problems to us humans including breast cancer in women and prostate cancer men. You may want to read about it. I am not sure if same is the cause for your problems but it could be very well possible that food tolerances, which wreck the human get, might be causing problems for you. You may want to avoid dairy for at least 2 weeks and see how your body responds. Also, gluten is another culprit, which causes similar symptoms on other areas of human body. You may want to try avoiding these two foods for at least 2 weeks and see how your body responds. Gluten may take 2 years to go out of your body completely. When I said going off dairy completely includes not eating/drinking milk, cheese, butter, chocolates, cookies (contains milk solids) and any other product that has dairy in it. Potato chips even have milk solids in them so please read the ingredients before you consume absolutely anything. Almost all of the baked/stored food from the super markets have dairy in them. Please let me know if you are giving it a try and need any further help. I am really happy to help in any way possible. I strongly believe that we shouldn’t be taking medication unless it is absolutely necessary! By the way, I am no doctor or any kind of medical professional. The information I provided above is from my experience. You may or may not find it relevant. I will be happy if it helps you to get out of the agony you are going through. Wish you a very happy new year and many congratulations on your first blog post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I too tried going off of all dairy because I heard that it can cause acne. After a month there was still no change really, so I started eating it again because I just really love cheese. I actually don't eat much meat anymore because by boyfriend is completely vegetarian. I think the acne is mostly hormonal as it is at it's worst a week before my period. Going on birth control might help a bit but I hate the way I feel on birth control. I'd rather have acne, haha. Accutane was the only thing that seemed to help, but I don't think I'll take it again after this course is done if the acne comes back.
Delete